Peggy’s husband, Denny ( Matt Dillon), is an ex-con obsessed with opening a qi gong studio as she tries to sever ties with him, she finds herself increasingly entangled with Guru Bob (Rupert Friend), a former local news anchor who’s rebranded after a public breakdown. Over time, “High Desert” starts to feel as shambolic and scattered as its protagonist, unraveling until the season abruptly ends with several balls still in the air.Ĭreators Nancy Fichman, Jennifer Hoppe and Katie Ford populate this landscape with characters who match Arquette’s antic energy.
Still, a compelling backdrop can’t sustain a show forever. From the midcentury Instagram bait of Palm Springs to the Joshua tree-studded Yucca Valley, it’s a deeply strange, profoundly beautiful place - an ideal setting for the register “High Desert” is aiming for, a cross of Coen brothers kookiness and California noir, and one that director Jay Roach makes the most of. The namesake High Desert is a region two hours’ drive and a world away from Los Angeles.
The actor then sustains that momentum for eight consecutive episodes. An early scene introduces Peggy hanging from a chandelier with her bloomers out, careening into a bar as part of a dinner theater display. Arquette makes Peggy a chaos tornado in feathered bangs, growling and rasping her way through a series of harebrained schemes. Others might feel the need to rein themselves in and play the straight woman to anchor a cast of eccentrics. But Arquette brings a supporting player’s lack of inhibition to the leading role. Unlike those earlier outings on the small screen, the Apple TV+ comedy puts her at the top of the call sheet as Peggy Newman, a drug dealer turned methadone user, frontier-era reenactor and aspiring PI. With “High Desert,” Arquette amps up the volume even further. The actor earned an Oscar in 2015 for a grounded turn in “Boyhood” on TV, she lets her hair down. And in “Severance,” she’s an unhinged boss who lives a double life, surveilling her employees on and off the clock. In “The Act” the following year, she played an eerily doting mother with Munchausen by proxy. In 2018’s “Escape at Dannemora,” she donned copious prosthetics to play a prison employee who assists in an escape.
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