High Desert

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.

First off - how nice to see a real sized woman carrying a series. Arquette is nothing short of brilliant AND beyond funny. Her comic timing is impeccable.

Add a dash of Bernadette Peters - the one with the straight hair, so you might not recognize her until she speaks - along with Brad Garrett, add a host of incredible actors and you are in for a treat.

This is a fast paced, smart show. I found myself rewinding several times just to make sure I didn't miss anything - and I usually did.

The setting is another character in itself, for those of us who are not desert people and only know it from Breaking Bad.

This is a great way to escape our follies and join Patricia Arquette in hers. It's so nice to know someone has it worse off than we do.

When I first heard about this show I was excited, it had a good premise and cast. So what went wrong? Ultimately, I think the problem is Jay Roach. Who I often like, don't get me wrong, but his direction is too silly. I'd have rather watched this premise taken seriously, at least to SOME extent, but it's just an outright farce. (e.g. I'm currently watching a man dance to Brittney Spears while his accomplice, a heavyset woman, beats up a cop off camera.) I was rooting for Patricia Arquette, Matt Dillon, Brad Garrett, and Bernadette Peters, I really wanted to like it, but it's just not very good. I'll keep watching, maybe it'll surprise me, but I doubt 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.

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.