"High Potential," Episode 1.11: the cleaning lady figures out whodunit in a rich family with secrets and gay sons.

   

High Potential, based on a French series, stars Kaitlin Olson of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Mick as a genius employed as a cleaning lady (often people with high iqs have trouble fitting into ordinary society). Her ability to find connections leads to a job as a consultant, helping the police solve murders.  I reviewed Episode 1.11, "The Sauna at the End of the Stairs," because I figured sauna means gay bathhouse.

Scene 1: An old rich guy is lying in his mansion, surrounded by medical equipment, addressing his wife, adult daughter, and three men.  Maybe his children and their partners, including a gay couple?  He's been keeping a secret for ten years: He killed Barry!  Everyone gasps.

Scene 2: Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) previously a cleaning lady, now a police consultant, brags about her new credentials to her beset-upon boss, Karadec (Daniel Sunjata, top photo and center).  

The higher-ups John and Mellon (Garrett Dillahunt of The Walking Dead) appear to celebrate the closing of a cold case:  Rich Old Guy George Donovan confessed on his deathbed! 

Wait -- who's the hunk with Morgan and Boss Karadec?  Maybe Officer Oz, played by Deniz Akdeniz (left)

Morgan has not heard of this before -- she was busy in 2014 -- so Detective Selena, who was assigned to the case, explains: the day after Thanksgiving, Barry (TJ Thyne), who was married to Rich Guy's daughter, was found dead in the sauna, "broiled like a Texas barbecue." But he had a broken neck: it was a murder!  Someone pushed him down the stairs, then put him in the sauna so it would look like he broiled himself to death.

Rich Guy had Barry's blood on his shirt, so he went to trial, but was found not guilty due to insufficent evidence.  What would his motive be, and how could a 70-year old with a hip replacement carry Barry all the way into the sauna?

The murder had a disastrous impact on the Very Rich Family, so Detective Selena theorizes that Rich Guy didn't really do it; he confessed so his family could live "normal lives" after his death.

Breakdown of the men in the Family:

1. Rich Guy's oldest son Clark (Jonathan Chase, seen here getting a boyfriend in Another Gay Movie).

2. His second son, Matty, whom everyone in "true crime" podcasts thinks is the real murderer.

More after the break

"Holiday Exchange": Entitled, elitist A-gays find Christmas magic in an idyllic village in Britain/L.A.

 

Link to the uncensored version

It's not even Halloween yet, but the romcoms are started.  

Darn, they all have such interchangeable titles that I forgot which one I'm reviewing. Oh, right, The Holiday Exchange, on Amazon Prime.  

The icon shows a woman torn between two men, and the blurb is about a guy going on a "holiday exchange" that he found on a gay app, so I suspect some "mistaken for gay" jokes as the guy finds the Girl of His Dreams.

Scene 1: A guy wearing an eye mask and a frilly shirt wakes up -- gay. Close-up of a photo of him and his boyfriend -- gay.  He knocks it over, drinks some booze, and shaves and applies femme moisterizer products -- gay. 

A guy texts: "Wilde, call me back," but he ignores it.  Moisturizer guy is named Wilde, like Oscar?  Gay. He's played by Taylor Frey, top photo, who also wrote the screenplay.

Knock on the door: It's femme fashion designer Chase, Colton Tran, and a woman, with ideas for his wedding outfit: "Your Mom told us that your Big Day was coming."

"Nope, you misunderstood, I'm not getting married, I'm selling my company."

"Oh, well, we have ideas for that, too."

Wilde goes annoyingly over the top complementing Fashion Designer Chase; he is an angel, a shining light, goodness personified; he has created everlasting happiness for literally thousands of people by...um...designing their clothes. 

Back story: Wilde just dumped his boyfriend, Sean.

Scene 2:  An idyllic village, over the top idyllic, Currier & Ives idyllic. 

George tells his business partner Oliver, Rick Cosnett, how they met, confesses to drinking too much, and then lays on the over-effusive praise.  

