My husband started watching something on TV the other night and then paused until I was available to watch it with him because he realised it was the sort of thing I'd probably love. And he was right. It is, on paper, right up my street, and it is pretty good.
So the premise is that Morgan is working as a cleaner in a police station when she knocks over some files because she's busy dancing away with the music blaring in her headphones. From picking up the files and looking at the photos and just having a bit of a snoop around on their suspect boards, she solves a major part of an ongoing investigation. After being reprimanded for drawing on their board, by the end of the first episode she gets hired by the lieutenant as a consultant, much to the dismay of the detective in the team.
The reason that she could solve everything so quickly and easily, as she also does in the second episode, is because she’s been diagnosed as being a High Potential Intellectual (HIP), with an IQ of 160 (an average IQ is between 90 and 109). That immediately makes you think, if she's so gifted, why is she struggling to make ends meet and can’t afford to get her car out of the garage? But she explains it very succinctly that she's just always mind buzzy, always thinking of things and finding issues with things and needing to resolve things, making it very hard to hold down a job or a relationship.
Watching the second episode, there were a couple of holes we could pick with how easily they wrapped things up or how easily the puzzles were solved. But overall, it is very good and entertaining. You'll recognize the Lieutenant, Selena, played by Judy Reyes as Carla from Scrubs, and I immediately recognised Detective Karadec as Daniel Sunjata, AKA Danny from Manifest.
Morgan herself is played by Kaitlin Olson who I didn’t recognise, but according to her IMDB profile, she has been in a lot of stuff. She's 49 years old, which is refreshing that a TV show is based around a middle-aged woman who is very sprightly and energetic, but also juggling life with three kids.
One of my favorite things about the programme is that she's got these three kids, one of whom is a baby, and she always needs to find childcare for them. It's very realistic in the fact that she can't just drop things and go out, or stay out later than she'd planned to. Too often in TV the characters just live their lives as if they haven’t got dependents at home. There's also the sob story that her eldest’s dad went missing 15 years ago, and she said she would help the police as a consultant if they can help her find him. That gives Morgan a similar underlying story to the main protagonist as in The Mentalist, who is constantly searching for Red Jon to avenge the murder of his wife and daughter.
High Potential is a little more of a comedy than the Mentalist though - it’s just got a bit more quick-witted dialogue and a faster pace and just feels a little more trivial. It did stand out to me in episode 2 that they had a few respectful comments about the fact that they are dealing with murder. Karadec - seriously - references how the best part of his day has been going to a crime scene and not finding a body, but then there’s a sombre moment later when they do find one. It strikes a balance between humor and seriousness, making it an enjoyable watch. It also handles neurodivergence in a way that feels less alienating than Channel 4's Patience.
If you like Monk, Ludvig on the BBC, or The Mentalist, but you don't need your puzzles too hard to solve or too deep, then this show is definitely one to check out. I feel I should add however, that whereas we normally binge a box set, we watched a couple of these and then felt like a change.
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