When I woke up this week, I had no idea I’d be connecting the dots between two of my favorite network TV murder mysteries, Elementary and High Potential. But I don’t question the mysteries of the universe; and I never look a gift horse in the mouth. Which is why I am delighted to explain how High Potential’s showrunner believes the new hit Kaitlin Olsen series will be like the CBS Sherlock series starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as it heads into Season 2 on the 2025 TV schedule next fall.
Fans have been talking about High Potential’s Season 1 ending ever since it aired, and introduced a (seemingly) big baddie played by David Giuntoli in the process. We’ve had a few weeks to process what happened and where the show is going in the already-renewed Season 2, and now that we can start looking ahead to the future, showrunner Todd Harthan says he loves “a good serialized villain,” telling TV Line that may be exactly what fans have coming their way.
It’s just one of those tricky things that I thought Elementary did really well. A lot of shows have done it really well, where you find those pockets where [that storyline] flares up again, right? You let the audience almost forget about it, and then they start talking online. And then you make them wait just until they get mad at you, and then you give it to them.
After teasing David Giuntoli in the Season 1 finale of High Potential, I obviously had the inkling the actor will probably be back. A lot of times, though, network TV might bring a baddie in a for a longer arc, and that arc tends to only be for a few episodes. Sometimes with TV arcs we also get one big baddie for a whole season, before a show moves on to another case and storyline. But Harthan referencing Elementary is significant for two reasons.
- Elementary featured a female Moriarty across several seasons and she always popped in when she was least expected.
- Sherlock had extremely complex emotional ties to the version of Moriarty in the Elementary universe and even believed he was in love with her for a time. Throughout the series, they were drawn to each other like moths to a flame, though her choices were very different than his.
So, not only do I feel like we are going to have an intriguing and unusual foe who may pop up across the series in moments when you least expect him, I also wonder if there is more to Giuntoli’s character than it may at first seem. It sort of felt at the end of the season that there could be some personal connection there between the new consultant and the Game Master Villain. CinemaBlend’s own Nick Venable ran down a string of High Potential possibilities including the idea the character may be a relative of Morgan’s she never knew existed (which would explain why both are so dang good at puzzles).
These comments from Todd Harthan now seem to tie the narrative in Elementary to the one that High Potential will be pursuing moving forward, and it sounds like some of the theories we ran down may not be as outlandish as they might have felt originally. In fact, the Elementary comment very much feels like a nod to one of these theories panning out, and that’s extremely exciting.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until next fall. High Potential only got a shortened 13-episode order this TV season due to a scheduling fluke. However, there's more expected and we already know some details about High Potential Round 2, but the order is still currently to be determined. Whatever it ends up being, I can’t wait.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