Oliver is also an angel, goodness personified, spearheading drives that raise billions for charity. He's single-handedly wiped out world hunger.  Don't introduce Oliver to Chase the Fashion Designer, or they'll cancel each other out.  

His problems: he is too busy with his day job as a divorce lawyer, his numerous charities, and taking over Dad's business when he retires to get a boyfriend. Coworker George is in favor of being single. This must be the "mistaken for gay" guy.

Wait -- they specifically state that they live in Los Angeles.  The establishing shot was a New England Currier & Ives village. What the fudge?

Out in the elegant party, Saintly Oliver talks to James, who works in his company.  They hedge around the discussion of why their last date was so awful. So Saintly Oliver and Moisturizer Wilde are both gay?  Who's going to hook up with the lady in the middle of the icon?  

No,  James "can't" get together during the holidays: he'll be seeing family, driving up the coast. Dude's not into you. 

I'm watching with subtitles, so I can't hear the accents, but these people are saying "Happy Christmas" to each other.  Could they live in Britain, but be having an elegant party in L.A.?

More after the break.

"The Summer I Turned Pretty," Season 2: As God is my witness, I heard Spike say he was dating a boy

 

I reviewed The Summer I Turned Pretty last summer, and said it had a lot of gay potential.  The second season just dropped on Amazon Prime, so I'll see if any of that potential was realized.  The premise: a poor girl (actually upper-upper middle classt and her famous-writer mother spend the summer with Mom's ultra-rich ex-girlfriend and her two hot teenage sons, both of whom are in love with her.  

Season One Recap: Not promising.  I lost track of the number of boy-girl smooches.  It looks like both brothers and a third guy are in love with her.  For a girl named "Belly," she gets a lot of action. The only other plot point appears to be either Mom or her ex-girlfriend dying of cancer.  

Scene 1: It's the second summer that Belly's been pretty.  She lounges by the pool, the two brothers.  Psych!  It was a daydream!  She's actually in class, she's broken up with Conrad, and the lady with cancer has died.  "Escaping to your dreams is easier than living with your memories," she muses. But not to worry, Corey (Louis Tomeo, left), the hot guy who sits in front of her picked this moment to flirt. Except we never see him again.  He's just there to signify that everyone is intensely attracted to Belly.

Switch to Belly smooching with Conrad (Christopher Briney, top photo), the first of the brothers  "This almost doesn't seem real."  Psych!  This one isn't a dream -- it's a memory from last summer.  

The memory continues:  Conrad tells her how much he loves her, Belly drops a bombshell: "Your brother and I have been dating, too.  He's got a bigger cock than you, but you are better looking.  I don't know which to choose."  Ok, I may have edited the dialogue slightly. 

Conrad talks her into breaking up with Cock Boy.  They sneak into the house and talk to Cancer Mom, who is delighted to see that her son is heterosexual.  They grin and giggle for a long time, enjoying their shared heterosexual privilege. 

Scene 2: Back in the present, the teacher dismisses the class for the summer.  Despondent, Belly starts unloading her locker.  A clump of girls tries to talk  her into volleyball camp, and Steven (Sean Kaufman, left) whoops and hollers about going to Princeton in the fall.  He just found out now?  

His friend, a long-haired boy named Spike (Colby Burton),  rushes up, exuberant about the upcoming graduation party: "I'm dating the singer."  One of the girls complains that his boyfriend is a  "Machine Gun Kelly wannabe." 

Since when do 1930s gangsters sing?  Oh, he's actually an alternative rock/hip hop singer. So unless I misunderstood the dialogue, Spike is dating a boy.

Next Belly's counselor tells her that  her grades took a nosedive, and she dropped out of volleyball, so her chances of getting into a good college are nil.  That's not true.  I got a D in chemistry and still got into a...um...college.  "Have you thought of Finch Blockhead Academy?  They let in anyone with money."

More Cock Boy after the break