The world of crime shows typically revolves around two kinds of lead characters: the crime solvers with a badge and the outliers. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with crime dramas highlighting the brilliant work of law enforcement. That's where shows like Dick Wolf’s Law & Order: Special Victim Unit or the CBS hit NCIS come in.
That said, every once in a while, the audience gets an extra special treat: an outlier. Outliers are characters who have no experience or actual interest in working in law enforcement. However, they possess a unique skill set that makes them uniquely ‘qualified’ for crime-solving.
Such is the case with ABC’s High Potential. Based on the French series HPI Haut Potentiel Intellectuel, the show stars Kaitlin Olson as Morgan, a single mom with a “compulsion” to right wrongs before she obsesses over every detail. After tampering with an investigation board while working as a cleaner for a police department, Morgan is tapped to consult for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
Since High Potential premiered in 2024, the crime show has been a huge hit, so much so that the series has already scored a Season 2 renewal. That said, the show’s Season 2 premiere date is yet to be announced. And if you’ve already binge-watched all of High Potential’s episodes, here are some similar shows you can check out too.
Numb3rs
The CBS crime series premiered in 2005 and introduced a unique sibling dynamic in the world of crime solving. On the show, David Krumholtz stars as Charlie Eppes, a genius mathematician who gets recruited by his FBI agent older brother (Rob Morrow) to help solve cases in the agency’s Los Angeles office.
Numb3rs ran for six seasons before ending its run in 2010. Throughout its run, the show picked up one Emmy nod.
Watch Numb3rs on Pluto TV.
Castle
Much like High Potential, Castle puts a fresh twist on the odd-partners storyline. On this ABC crime series, Nathan Fillion plays the titular character Rick Castle, a highly successful mystery novel writer who teams up with NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) to solve real-life murders. With four Emmy nods, the show had been a hit throughout its eight-season run.
Behind the scenes, however, there was reported tension between the show’s two main stars. In the end, Castle got canceled shortly after Katic exited the show.
Castle is available to stream on The Roku Channel, Prime Video, and Hulu.
The Mentalist
If moms, mathematicians, and novelists can become crime case consultants, so can psychics. At least, this was the case with CBS’s The Mentalist.
On the show, Simon Baker plays Patrick Jane, a supposed psychic with a gifted mind who agrees to work as a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In exchange, he hopes to catch the man responsible for the murders of his wife and daughter. The Mentalist ran for seven seasons before ending its run in 2015.
Watch The Mentalist on Hulu.
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