Kaitlin Olson best known for roles in “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and her standalone show “The Mick” is back for the brand new series called High Potential. This show follows a non-police detective who utilizes skills and observational abilities to help the police solve crimes.
As we were a fan of Kaitlin Olson prior two shows we’ve reviewed, and we wanted to check out this series and see if it stacks up to her prior works. As always, we break down our reviews by story, acting, and overall. So let’s jump on into it.
Story 9/10
First off the bat, I want to mention that this series is not a brand new concept, but a series based off of a foreign show of the exact same premise, but modified of course for American audience tailored to Kaitlin Olsin in the lead role. That being said, the changes between the two show are the french version having a more straight laced police partner, read less OCD, and a less flippant Morgan. While Kaitlin Olson’s character is crazy and loud, she is so much more respectful then the original series main character.
This series is a good job of showcasing the interest in resolving a prior situation, namely the disappearance of her ex-husband, Roman Sinquerra, who disappeared while going to get their young child diapers.
This serves as a good motivation for the character to want to move forward and work with the police even though they start with heavy resistance. This resistance is born from the character normally getting burned out in her past experiences and needing her current job to have stability for her family.
The series of the show focuses on a story of the week, a new murder and mystery to solve, with small tidbits of growing developments between the main character and her family fighting an equilibrium to their new life, and with an also steady movement towards the solution and resolution of the main character’s missing husband.
All in all though, the series is a good job tailoring the show and stories specifically to Kaitlin Olson’s character and her world set forth in the series.
Acting 7/10
There are so many characters to talk about in this section that I’m going to break this down into two fields. First of course is the work life, and the second is the home life. With regards to the work life, I will specifically say that Kaitlin Olson’s Morgan Gillory has great on-screen chemistry with Daniel Sunjata who plays Detective Karadec. It’s clear that they’re setting up a potential romance interest between these characters, and I even believe the show might have been reworked to focus a little more on that after the mid-season break due to how noticeably the characters changed their demeanor with each other after the break. As for the many other characters, there is the Chief Soto by Judy Reyes, who does a great job being a supportive and intelligent boss. While Deniz Akdeniz and Javicia LEslie round out the work staff of the precinct on a regular basis and our good supporting roles but aren’t normally given enough time to shine as an individual people besides as supporting and story devices.
As for her home life, Ludo, played by Taran Killam, does a great job being a supporting and loving ex to Kaitlin Olson’s Morgan Gillory playing a major role in taking care of and raising his two children with her and her child for a prior relationship. The two kids played by Matthew Lamb and Amirah J do also an amazing job representing two dual halves of Kaitlin Olson’s main character while also standing out on their own as well designed characters that drive the passion of the main character of the series.
The baby is played by several baby actors… I will not break down their acting performance.
Overall 8/10
My ever-so slight issue with this series is specifically dealing with the success of Kaitlin Olson in her role as Sweet Dee in It’s Always Sunday in Philadelphia. Due to the fact that her character on that show is an aspiring actress and a very physical comedy-based character. It’s hard not to see Sweet Dee in every role that Kaitlin Olson takes on. There are times during the show that her character will squint, or look in a certain direction and it lines up perfectly to an overly and over the top behavior or tick of Sweet Dee and it’s hard not to think of it as Sweet Dee plays Sherlock.
That being said, if you can get over Sweet Dee and the success of her prior character work, then High Potential is a show with really well designed murderers and mysteries, interesting characters and sub-characters, and is definitely worth watching.
Conner’s Final Thoughts
This is a little bit of a spoiler so if you don’t want to have something ruined for you in the series, tune out now. We’ll see you guys next review.
I will specifically say that I did find it interesting that the series is setting up to resolve its first major storyline cliffhanger in the beginning of next season with regards to the disappearance of the main character’s husband. A lot of other shows will specifically take that kind of a storyline and drag it out for the entire series. By six seasons though you start to wonder what is going on. If this person was a great detective, why can’t they just figure out a simple crime like the murder of a loved one.
It’s definitely a different tact and I’m all here for it.
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