High Potential season 2 premiere picks up right where the season 1 finale left off, literally only days later. Kaitlin Olson’s Morgan Guillory is more haunted by the Game Maker from the High Potential season 1 finale than the rest of the Major Crimes Division. This throws Morgan off her game in the season 2 premiere.
Morgan’s high intelligence and her unique perspective are why Major Crimes brought her in. Morgan’s relationship with her partner Detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) is a classic push-pull of a rule breaker and a rule follower. High Potential tries to have it both ways – frequently reinforcing that Morgan is not a cop, just a consultant.
However, Morgan’s flagrant disregard for legal process accentuated in the High Potential season 2 premiere and played for laughs in a way that is spotlighted even in promotional material. ABC is walking a dicey line in making too light of the gray area in police work in a contemporary show.
Morgan & Karadec Literally Joke About Morgan’s Disregard For Police Procedure (Which Endangers Every Case)
Karadec Says The Quiet Part Out Loud – Morgan Is Waiting For Him To Leave So She Can Do Something Illegal
Morgan and Karadec’s tension in season 1 was largely about her inability to follow rules – or rather, her choice not to – like their ongoing battle over Morgan wearing gloves at crime scenes. Morgan took this job so she can sleep at night, so she only cares about getting the right answer.
Karadec’s decades of experience have taught him that how they get the answer is just as important in a court of law. High Potential walks the line between dramedy and procedural – the show will always have to find the balance between Morgan’s quirkiness with the gravity of the job.
However, with the stakes higher than ever with the intricate masterminding of the Game Maker, making quips about Morgan intentionally disregarding the documentation that makes a search legal doesn’t feel like it should be played for laughs. Yet, Karadec comments on it, and allows it to happen, tacitly condoning Morgan’s illegal search.
Karadec [standing]: You’re waiting on me to leave so you can poke around Jason’s den without a warrant, aren’t you?
Morgan [after a long beat]: … yeah.
High Potential has to be different shows from scene to scene – a family comedy, a cop drama, a mystery series. But Morgan isn’t acting out of desperation to finally get ahead of the Game Maker – she has always just wanted to snoop. Making comedy out of her exchange with Karadec is in poor taste.
Psych Could Get Away With Fudging The Rules, But High Potential Can’t
Psych Had A “Fantasy” Excuse & Existed In A Different Time
Shawn places his hand on Gus’s head while getting a fake psychic message on PsychUSA via MovieStillsDB
Psych and High Potential have certain similarities – Shawn Spencer consult for the Santa Barbara Police Department in Psych – but Shawn had a lot more leniency in his antics because the entire precinct believed he was supernaturally psychic. Also, Psych premiered almost 20 years ago.
The cultural attitudes about police have shifted, and police comedies have all had to pivot. The final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine suffered after trying to address the modern law enforcement conversation. Changing times aside, Shawn’s “gift” was his psychic ability, but Morgan’s gift is her intelligence.
Morgan choosing to poke around despite multiple warnings feels less funny and more troubling than when Shawn did it on Psych. And that’s assuming Morgan’s hunches are right – and increasingly in the premiere, the precinct is questioning Morgan’s decision-making.
High Potential doesn’t need to get bogged down in exact procedure, but to highlight it comedically feels like tipping too much into the comedy for such an otherwise weighty episode. With Karadec essentially blessing Morgan’s illegal search, she might be rubbing off on him too much.
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