Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Jay Roach, Apple TV+’s comedy-drama, ‘High Desert’ stars Patricia Arquette as Peggy Newman, a rookie private investigator who gets involved in a dangerous case while trying to better her financial situation. It begins in the aftermath of the death of Peggy’s mother, whom she loved most. Working at Pioneertown, she barely makes enough to get by and is advised by her siblings to take a more serious job. This is when she joins Bruce Harvey’s detective agency. Peggy brings in business with two cases, both involving the same person.
She looks into the art collection of the shady Guru Bob, who was a news anchorman before becoming a cult leader. Peggy is also interested in getting the award money that’ll be bestowed on whoever finds out what happened to Bob’s wife. The search for answers while coping with her grief leads Peggy down a dangerous and unexpected path. If you loved the first season and want to know if there’ll be a follow-up, here’s what you should know.
Will High Desert Season 2 Happen?
‘High Desert’ Season 1 premiered on Apple TV+ on May 17, 2023, with the first three episodes released on the same day. The rest of the episodes were released weekly, and the finale aired on June 21, 2023. All the episodes are around 30-40 minutes. The show has been received well critically, with the praise directed towards Patricia Arquette’s performance. As of now, Apple TV+ has made no official announcement regarding the second season.
Considering the cliffhanger ending the show leaves us with, it looks like its creators had a second season in mind. The case of the paintings and Donatella Scarborough’s disappearance is cleared up in the finale. This means the show will focus on a new case if it receives a second season. But before that, it’ll have to confirm whether Peggy survives at the end of Season 1.
The last we saw of her, Peggy agreed to be a human cannonball at the Pioneertown show. We hear the cannon’s blast, but nothing else confirms what happened to Peggy. Since Peggy is the show’s heart, soul, and protagonist, there will be no ‘High Desert’ Season 2 without her. This means that she has to have survived the cannonball incident. What remains to be seen is how the writers tackle the issue. At the beginning of the second season, we might find her recuperating in the hospital. Or, in a better situation, the cannon doesn’t work, and she is not blasted off with it.
Because all loose ends of the first case are tied up in the first season, the next case might not involve Guru Bob, which means Rupert Friend might not return for the second season. However, we expect characters like Denny, Carol, Dianne, and Bruce, who are essential to Peggy’s story, to show up for the second run. The new season will also bring a set of new characters and actors. We also expect to see Julia Rickert’s Heather again. In the last episode, her father, Arman, dies, which turns her into a frenzied person looking for revenge against Peggy.
Apart from the case, the show also has a lot left to explore in Peggy’s personal life and that of the people around her. The finale gives us a peek into Carol’s past life, which was all but untouched this season. Similarly, Denny’s past and Peggy’s relationship with Ethan and her father also need to be elaborated upon. All of this proves that there’s a lot of potential for ‘High Desert’ Season 2. If the show receives a good response from the audience, which we expect is quite likely, we believe the show will get a second season, which will release sometime in early 2025.
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