In its debut season, ABC’s High Potential gets plenty right, starting with crafting an engaging narrative to setting up a deliciously enamoring slow burn between Morgan Gillory and Adam Karadec. This isn’t our first rodeo, so we know that their love story is still seasons in the making, and that’s partly what’s making every beat exceptional.
One of the biggest surprises to me while reading reviews for my recently released romance novel was people calling it a slow burn. And that’s certainly not a bad thing, but it’s not what I intended to set up. Maybe it’s because I come from the world of entertainment TV, where I consider a slow burn to be seasons and seasons of teasing out a will they/won’t they pairing. We all remember where we were when we watched the Suits pilot and wanted Harvey Specter and Donna Paulsen to get together. Many of us also remember being told, “There’s nothing romantic between them.”
Like Chenford in The Rookie or even comedy couples like Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, slow burns take time. The setup is there from the very beginning, with burgeoning tension and wild chemistry between the actors, making it nearly impossible for eagle-eyed fans not to spot the brewing romance. A shipper will notice it right away and the writing will carefully show us every little thing that’s developing between them. At the same time, we’ll even see these characters go on dates with other people and try to avoid their feelings until they one day snap, and the magnets between them force them into confronting their feelings.
For Morgan and Karadec in High Potential, the chemistry sizzles from the get-go. His apprehension and the way she pushes his buttons effortlessly showcase all the ways they could challenge each other. They go from strangers to reluctant co-workers and now to proudly calling each other partners. In the Season 1 finale, Karadec also admits that Roman’s whereabouts matter to him because they matter to Morgan. All of these tiny moments are signs that they’ll continue growing stronger as partners, both in the platonic sense and, later, the romantic.
Again, while I firmly believe High Potential is setting up a slow burn between them, I don’t see us moving forward in the romantic realm until maybe Season 3 at the earliest, if we’re fortunate enough even to get a renewal. But so much of what viewers see today is already glorious because it’s lovely to witness that the admiration brewing between the two of them is something that’s built to last. Whether romantic or platonic, Morgan and Karadec are now basically stuck with each other—they care about each other in a way that’s bound to grow as time passes. They look out for each other like it’s become second nature, like they can’t help but ensure that amid everything they’re going through, the other person is safe and happy.
There’s plenty that’s also riding on Daniel Sunjata and Kaitlin Olson’s performances. Sunjata knows how to project a thousand words through his expressions and he does so exceptionally in High Potential. Olson delivers a full range of emotions tirelessly. The two of them together subtly and unquestionably exhibit how much longing is already present between Morgan and Karadec, which makes rooting for the fictional relationship that much easier to do.
First Featured Image Credit: (Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)