A couple of weeks ago, Andrea and I caught up the series finale of High Potential.
I'll be honest, trying out this show was not on radar until clips showing parts of this opening scene made it to my Tik Tok.
OK, I was intrigued.
(Or as we pronounce it around here in Bugs Bunny style, "in-tri-gewd".)
I knew Kaitlin Olson from her roles as Sweet Dee in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and as DJ from Hacks but I was not prepared for what she brings to the role of Morgan Gillory.
Morgan is an intellectually gifted person, a high potential intellectual. Her HPI status makes her hyper aware of everything around her which makes holding a regular job difficult hence her revolving series of odd jobs like cleaning lady.
She winds up getting a gig as a consultant with an LAPD Major Crimes Unit and paired off with detective Adam Karadec.
At first he resents this. But once he out in the field with her, he really REALLY resents it. Morgan isn't trained for this, she's always breaking rules and regs and she doesn't know when to NOT talk.
Now this dynamic would get old pretty damn quick if the series held firm to a status quo. But High Potential has seen the relationship between Gillory and Karadec evolve. By the end of season 1's 13 episodes, Karadec is a defender of his eccentric partner's gifts and talents.
High Potential is based on a French TV show where the Gillory and Karadec characters became lovers early on the first season. For the American show, I suppose I don't mind if the Gillory/Karadec dynamic eventually deepens into a more intimate relationship but not too soon. I'm appreciative of the development of just moving from resentment to mutual respect. Anything more than that should be given more time.
Speaking of the French version, that show's Morgan Gillory is more abrupt and dismissive of people. Which we've seen in this kind of show before where someone with a High IQ and an eidectic memory just shows up all the lowly normal people around them.
But what makes our Morgan Gillory stand out from those characters is her empathy. Yes, her brain is packed to the limit with facts scientific and historical but she also possesses a very keen insight into human behavior.
Shows like these sometime makes the supporting player lug around idiot balls to make the super smart person look good and I will admit this show has slipped a couple of times into that trap but for the most part, the crew of the Major Crimes Unit are shown to be competent and good at their jobs; it's just Morgan Gillory is working at whole other level.
While High Potential is primarily a once and done episodic series, the season finale introduces a recurring threat, a super smart game master who sees Morgan Gillory as a worthy opponent. Morgan has her Moriarty who will apparently be a recurring enemy in season 2.
I can't wait to see what develops next with the next season of High Potential.
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On the subject of crime solving shows, I'm catching up on the 4th season of My Life Is Murder. Lucy Lawless is Alexa Crowe, independent investigator who helps the police. Alexa is weird, quirky misanthrope who has a better relationship with her cat Chowder than she does with most people.
Including Madison, her roommate and live in computer hacker who helps Alexa on her cases.
And there are a lot of murder cases.
New Zealand is a dangerous place to live.
Most murders involve the very rich living very posh life styles who have zero patience for Alexa's interminable questions about pesky seemingly irrelevant details.
Ostensibly Detective Harry Henare is only supposed to bring the twistiest, thorniest murder mysteries to Alexa to solve but I really don't think he's working as hard as he should be and keeps bringing cases to Alexa just to push her buttons.
Alexa Crowe cuts an impressive figure as she marches about New Zealand with her long jacket whipping about her in the breeze as she bugs people until someone cracks, cops to the fatal deed and Harry calmly walks up to make the arrest.
My Life Is Murder can be formulaic as hell but damn Lucy Lawless makes Alexa Crowe a distinctive detective with her wry sense of humor, her brittle impatience with the world and her fierce pursuit of justice.
Well, that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
What's to come on the Touchbase?
- The return of Invincible.
- The conclusion of our rewatch of Arrested Development.
- Believe it or not: Phineas & Ferb.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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