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Kaitlin Olson continues to charm in High Potential season 2

After wrapping up its first round earlier this year, ABC's surprise hit returns.

By Tara Bennett | September 11, 2025 | 12:00pm

Photo: Disney/Jessica Perez

TV Reviews High Potential

Kaitlin Olson continues to charm in High Potential season 2

What’s old is new again, as proven by the successful return of quirky, sleuth-led mystery series like Peacock’s Poker Face and ABC’s surprise hit High Potential. In the case of the latter, creator Drew Goddard (Lost) and showrunner Todd Harthan centered things around Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson), an underemployed single mother of three and literal genius with an IQ of 160.

High Potential grew into its title by the end of the first season based on Olson’s ability to sell that Morgan is super smart and curious but also relatable and a hot mess at home. The gift/curse of her hyper-stimulated brain meant that the show had to rise to the standards of its main character, and it did a great job crafting multi-layered mysteries worthy of her noggin and viewers’ time. The series left the season with Morgan facing both personal and professional cliffhangers that continue without missing a beat in these new episodes, the first three of which screened for critics.

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In the season-one finale, Morgan got confirmation that she’s being stalked by someone equally clever who’s referred to as the Game Maker (Grimm’s David Giuntoli). And he wants her undivided attention as he lays out a new kidnapping case involving a single mother from Morgan’s neighborhood. She’s genuinely spooked by his strident invasion into her family and work lives, which also has her Major Crimes division team, especially Detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) and Lt. Soto (Judy Reyes), worried that their civilian consultant has been pushed too far.

On the personal front, the first-season arc in which Soto worked to find the whereabouts of Morgan’s long-missing first husband Roman finally produced a concrete lead. But because of Morgan’s active police protection from the Game Maker, Detectives Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) and Daphne (Javicia Leslie) have to step up and do some field surveillance this time around (alongside an intriguing new character played by Mekhi Phifer).

Meanwhile, Morgan, Karadec, and the crew chase and unpack the nemesis’ multi-disciplinary clues. The humorous vignettes that pop up to explain obscure concepts or facts Morgan references as she pursues the threads of a case continue to be a feature of the show. And they work because they aren’t overused, are in keeping with the titular character’s sense of humor, and give the audience a peek into the hamster wheel that’s always spinning in her overstuffed brain.

However, the show has some work to do when it comes to relying on dated tropes, like its overreliance on third-act, sad-ballad montages to quickly and shallowly tie up emotional loose ends. The writers—so far, Harthan, Marc Halsey, and Laura Lekkos—also need to give Oz, Daphne, and Morgan’s affable ex (played by a criminally wasted Taran Killam) more screen time. (That said, it’s uncanny how much Matthew Lamb, who portrays the latter’s son, is growing up to look just like Killam.)

Those two quibbles aside, this is a very promising start to season two. There’s still plenty of juice regarding Roman’s missing years. And “Eleven Minutes,” the strongest episode of the first three, deftly weaves together a case-of-the-week mystery with Morgan trying to figure out how much to include her eldest daughter Ava (Amirah J) into what she’s discovered about her dad. It hits a sweet spot, connecting the moral and emotional complexity of Morgan’s police work to her daily life.

The series continues to build on the strengths that Olson brings to the table. She knows how to land a fantastic reaction, be it comedic or poignant, and High Potential smartly leans into that gift, as well as her warm rapport with Sunjata, Reyes, and Amirah J. The show might have returned rather quickly (season one only ended in February), but this new batch of episodes hardly feels rushed or half-baked.

High Potential season two premieres September 16 on ABC