Patricia Arquette and Matt Dillon on What Excited Them About ‘High Desert’

Patricia Arquette and Matt Dillon star as Peggy and Denny in High Desert. Additionally, Arquette is an executive producer for the series, which will premiere on Apple TV+ with the first three episodes on Wednesday, May 17.

“High Desert” follows Peggy (Patricia Arquette), an on-again-off-again addict who decides to make a new start after the death of her beloved mother, with whom she lived in the small desert town of Yucca Valley, California, and makes a life-changing decision to become a private investigator.

“I just think it’s a very funny show. It’s a counterculture comedy and I think we all need to laugh right now. I think we’ll recognize different people, oddballs in your own family, and little sprinklings throughout this,” Arquette told me. “There’s just a lot of love in this show and a lot of twists and turns because all these people are wackadoo and the choices that they make are bonkers, and that kind of informs where the plot ends up going.”

“I mean, the backstories are so vivid of these characters and so rich, and they really spend a lot of time on that because these characters are based on real people. I think that the characters are a little more complex and so, I think there’s a lot of surprises that come with these people and because of the contradictory nature of who they are, you know? I think there’s a lot of humor in that because I’m always amused — I always laugh when I see people that are constitutionally incapable of being honest as is Denny and is Peggy, let’s be honest here,” Dillon expressed. “They’re flawed people and nobody can live their life perfectly. They just happen to live their life a little less perfectly than others, which is kind of fun and kind of real, and I think the humor is grounded in reality and that’s the kind of humor that I like.”