'High Potential' And Neurodivergence In Mystery Solving On TV

I belong to several parenting groups on social media for kids on the neurodivergent (ND) spectrum.
Recently, there’s been an uptick in discussions around whether or not neurodivergence, like ADHD, should be considered a “superpower” or a curse. In reality, it is simultaneously neither and both of those things.

Living with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or any of the other -isms on the neurodivergent spectrum is difficult. The world isn’t arranged around brains that process things in non-typical ways. Society thrives on conformity. For folks whose brains work too fast, too slow, go in too many directions at once, or refuse to think Inside The Box school is hard, jobs are hard to find or maintain, household chores look like insurmountable tasks, and attempts at organization fly out the window real fast.

On the flip side of the coin, if you can figure out how to harness the moments of hyper-fixation, the dedication you feel towards your special interests, and obsession over details, the neurodivergent brain can run like a finely tuned racecar. The problem is that you don’t have control over how long those moments last. The latest, and best, example of this on television is Kaitlin Olson’s portrayal of Morgan Guillory on ABC’s High Potential.

Morgan is a single mom who struggles with being “twice exceptional” in that she’s a “High Potential Intellectual” with incredibly low executive function. How can you tell? She’s super impulsive, her house is a mess, she can’t keep a job, she’s a sugar addict, and her wardrobe, while fantastic, is absolute chaos.

When Morgan is brought into the station during the pilot episode, it’s to explain why she was tampering with their crime board while she was supposed to be cleaning. She explains to the Captain what HPI means: “…you have advanced cognitive abilities, intellectual creativity, photographic memory, stuff like that.” But it also means that she obsesses over every problem she encounters. And “[her] mind is constantly spinning out of control, which makes it impossible to hold a job, relationship or conversation.” Immediately after that, her impulsivity causes her to get into a fistfight with a couple of cops and thrown into a jail cell (again).

Morgan does not see her exceptionalism as a gift. But the people around her do. And when she can focus all of these traits that make her life difficult, she’s able to solve crimes in a way that looks like magic to the average person.

It’s a popular trope in criminal procedurals to have someone who can easily see more than what’s on the surface and who then explains it all to the audience. Bones is an excellent example of this.

Temperance Brennan started out as someone who was socially awkward and passionate about her work, who also knew she was the smartest person in the room. But her character displayed more autistic traits throughout the show’s 12 seasons, which made it increasingly difficult for her to understand or experience emotions. Although it was never specifically mentioned, the show’s creator, Hart Hanson, has said in interviews that he based Temperance Brennan on a friend who has Asperger’s syndrome. Brennan’s hyper-fixation parlayed into a lucrative career doing what she loved and unexpectedly helping the FBI solve difficult cases with a group of people who could help her process human behavior.

CSI’s Gil Grissom is another character who is part of the 2e family, with high intelligence and strong autistic traits without ever identifying as being on the spectrum. It made him a terrible manager and an even worse love interest for Sarah Sidle. But it made him a great investigator. In online spaces, a lot of fans feel like Grissom is “too social” to be considered on the spectrum. But I recently did a complete rewatch of the show, and Grissom is only ever “social” when he’s forced to be through the course of an investigation or because someone on the team calls him out on it. The only relationship he has outside of work is with Lady Heather; there are probably essays about that somewhere.

Some members of the neurodivergent and 2e communities argue that trying to put any sort of positive spin on neurodivergence takes away from the seriousness of the struggles people face and trivializes conditions like ADHD and autism. But representation on TV has come a long way since Vincent D’Onofrio’s rough, unpleasant know-it-all Robert Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Characters like Morgan Guillory provide space for neurodivergent people to be optimistic about the possibilities beyond their struggles with everyday life. They’re also an opportunity to normalize neurodivergent/2e behaviors and characteristics for folks who aren’t on the spectrum. Of course it’s idealized, this is still television. But I’m for this sort of propaganda over copaganda any day.