When people think of the desert of Southern California, they often think of Palm Springs with its grand mid century mansions, replete with sleek breeze blocks, teal atomic doors, and pool parties that go all night as the palm trees sway against the mountain landscape. It’s in this kind of idyllic space where we first meet Peggy (Patricia Arquette, “Severance”), in her desert finery hosting a Thanksgiving party for her extended family. Children play in the pool, while her husband and mother help prepare a lavish meal. Everything is the perfect Palm Springs dream; that is, until the D.E.A. comes knocking.
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“High Desert,” the new AppleTV+ mystery-comedy from Nancy Fichman (“Nurse Betty”), Jennifer Hoppe (“Grace and Frankie”), and Katie Ford (“Miss Congeniality”), follows the unshakeable Peggy down a rabbit hole of mysteries and desert weirdness. Ten years after the opening sequence, Peggy is now struggling with an opioid addiction while working as a barmaid at a western-themed park and restaurant in Pioneertown. Her siblings Stewart (Keir O’Donnell, “Ambulance”) and Dianne (Christine Taylor, “Search Party”) want to evict her from the modest home in Yucca Valley that she shared with their mother Rosalyn (Bernadette Peters, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”), who passed away a few weeks earlier.
Gone is the Palm Springs dream. This is the real high desert made of small communities just off the highway, filled with tumbleweeds and cacti. It’s where strip mall tanning salons are fronts for more nefarious businesses and the neon gleam of tribal casinos light up the dark desert nights. Determined to keep her home, like any good Southern California hustler, Peggy finds a new stream of income. After overhearing a tale of woe from her flighty co-worker Tammy (Susan Park, “Briarpatch”) involving her fiancé Guru Bob (Rupert Friend, “Homeland”), who was once TV anchor who had a very public meltdown, and a private eye named Bruce (Brad Garrett, “Everybody Loves Raymond”) who owes her $300, Peggy sees an golden opportunity. After collecting the money he owes her friend, Peggy talks Bruce into letting her work for him, convinced there’s something fishy about Guru Bob.
Over the course of the series, Peggy finds herself caught up in a web of mysteries straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel, including forged paintings, missing wives, talking birds, a former TV extra who looks just like her mother, and a father and daughter hitman team out for blood. There’s a compelling shagginess to the storytelling of “High Desert” that’s reminiscent of Chandler’s best novels, or even Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of “Inherent Vice,” with a dash of absurd humor and violence a la the Coen brothers. And Patricia Arquette is fantastic as Peggy, whose heart is always in the right, although she can’t always overcome her worst instincts. While there’s an ensemble of kooky characters around her, this is a showcase for Arquette’s unique energy. There’s a vulnerability at her core, but also the frankness of someone who has spent most of her life operating on survival mode.
At times Arquette’s performance is often reminiscent of the charismatic mess that was Hank Moody, as portrayed by David Duchovny in erstwhile Showtime comedy “Californication.” In fact, the whole vibe of the show recalls that era of Showtime comedies, with its intricate ensemble of characters that are borderline satirical caricatures of a certain kind of southern Californian. Everyone here is vaguely immoral, yet still somehow endlessly lovable, though they probably are more fun to watch than ever actually to hang out with.
Arquette crafts an easy chemistry with co-star Matt Dillion (“Wayward Pines”), who plays her flighty just out of prison not-quite-ex-husband Denny. You feel their passion and tenderness, but they’re also an atomic couple who bring out the worst in each other. While Peggy attempts to save her home and solve the case, Denny continually pulls her back into a myriad of illicit schemes. Yet he’s also the kind of man who would rescue a dog from a hot car. In one hilarious sequence, he attempts to have a heart-to-heart with Peggy while simultaneously robbing a weed store. Dillion’s irresistible charm makes Denny compelling, even when we know he’s just no good.
Then there’s Rupert Friend as Guru Bob, the epitome of a desert grifter. After his Howard Beale moment – the cause of which is revealed towards the end of the season – the one-time anchorman embraced the psychotropic drug culture as synonymous with the Coachella Valley as the musical festival that bears its name. A self-styled spiritual leader, Guru Bob is hanging on by a very thin thread, one that Peggy slowly unravels as she discovers the truth behind his wife’s disappearance. Friend is hilarious, oscillating between his faux-enlightened exterior and the shrieking man-child he actually is on the inside.
Peggy finds solace from her chaotic life through long conversations, often over the phone and FaceTime, with best friend Carol (Weruche Opia, “I May Destroy You”), who always seems to have a glass of wine in her hand. Carol has secrets of her own, though she now lives a cushy life with a doctor whose teenage daughter is stuck on bored rebellion mode. While Opia has a beguiling screen presence, the lack of details around her character’s mysterious past eventually moves past intrigue straight to the land of underdevelopment.
As Peggy weaves in and out of these various storylines, and in and out of recovery, so too do her inner demons circulate the episodes. The desert is a place where people come to reinvent themselves, and over the course of these eight episodes we get glimpses of how Peggy wound up leading the life she lives. These details do not necessarily attempt to explain away Peggy’s addiction issues or her messy life choices. Instead, they add an emotional texture to the her internal terrain, and to her connection with the desert, specifically the home she shared with her mother, and why she’ll fight so hard to keep it.
The season ends on its most absurd moment yet, with Peggy in a new bizarre situation of her own making. Some threads of the mystery are tied up in a nice bow, while others are left hanging loose in the wind, while new ones have been revealed. And if “High Desert” remains a one-season wonder, wrapping up on such a strange note casts Peggy’s story into the realm of best desert tall-tales. [B]