High Potential is the most watched new series on ABC in years, with even more numbers coming in from streaming, it has already been renewed for a second season. It is a crime drama created by Drew Goddard, based on a French series called HPI. Starring the amazingly talented Kaitlin Olson of the long running sitcom It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Olson plays Morgan Gillory, an intellectually gifted cleaning woman who becomes a police consultant. Todd Harthan (Psych, The Resident, Rosewood) was brought on as showrunner for this unique new series. Harthan recently spoke to Immersive via Zoom.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
How did you first get involved with this program?
I got a call about a year ago. They were in the midst of season one and they wanted to bring somebody new on to help. Season ones of shows are a beast, and this one in particular was a tricky one. I watched some episodes then met with Drew and his team. The big moment for me was meeting with Kaitlyn when we talked about what she was hoping to accomplish with the show. That got me excited and I just felt like I could wrap my arms around this thing and help nurture it.
So this is actually a remake of a French show. Did you check out any of those episodes?
It’s such a different flavor in a good way but there’s definitely a lot of the DNA of that show in ours. I think the biggest shift is just tone. Ours is a little bit more grounded and, we have a different sandbox on ABC. There’s different tools in your belt on those in different networks. I don’t feel those limitations at all.
I think it’s a good challenge. A lot of shows do too much. You can allude to stuff without actually just always showing it.
A hundred percent. One of the things I love about the feedback we’ve gotten is we heard this is a show families watch together. Even though we go to some dark places because we are dealing with people that have been murdered in some cases. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be icky or overly graphic.
Kaitlin Olson is incredible, what was it like working with her?
She is incredible. You put her at the center of a show like this and she is just fun to write for. She is dedicated and cares so much about her work and the show. She’s also just a great producer and leader, the way she treats incoming cast and the crew. So it just sets the table for a wonderful work environment. She’s a gem. It’s one of those things where, now that the show is up on its feet, and hopefully we’re doing multiple seasons, you can’t imagine anybody else playing that role.
Talk a little bit about working with show creator Drew Goddard.
The great thing about Drew… I am drafting off of a strong pilot, I think that the handoff with shows like this can be tricky if you’re not aligned with what your show creator was setting out to do. I talk to him all the time and he’s still very involved with each piece of material. He’s collaborative so it’s very easy to sort of problem solve with him and talk about the creative direction of the show.
What were some of the unique challenges of working on this series?
It’s two things. One, it’s a very hard show to produce. There’s a lot of moving parts to it, I think to make the “Morgan Visions” shine and give them their own sort of cinematic quality and earn their place in the show – They take a a lot of time to dream up then produce. We actually have separate meetings just to plan them.
Also, every episode has a complicated crime that is for Morgan to solve and that needs to resonate emotionally. We also leave room for levity to give the cops some wins so that they are not just passengers on the ride. Building these episodes are more challenging than any other series I’ve done before.
Do you have a show bible or do you just verse yourself with all sorts of random trivia?
There is no show Bible. I wish there was. I think we are kind of slowly but surely building one now that we have what feels like a series and not just a season. In season one you’re figuring it out. We have like this boutique writer’s room in our offices where we go in sometimes and just put cards on the board of potential clues and things she might know. How does she know it? Is it tied to being a mother? Is it tied to her childhood? Is it just something she experienced in life? She’s had multiple jobs. Does it come from that? There’s all these different categories that we pull from. What we don’t want to do is make her some sort of like, super human that knows everything about everything. It’s an evolving thing now that we’re seeing just how hard it is to build these episodes.
Interesting. It has to be something good and actually has to fit the show for it to gel. Any favorite moments, favorite scenes, favorite episodes?
I have a soft spot for episode two, ‘Dancers in the Dark’, because that was the first original idea that Mark Halsey and I dreamt up. I’ll never forget it, two in the morning being in downtown LA and watching those guys tap dance on the roof of that building. I remember Kaitlin, we wrapped her a good hour and a half earlier, and instead of going home, she came up to the roof and hung out with us. Mark Webb was directing and it was a wonderful moment where I thought, “I think we might have something here if we can capture these kinds of characters.” That was a prime example of like a victim that didn’t die. It was like an inspiring ending.
I loved the finale. I got to work with my best friend James Roday Rodriguez, who’s directed for me in the past. We’ve been writing partners for 20 years. That finale, it was a complicated story in the best of ways… Kaitlin and the rest of the cast shined. I thought it was incredibly well directed. It had two cliffhangers that thrust us into season two. We have such a good jumping off point for season two with the wind at our backs.
How would you contrast this with your other experiences?
This one has been the most creatively challenging, because it’s hard to write for a genius when it turns out you’re not a genius, which I’m not. I think I’ve learned a lot, good and bad from my previous experiences, and being able to bring that to the party, I think is the reason why I’m optimistic that we can continue to keep it healthy and get to like a place where it feels a little bit more like a well-oiled machine.
Showrunning is such a unique job title that just exists in television. What sort of skills did you pick up that you feel like maybe aren’t in like a class or a book about showrunning that you picked up working on this series?
It’s an interesting job because you’re not writing as much as you used to. I think one of the skills that I’m continuing to hone is just managing people, and keeping people in the right head space so you can get the best from them. I think one of the things that you have to lock in on is how to talk to people, and how to listen more than you speak. You have to be able to take a 150 people and go, this is our show family and it’s my job to keep people in a healthy and creative head space.
Now that season one has, has wrapped and it’s been a success. Whats your takeaway from this experience?
Let’s try to learn from the things that we need to improve on from last season. So what are those meaningful upgrades? And let’s try to give the audience an even better show. Let’s try to hold that audience. But we’re under a different kind of microscope now. There’s a real chance for this thing to have legs and go multiple seasons. So it’s my job to keep the quality of the show where we want it and even like raise the bar. But to be on the other side of season one and have episodes that are prime examples of what we want to do more of is a huge advantage to where you are in season one. When you don’t have that and you’re just figuring it out. We’ve figured it out, now it’s just how do you continue to sustain it.
High Potential is now streaming on Hulu.
