The indie web series High Maintenance is like a perfect collection of short stories.
Written and produced by the real-life married couple Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair (with 30 Rock backgrounds in casting and acting, respectively), the Vimeo Original series is released in installments of three and trickle in every few months. Last year, the first highly-acclaimed 13 episodes were streamed gratis via the video-sharing site. Emily Nussbaum, the television critic of The New Yorker summed it up best by writing, "Finally, finally, finally."
Why do people love it so much? It's funny, sarcastic, and empathetic. Each vignette is between six to 15 minutes long, and follows "The Guy," a harried Brooklyn weed dealer (played by Sinclair) who shuttles pot to different clients, a hodgepodge of Brooklynites and New Yorkers. The length of entertainment is impeccably timed and leaves the viewer wanting more. And in a moment of short attention spans for culture, this desire feels magic and new. In this way, it works like a procedural show—but with the slow-burn sense of humor of something like Louie.
"The Guy" is a constant, but everything else shifts around him. Sometimes, his encounters with these joint-smoking characters exist as a way to rib ridiculous people. Our all-time favorite is "Olivia," a glorious poke at dour, judgement club kids (a.k.a. the "Assholes" episode).
The people have spoken, and today, High Maintenance released its first batch from Season 2 through Vimeo On Demand, marking the website's first foray into paid, Netflix-style programming. At the premiere, held at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn last week, Sinclair alluded to the show's popularity as a concerted joy in "communal complaining." He and Blichfeld confirm that the episodes give them a chance to work through the common New York plight with delighted cynicism. The premise of this roving dealer is very premise-y, but there is something substantive behind it: we can quickly be immersed into characters' lives, enter their homes, and their places of work. We see their times of need, desperation, enjoyment, and socializing. While Sinclair’s character is an excuse to glimpse into people’s lives, he’s not just a straight man. He’s our vehicle; a lonely traveler we know all too well. He’s tired-looking, but willing to be delighted. His solo biking is broken with short moments of intimacy, of collisions with people, and then he returns to the street.
High Maintenance’s latest episodes are darker than the previous. We meet an optimistic public school teacher who finds himself ineffective and emotionally unmoored, an older couple attempting to date, and a man obsessed with an impending apocalypse. But to be clear—the show is so, so, so<
Written and produced by the real-life married couple Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair (with 30 Rock backgrounds in casting and acting, respectively), the Vimeo Original series is released in installments of three and trickle in every few months. Last year, the first highly-acclaimed 13 episodes were streamed gratis via the video-sharing site. Emily Nussbaum, the television critic of The New Yorker summed it up best by writing, "Finally, finally, finally."
Why do people love it so much? It's funny, sarcastic, and empathetic. Each vignette is between six to 15 minutes long, and follows "The Guy," a harried Brooklyn weed dealer (played by Sinclair) who shuttles pot to different clients, a hodgepodge of Brooklynites and New Yorkers. The length of entertainment is impeccably timed and leaves the viewer wanting more. And in a moment of short attention spans for culture, this desire feels magic and new. In this way, it works like a procedural show—but with the slow-burn sense of humor of something like Louie.
"The Guy" is a constant, but everything else shifts around him. Sometimes, his encounters with these joint-smoking characters exist as a way to rib ridiculous people. Our all-time favorite is "Olivia," a glorious poke at dour, judgement club kids (a.k.a. the "Assholes" episode).
The people have spoken, and today, High Maintenance released its first batch from Season 2 through Vimeo On Demand, marking the website's first foray into paid, Netflix-style programming. At the premiere, held at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn last week, Sinclair alluded to the show's popularity as a concerted joy in "communal complaining." He and Blichfeld confirm that the episodes give them a chance to work through the common New York plight with delighted cynicism. The premise of this roving dealer is very premise-y, but there is something substantive behind it: we can quickly be immersed into characters' lives, enter their homes, and their places of work. We see their times of need, desperation, enjoyment, and socializing. While Sinclair’s character is an excuse to glimpse into people’s lives, he’s not just a straight man. He’s our vehicle; a lonely traveler we know all too well. He’s tired-looking, but willing to be delighted. His solo biking is broken with short moments of intimacy, of collisions with people, and then he returns to the street.
High Maintenance’s latest episodes are darker than the previous. We meet an optimistic public school teacher who finds himself ineffective and emotionally unmoored, an older couple attempting to date, and a man obsessed with an impending apocalypse. But to be clear—the show is so, so, so<