High Potential Review: A Great Lead and a Safe Procedural
ABC’s crime drama High Potential has a premise that sounds like a hundred other network procedurals: a brilliant outsider with no badge walks into a police station and starts solving cases the professionals can’t. What separates this one is the outsider herself. Morgan Gillory, played by Kaitlin Olson, isn’t a detective, a forensic specialist or a consultant with a fancy degree. She’s a cleaner at the Los Angeles Police Department, a single mother of three with an IQ of 160, and she solves a complex case on her way out the door. That’s the hook, and it’s a good one.
Trailer, via TV Promos.
Morgan Gillory and the LAPD
High Potential is based on the 2021 Franco-Belgian series HPI, adapted for American television by creator Drew Goddard. The show premiered on ABC on September 17, 2024. Morgan works nights scrubbing floors at the LAPD, and her mind doesn’t stop. She notices what other people walk past. When she unexpectedly cracks a complex case using unorthodox thinking and close observation, the department recruits her as a civilian consultant for its Major Crimes Division.
The setup is clean, and the show knows it. Morgan isn’t a cop and never pretends to be one. She’s a civilian with a gift, dropped into a world of rules she didn’t write and doesn’t respect. That friction is the engine. It’s also where the series risks becoming just another case-of-the-week machine.
Adam Karadec and the Odd-Couple Engine
Morgan gets partnered with Detective Adam Karadec, played by Daniel Sunjata. Karadec is disciplined and methodical, a by-the-book investigator whose approach clashes with Morgan’s intuitive, unconventional methods. This is the oldest pairing in television: the rule-follower and the rule-breaker, forced together, grudgingly learning from each other. High Potential doesn’t reinvent it. It just casts it well.
Sunjata plays the straight man with patience, and Olson does the heavy lifting. She’s best known for comedy, and the show leans on that. Morgan is funny, blunt and a little chaotic, but the script gives her a real mind underneath the jokes. The clash with Karadec isn’t just comic friction. It’s two different ways of seeing the same room.
Selena Soto and the Unit
Judy Reyes plays Selena Soto, the head of the unit. She’s the authority figure who has to decide, again and again, whether Morgan belongs there. Reyes gives the role a grounded weariness that keeps the show from floating off into fantasy. Around her, the ensemble fills out the Major Crimes Division: Javicia Leslie as Daphne Forrester, Deniz Akdeniz as Lev ‘Oz’ Ozdil, Amirah J as Ava Gillory, and Matthew Lamb as Elliot Radovic.
The supporting cast does what supporting casts do in a procedural. They carry subplots, they react, they occasionally get a moment. None of them are the reason to watch. The reason to watch is the central pair, and the show is smart enough to know it.
The Roman Subplot
Running underneath the cases is a longer thread. Morgan uses LAPD resources to investigate the 15-year-old disappearance of Roman, the father of her daughter Ava. That mystery gives the series a spine beyond the weekly crime. It also gives Morgan a motive that isn’t just curiosity. She’s not solving puzzles for fun. She’s looking for something she lost.
This is the part of High Potential that has the most room to grow, and the part most likely to be wasted. A season-long mystery can hold a show together or drag it down, depending on whether the writers know where it’s going. The disappearance of Roman is the thread that could justify the whole enterprise if it lands.
What the Show Gets Right
The best thing about High Potential is that it doesn’t condescend to Morgan. Her intelligence is treated as a real asset, not a quirk. She’s not a savant who blurts out answers. She’s a person who pays attention, and the show lets her be right without making everyone else an idiot. Karadec is competent. Soto is competent. The cases are solved by a team, with Morgan as the spark.
The second-best thing is Olson. She carries the show’s tone, which sits somewhere between drama and comedy and doesn’t always land. When it works, it works because she makes Morgan feel like a real person with a real life, not a plot device. She’s a mother, she’s broke, she’s tired, and she’s smarter than everyone in the room. That combination is the show.
Where High Potential Stalls
The weakness is the same as the strength. High Potential is a network procedural, and it behaves like one. The cases resolve. The lessons get learned. The status quo resets. For a show built on an unusual premise, it’s often content to be ordinary.
The ensemble is underused. The Roman mystery moves slowly. The show wants to be a comfort watch, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but comfort and ambition are not the same thing.
The Renewal and What Comes Next
ABC renewed High Potential for a second season in January 2025, and it premiered on September 16, 2025. In March 2026, the network renewed it for a third season. The show has run 32 episodes across three seasons, with the first airing on September 17, 2024, and the most recent on April 7, 2026. That’s a healthy run for a network drama.
The cast has grown along the way. Garret Dillahunt joined in a recurring capacity on July 1, 2024. Taran Killam was cast in a recurring role on August 21, 2024. Steve Howey came aboard as a new series regular for the second season on June 26, 2025. Mekhi Phifer was cast in an unnamed recurring role on July 14, 2025. David Giuntoli, who appeared in the first season finale, was reported on August 23, 2025, to recur in the second season. Susan Kelechi Watson joined in a recurring role for the second season on January 15, 2026.
That’s a lot of new faces for a show built around a central pair. Adding players is a vote of confidence from the network, but it’s also a risk. A procedural lives and dies on the clarity of its central relationships. Every new recurring character is a chance to dilute them.
The Verdict
High Potential is well-made, well-cast and easy to watch, but it doesn’t take many risks. It has a star who can hold the screen, a premise with real promise, and a mystery at its center that gives it somewhere to go. What it doesn’t have yet is the nerve to be strange.
The score is 7.2 out of 10. That’s a fair number. It reflects a show that works within its lane and rarely leaves it. The Roman subplot is the thing to watch. If the show follows it somewhere dark and unexpected, High Potential could become more than a pleasant way to spend an hour. If it doesn’t, it’ll stay exactly what it is: a solid procedural with a great lead and a premise it never quite earns.
KEY FACTS BOX
- Title: High Potential
- Created by: Drew Goddard
- Network: ABC
- Premiere date: September 17, 2024
- Most recent episode: April 7, 2026
- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 32
- Genres: Drama, Crime, Mystery
- Based on: HPI (2021, Franco-Belgian)
- Starring: Kaitlin Olson, Daniel Sunjata, Judy Reyes, Javicia Leslie, Deniz Akdeniz, Amirah J, Matthew Lamb
- Critical score: 7.2/10 (Metacritic 72/100)
- Our score: 7.2/10
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