Hollywood may have had its fair share of overnight successes but it’s not applicable to everyone.
And A-listers like Viola Davis, Angela Bassett, Jon Hamm, Samuel L Jackson, George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, Halle Berry and Melissa McCarthy, to mention a few, enjoyed the fruits of their labour much later in their careers.
The same could be said of Patricia Arquette.
To be honest, I don’t recall her earlier works but in the last decade, she has proven her prowess, more in TV than in film.
As such, any project with her name attached registers on my radar. And that is how I came to binge-watch “High Desert” on Apple TV+.
Arquette has proven herself in myriad roles. She owns her characters, flaws and all. The supernatural drama, “Medium”, which ran for seven seasons, cemented her success.
And she continued to blow fans away with every release thereafter, from “Boardwalk Empire”, “CSI: Cyber” and “Escape at Dannemora” to “The Act”.
In the latter two aforementioned shows, she explored the dark recesses of her characters with commendable conviction.
Of course, playing characters that live in the grey areas is part of Hollywood’s creative arsenal these days.
Back to Arquette, her character Peggy is a hot mess in “High Desert”. Talk about a car crash waiting to happen, Peggy is that and more.
Living in Yucca Valley, California, she works as a can-can performer giving regular people the full experience of being in a Western.
To her credit, Peggy is pretty amazing at her job.
But the loss of her mother Roslyn (Bernadette Peters) has left Peggy, an addict, inconsolable. Aside from not getting closure, she is pressured to sell the family home by her well-meaning sister Dianne (Christine Taylor) and brother Stewart (Keir O’Donnell).
To make matters worse, her deadbeat jailbird husband Denny (Matt Dillon) refuses to give her a divorce.
Her only ally is Carol (Weruche Opia), who has her own hardships to deal with.
From the first episode, Peggy’s amateur detective skills don’t go unnoticed. And she doesn’t turn a blind eye when those close to her are hoodwinked.
She calls a spade a spade and isn’t afraid when her curiosity leads her down some dangerous paths.
But the death of her mom becomes a turning point in her life. Peggy wants a fresh start. And, in helping her friend who turned to a down-on-his-luck private investigator named Bruce Harvey (Brad Garrett) for help that she never received, she finds it.
Peggy realises that they could help each other. She needs a new job, he needs an assistant to help save his struggling business.
Bruce isn’t keen on the idea but Peggy is the kind of person you don’t say no to. When it comes to hustling and spotting a good deal, she is second to none.
And, given her new job, she spots an opportunity for them to get-rich-quickly. The mark is Guru Bob (Rupert Friend), a former TV presenter who has reinvented himself.
But he leads a double life selling art with a questionable history. And there is also the case of his missing wife, which also carries a huge finder’s fee.
While trying to cash in on the reward money for both, Peggy finds herself confronted by a father-daughter hit-man team.
But despite the threat, and her ex coming back into her life, she still helps those around her with their crisis, too.
Peggy’s life is far from perfect. But she has a big heart and is loyal and dependable. These qualities make her endearing.
“High Desert” isn’t going to blow you away as a must-watch series. No, not at all. But Arquette is so damn compelling with her paranoia, idiosyncrasies and plain old charisma that you can’t look away.
Also, it requires plenty of chutzpah to pull off a role like this, and Arquette has it in abundance.
The comedy and drama is underpinned by plenty of silliness and sass. Arquette’s character is a testament to that well-worn cliché: “When life throws you lemons, make lemonade.”
∎ High Desert is streaming on Apple TV+