High Desert

The performances and storylines are huge and over the top at times. It's clearly by design and it's simply brilliant. I laughed so much, and so consistently, throughout episodes 3 and 4 that I had to keep replaying scenes so I didn't miss anything. Patricia Arquette is genius (yet again) here. She is fully invested in this high camp, voracious for a new life, wannabe gumshoe character. And the scenes between her and Brad Garrett are absolute comedy gold. Looking forward to the final few episodes to see where this wacky and winding road takes us! I suggest viewers just go with it and enjoy the ride.

It is a very nice watch and very fast paced not stuck in supergeneric dialogues and plottwists yada yada. It just has a nice offbeat'ish flow and it flows well.

Patricia Arqueutte really nails this role, which surpsided me. I was a but skeptical at first, but when you catch your depressed semi-cynical self laughing about her ways of personifying the character than you just have to give it up.

Sadly they chose to go a bit less offbeat/weird as it could be, with some safe commercial mainstream ingredients in it, and some generic acting from others. If that was different it could have been even great. But I dig it.

This and White House Plumbers kind of share some of the same quirkiness, and I'm down for it.

Also, I'm a sucker for the desert town scenery.

The opening of episode one was a great hook. Pulled me in and had me interested...

But...

After that point, there wasn't any real "storytelling". There were a bunch of scenes strung together to hopefully make some sort of story.. but no ACTUAL storyline or overall plot.

No clue where it was going.. often bored by how it was getting there.

Sure some moments were humorous and Arquette does a great job with the role.. but.. it's meandering.. wandering.. seeking to find a reason. There is not clear plot.. no expectation for anything that's been foreshadowed.. no mystery to solve... no outcome to hope for... no future.

With about 5 minutes left in episode 4 I bailed.. bored to tears.. never to look back.

Why doesn't anyone focus on good storytelling any more??? It would appear most newer productions either want to make a puzzle out of any overall plot.. or just avoid any overall plot altogether. This series was the latter.

If I can't see any light at the end of the tunnel... it's a trap... not a tunnel. This.. this is a trap.

I approached this show with poor expectations. Just to let myself be entertained for twenty minutes. Indeed, at first sight this looked like one of those low-budget internet TV series for a young generation suffering from low attention spam.

What I actually encountered is absolutely brilliant and delightful. Fresh, provocative, sparkling, funny and very original.

Quite obviously, something like this could only work with a very solid cast and I must confess I have always appreciated Arquette's talent, but this is another dimension all together. The entire thread, in its minimalism, rests on her shoulder and she leads wonderfully with a consistent support from her fellow colleagues.

The cherry on the cake for an irregular but very interesting career. I expect she should receive some sort of award for this. She deserves it.

High Desert is awesomely witty, packed with dry dark humor, a complex and unique story line. Its fast paced and chaotic.... Moments of Breaking Bad chaos. And Patricia Arquette is phenomenal!!!! Brad Garret is hilarious!! The rest of the cast is amazing.

There was times where it felt like the story lingered but the last few episodes were filled with the action that lacked in the beginning and it was finally all coming together. Unfortunately I was totally bummed about the major cliff hanger.

It's sucks that there's not another season coming, would've been nice to see how it all played out, felt like it was just getting started.