A lot happens within the first few minutes of High Desert. The eight-part comedy-drama series, released on Apple TV+, begins with a vision of suburban bliss: a pool party, held in the lavish California home of Peggy (Patricia Arquette) and Denny (Matt Dillon). Before you can say “illicit income”, a SWAT team is breaking down their door, while the couple scramble in vain to flush thousands of dollars’ worth of cannabis down the sink. A quick jump cut, and 10 years go by in an instant.
Older but not all that wiser, Peggy is now an enterprising ex-felon, trying to rebuild her life while reeling from the recent death of her mother (played by Broadway legend Bernadette Peters). Steamrolling her way into employment as a private dick, Peggy becomes embroiled in a far-fetched mystery involving a seemingly stolen Picasso painting, a robbery, and “Guru Bob” – a newsreader turned shamanic huckster, played with preposterous relish by Rupert Friend. Peggy must also contend with her own narcotic addictions (to dubious success), the judgement of her siblings (Christine Taylor and Keir O’Donnell), and the slippery charms of her jailbird husband.
