Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Though the network’s most buzzed about fall shows — Westworld, Insecure, and Divorce — are still on the horizon, there’s one big and less-than-legal reason why you should check out HBO this weekend. Tonight marks the premiere of the made-for-TV season of High Maintenance, and it is dope you guys.
Created by Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, High Maintenance started out as a web series with a beautifully simple premise that quickly went viral. The series followed a single pot dealer, The Guy (Sinclair), as he delivered weed to his many clients. However, the series’ focus was never on The Guy but on his varied and always interesting customers. Each few-minute episode served as a window, giving the viewer a glimpse into the lives of various New Yorkers. You never knew who you were going to watch on High Maintenance, but you always knew you were going to be entertained. One episode you could be watching a highly sympathetic cross-dressing screenwriter, the next you could be laughing at the worst fashion world assholes who have ever existed. Part of the fun of the series was its unexpectedness and willingness to showcase different characters. High Maintenance was a highly stylized and refreshing break from the often white, straight, and predictable world of traditional television. So how has it transitioned to traditional TV?
Part of what made High Maintenance feel so refreshing was its format, so it makes sense that fans of the web series would be skeptical of HBO’s new season, which uses traditional 30 minute episodes. However, there’s no reason to be worried. If anything, the newest reincarnation of The Guy’s adventures works better than ever before. Instead of using the longer time limits to expand character vignettes, each episode contains a multitude of stories. Watching a series formatted this way feels like watching three or four completely different shows. It’s only when Blichfeld and Sinclair decide to pull back the camera that you finally realize all of these stories are actually connected. In this way, HBO’s new season of High Maintenance better captures the contradicting sensation of isolation and hyper-connectivity that defines living in New York.
Through all of this, High Maintenance is still laugh out loud funny. The series smartly and maturely delivers its own brand of subversive comedy, often playing with gender and societal expectations. The series is packed with familiar faces as well. The creative duo has done an excellent job exploring the lives of the shows more popular characters while expanding High Maintenance‘s ever-increasingly universe. You can expect appearances from Yael Stone, Max Jenkins, Helene Yorke, Great Lee, and many others. Blichfeld and Sinclair have given us something really special this fall — a genuinely funny comedy that’s not afraid to break television expectations, whether those expectations have to do with story length, character development, or whether or not to anchor an entire episode to a dog’s emotions. Whoever said that smoking pot makes you stupid needs to watch this gem and reanalyze life a bit.
The new season of High Maintenance premieres on HBO this Friday, September 16, at 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT.
