I’m a big fan of murder mysteries. I grew up reading as many examples of the genre as possible, absorbing all by Agatha Christie to Brown Encyclopedia. If there was a puzzle I could try to solve before the end of a story, I would devour it. That’s why I’ve been so excited recently by the narratives crafted by Rian Johnson in his The mysteries of Benoit Blanc directed by Daniel Craig. the feature films Knives out and Glass Onion Both have revitalized the industry’s emphasis on crime stories, leading to a resurgence of shows like Matlock, A man inside, Elsbeth, Only murders in the building, Deadlochand more. Eager to delve into another offbeat mystery show, my wife and I launched High potential on ABC. We like Kaitlin Olson and were hooked by the premise of a brilliant cleaning lady hired by the police to help in their investigations.
The only thing is that the show reminds me too much of Natasha Lyonne’s. poker face…a detective series with far superior writing.
This, undoubtedly, has to do with the fact that poker face It’s a side project for the aforementioned Rian Johnsonas if the man had too many twisted mysteries in his head and needed a clever way out to unleash them. You could argue against my premise that these shows are similar. One is a gritty (if often hilarious) character drama available to stream with a current turkey subscriptionand the other is an unashamedly made-for-TV comedy-drama that is palatable to all consumers.
But for me, they both feature incredibly intelligent female main characters who have a unique gift that allows them to see crime scenes. And the structure of the episodes leads to a crime of the week that must be solved, while also building a larger mystery behind the scenes.
Katlin Olson and Natasha Lyonne are excellent at what they do. Neither of their characters care much about authority, and both are very comfortable breaking the rules if it means they can help someone who is in distress (and fight the system; that’s a big hook in both shows). Both also excel at delivering slang, the necessary info dumps that move mysteries through the channel of situational comedy. But it is in writing where, in my opinion, poker face triumphs over High potentialat least after the first season of streamer Peacock.
Us classified the episodes included in the first season of poker face. And even in the dullest episode of the 10-episode season, Lyonne’s Charlie Cale still finds himself in an unpredictable, murderous situation that highlights the flyover country of this great nation. Throughout the season, Charlie, who has the god-like ability to detect when someone is lying, has been jumping from state to state, solving crimes and helping the innocent. But he’s also stayed ahead of an enforcer played by Benjamin Bratt. You have to wait for the season finale, titled “The Hook,” to find out why Charlie is on the run. And the way “The Hook” connects several dots from the entire season earns me a round of applause.
Maybe High potential You will reach greater potential. I’m definitely intrigued by ongoing investigation about the disappearance of Morgan’s (Olson) first husband, Roman. And the cases from season 1 of High potential have become more interesting, although again, with the level of writing, the show too often relies on inventions and coincidences where a show like poker face I found ways to be smarter and more concise.
My conclusion here seems to be that if you are one of the people who has tuned High potential on ABC, and you haven’t seen it yet poker face on Peacock, dive headfirst into the latter and binge before poker face Season 2 comes to the streaming service. You won’t regret it.
