Note: The following story contains spoilers from “High Potential” Episode 7.
After leaving viewers off with an intense fall finale, “High Potential” showrunner Todd Harthan said to expect even more of a “roller coaster” when the show returns in January.
“There are some [episodes] that are a little bit lighter and then we’re going to try to rip your heart out,” Harthan told TheWrap.
Harthan, who took over as showrunner the Kaitlin Olson-led series from former showrunner Rob Thomas, teased that the team had more time to plot out the penultimate and finale episodes of Season 1 to “hopefully hook in the audience and have and finish on a really high note,” saying “I love a good cliffhanger.”
In the fall finale, Morgan took Ava (Amirah J) to visit the LAPD on her “yes day” before things take a dangerous twist when the precinct was held hostage by the friends of a recently convicted man, who his friends believed to be innocent. After navigating the fickle temperaments of the hostage takers and finding the real killer, Morgan was congratulated by the LAPD team with a desk of her own, bringing her even closer with the crew.
“In traumatic situations, people show their true colors, and when you survive situations like that, your bond with people, especially like the found family that is the show, really grows,” Harthan said. “But even more than that, you’ll see in future episodes how the bond between mother and daughter also evolves, because they went through something together too.”
Below, Harthan unpacks the show’s success so far, reveals what’s ahead for Morgan’s love interest and reveals how long he would like the show to run.
TheWrap: Congrats on the great response for the show! Are people reacting to the things you thought they would?
Harthan: It’s amazing, especially these days. Our goal was to give people, especially in the broadcast space, a show that has its own flavor. It doesn’t break the mold, but also doesn’t play by all the rules — when you have Kaitlin Olson, you can color outside the lines a little bit. I was hoping people would find the cast infectious and lovely and warm, and the cases interesting.
One thing we’ve noticed is people responding to the relationship between Morgan and Soto. How did you want to craft that relationship?
I wish we were able to do more, and we will do more moving forward. It’s just this unusual but lovely bond between these two women who have both fought and won a lot of battles in life. They’ve had very different paths, but there’s that lovely mutual respect. In television, oftentimes you’ll see strong female characters that at some point get jealous over a man or this and that, and I just don’t think that really applies to real world relationships between women. What we’re writing to is women that have each other’s backs and respect each other through thick and thin, and that will only bloom and get stronger in the series.
Episode 7 really amped up the volume. Was there any inspiration behind that turn of events?
I’m an ’80s and ’90s kid, and I love action movies of that era, and there’s some really great movies that sort of inspired this finale. What we have, and what is sort of the gift of the show, is a cast in a sandbox that that we can build episodes that skew more drama, are a little bit more visceral, edge-of-your-seat kind of television … I want to take the audience on a roller coaster ride.
We’ve also seen Morgan get closer with a potential love interest in JD Pardo’s character. How did you want to introduce this love interest and what can you tease about where that might go?
Our plan was to do it slowly. I always go into each story with [the reminder that] this is a mother of three that has a bunch of spinning plates over her head. So the idea for dropping everything and going, “I’m going to start a new relationship” with all the things are going on her life, felt irresponsible. So she’s inching her way into a new potential love interest. I think the charm about it moving forward, even though you’ll see there’s complications coming, is that she’s a wonderful human being, and so is he. But just because you’re two wonderful people doesn’t mean that it’s going to work out. Especially when you get to a certain age in life, and you add kids and all these other things to the cocktail, it just complicates things and makes new relationships that much harder. We’re trying to explore it in a real, grounded way, as opposed to sometimes in TV, be a little lazy with how we execute those things.
Did you toy with Morgan and Karadec being love interests?
When you go into these shows, you always do. You always look at that. The easiest thing to do is go, “Oh, this is going to be a classic will-they-won’t-they” … I like that and that works. For me in this show, because they start out in such a place of mistrust and wanting to get out of each other’s worlds, I found that to probably ring false. What I do like is that these two people start to build a mutual friendship first and then a mutual trust, and they almost become like family, where they’re each other’s ride or die. To me, there’s a there’s a charm to that, and and you never know in a long running series — I mean, how long does it take “Bones” to do it? It’s whenever it feels like it’s natural. Maybe it’ll happen, but if it doesn’t, and it doesn’t work, in the story, this could be two people that have love interests that aren’t each other, and then are always there for each other through the trials and tribulations of those respective relationships. It’s too early to tell.
Is there any feedback you’re getting from audiences that has prompted you to lean into certain areas?
We did hear that audiences were interested in the Roman aspect of Morgan’s life, because I think one of the things that landed with the audience is that home life …. and that’s going to get challenged even more in the back half, because I think the audience responded so well to them. I think that a big component of the series moving forward is servicing the stories in the household. It’s not just a case a week.
How long are you hoping for “High Potential” to run?
I always go in these things, going, “I’m hoping for at least five seasons.” … In Season 1, by the way, I usually go, let’s just focus on the quality of these episodes, because there’s no promise. But once the episodes started coming together, I started to feel more bullish about its future, and then I really started thinking about, what are the boxes we want to check in Season 2 with not just Morgan and Karadec — now I have this wonderful ensemble of characters that I haven’t even tapped into — Daphne and Oz. There’s so many things I’m thinking about for Season 2, but, man …. 100 episodes is still the thing that I always [say], “We’re going to do it. We’re going to get there.” That’s the goal, 100 and beyond.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“High Potential” returns Jan. 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Episodes stream on Hulu the day after their ABC premiere.
