It isn’t likely of me to watch a new criminal series really because of two reasons.
1. Crime is an art. And not everyone is an artist. Not everyone can be.
2. Shows under show some stuff because not everyone is capable of viewing criminal art.
High Potential was recommended to me by one of my ex colleagues, because i loved crime stories. I didn’t watch it for the first six months after her recommendation – simply because I don’t trust other people’s judgement of crime series (or anything to be honest. There’s only one person that has good taste in everything and it’s me). Last week, while I waited for an OMITB episode to drop, i decided to turn on the show on my way to work, and I have a lot of thoughts.
Starting with the bads.
1. The show has a new crime every episode, meaning we solve the case when the episode ends – which personally, isn’t something I enjoy in shows because there absolutely no scope of mystery and suspence left when there’s nothing more to come. Of course, the last few episodes of season 1 and the first few episodes of season two had one case going on for a couple of episodes, but that’s about it. And the story line didn’t have any clues that we could look out for, to solve the case before the detectives (and consultant) – which was… I don’t know, less exciting?
2. Shows like OMITB and for the love of god, even Wednesday – drop subtle hints – that can lead people to the end easily. Like for example – in Wednesday Season 1, if you paid attention, you’d have known that Tyler meets Thornhill twice in front of us and both those times they talk about the drink she gets at his cafe – and the drinks mentioned in these instances were different. Quite a few fans were able to catch that. Similarly in OMITB, the last two episodes of every season have enough clues to point towards the killer before the leading trio reaches them. However, High Potential doesn’t have any such scheme. The show is entirely ruled by the consultant.
3. Most cases in the show, and by most i mean all, are solved because Morgan is a nerd that has textbook knowledge about everything under the universe. That’s not how the real investigations work. You can’t look at a CCTV footage and realise it was doctored because the wind was moving in the wrong direction, which you figured because there a church and “all churches face east”. You don’t pull out the Lazarus phenomenon out of your ass and pretend it’s common knowledge. The show makes Morgan look so intelligent that the LAPD looks useless in front of her, they cannot solve the simplest of the simple cases without her – and that’s not how it works.
4. Morgan’s nerd instincts never being wrong – I’m sorry but how are all your criminals so intelligent they plan such well thought murders. The body was sent down the laundry chute – the killer was intelligent enough to switch the switch cover but not intelligent enough to close the laundry chute door? Sure. On a side note, there’s an episode where these people get three dolls and for some reason nobody noticed that the three dolls are Morgan’s Children? First black female child. White male child. Another white female child. I can’t be the only one that saw that.
5. The tension between Morgan and Adam, it’s blaring. Not every male-female duo has to be romantic and if they have to be romantic, they have gone way past the number of no move episodes that can be made.
Having said that, the show also has a few good things
1. Crime, not Comedy – Most recent crime shows on TV are also comedy shows and focus heavily on the comedy. OMITB, Wednesday, CID, all are crime shows with more focus on comedy. High Potential is one show that focuses more on the cases and the life of the consultant Morgan, which is refreshing to see.
2. The team members – Most shows focus on top 2 or 3 main characters and the rest of them are left having no personality. Whether it’s Daphne, Oz or Melon – everybody has their own personality and everybody has had a few episodes where the focus is on them. For example – the game maker episodes have a focus on Oz, the last aired episode was about Selena and her promotion, there’s an episodes about Adam and his ex partner, one where Melon almost gets shot – the entire cast gets a plot at least once and that’s beautiful.
3. The long story – While every episode has a fresh case, they have a running storyline of finding Roman, Morgan’s ex husband and Ava’s father who vanished fifteen years ago. It’d be much better if they gave us clues along the way, but i still like how we have a bigger story plot to look at while we solve smaller cases.
4. Ludo – I don’t know, this person is such a breath of fresh air. I’m surprised Morgan was on good terms with both of her exes but I think it’s good to see their friendship long after they’ve parted their ways. The way he takes care of the kids and the way he loves Ava even though she’s not his own daughter – something new for the media. And there’s no jealousy, no “I wish we could get back together” happening in either sides which is, in my belief, a first.
That being said, i doubt this show will top OMITB in my list of crime shows yet, but it’s definitely up there somewhere.
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