High Maintenance - Very good web-series. Discuss.

Co-created by the casting director of 30 Rock. Hannibal Burress appears. Have not seen anything nail Williamsburg circa now quite so well.

http://www.helpingyoumaintain.com/episodes

this is fantastic indeed and like you say its spot-on in its depiction of williamsburg and it does it evokes a contemporary time and place much better than portlandia.

some of these are really good! but i'm just so sick of brooklyn porn, there are enough attempts at "nailing" it that i don't really care which ones have the most success

I like this web series but haven't dipped back in since the first time I found it.

i love this series so much

the newest one is really crazy and awesome, kind of a bummer that dealer guy is barely in it but its also kind of cool to see how it can work without him:

http://vimeo.com/79948720

yeah another great episode. hopefully more to follow soon.

Damn this show is good. Once again they nailed the BK life-hacker Crossfit dude. I know cause I was that guy. I read Timothy Ferris and did squats in restaurant bathrooms, listened to Bashar and preached the laws of existence, experimented with polyphasic sleep, ate once daily giant grass-fed steaks. That was a couple years ago and thankfully I'm way more relaxed about all that stuff now.

you couldnt get past the crystal insertion either huh

I drew the line with crystals. I did though creep out a girl (in bed even) when I told her I wanted to swim with dolphins. She was convinced that dolphins are all crazy rapists and could ejaculate 50 feet.

woah i just googled "bashar"

i knew it was over when we were at teagan's sacred geometry workshop in sedona

I drew the line with crystals. I did though creep out a girl (in bed even) when I told her I wanted to swim with dolphins. She was convinced that dolphins are all crazy rapists and could ejaculate 50 feet.

― but, hurt. (Self-Taught Dougie), Friday, December 6, 2013 4:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Maybe she's the one behind the DOLPHINS RAPE PEOPLE stickers plastered all over MHT

"Helen" was some shit, man. Like "Louie" level of bleakness

haha yes it was. I just watched the first six or seven of these yesterday. good show

Many lols at the punchline to "Elijah"

I watched the whole thing the other day. Didn't take long! Hopefully there will be more.

should we do a "actually good web series 2014" thread?

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Wednesday, January 8, 2014 9:13 AM (1 hour ago)

"be the change you want to see in the world"

- john fogerty

"sorry man, here, have an edible. it's on me. better hide it though, homegirl will snatch a pastry."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8d3LOpOQX0

new one is up

http://vimeo.com/85795925

I watched first 6+ of these and I just can't even though someone I know is in some of them.

At first I was excited that people are into that thing she does! Cool for her! Then I was like, these people are why I pass on invitations to go out to half the things and I haven't laughed in 3 episodes and now I'm starting to get mad at everyone.

theyre not all supposed to be funny though...?

i mean i guess they are, but they each have a very different tone, which is a strength imo

i liked the three i saw
what's not to like?

Well, for me, the answer is "All of the people" but I'm a little unsophisticated like that.

i still dgi but ok!

They're all terrible? Like normal-terrible, for the most part, I guess--too real, maybe? If I wanted to be reminded that people that dumb and terrible exist I wouldn't have made so many life choices that avoid them. I get that the "types" are being sketched in gentle or not so gentle mockery or even recognition, but the characters make me angry and I want to yell at them and then leave the party and go home.

a sign of great art imo

how i feel about lena dunham always xp

xp Probably! I hope it's a success, the writers and actors seem great.

xp to Mordy: Yeah I don't watch that show either.

i thought the one about the craigslist homeless girl was pretty funny and the one with the neurotic assistant who winds up in the bathroom talking to the dealer guy, can't remember the other one i watched.
i dunno, these are not people i encounter ever irl and i didn't really feel hostility toward them as characters, but i was only with them for like 10 min or something!

i just thought it was weird you hated them so much because i never watch internet comedy videos but i found these pleasing for a passing larf.

lol oh these are basically real people, you can overhear them having these exact conversations in most coffee shops, bars, subways, street corners, public spaces...

io the one i just posted has intersectional feminism content

oh all right I'll listen to it while I make lunch.

good idea too look @ it too

LL the craigslist homeless one is based on a real person official noise board thread for korean abdul-jabbar, the vice magazine mormon grifter

lol oh these are basically real people, you can overhear them having these exact conversations in most coffee shops, bars, subways, street corners, public spaces...

'most' is maybe not the right word here, but, yeah

i love this as like, social anthropology, but i can see just being wearied by it

See, now "Matilda" was genuinely warm and loving, and I enjoyed it a lot! Molly critiquing Iron John was the extra sprinkles on top.

Anyone know the music track at the start of cycle three, one about the comedian going on tour?

gil scot heron - new york is killing me

o hfound it, gil scott heron xp

Just watched all of this in one go. Amazing.

So many shows try to do this but end up being maudlin or nasty

new ep on wednesday!

teaser: http://vimeo.com/89470509

http://25.media.tumblr.com/a89b8b559bacd2bcfbc7ee5fac07937b/tumblr_mgbjnpJEld1qiqwbao4_1280.png

ben sinclair is a sleepy, sexy satyr. i love him.

so good:

http://vimeo.com/channels/highmaintenance/90011431

I think I finally 'get' New York now

wkiw his character, he always seems so chill
really loving this thing, can't remember who brought it up in another thread but thx

after the new ep went up last week i noticed that episode 2 (aka "heidi", aka Hipster Grifter episode) was taken offline for a few days

its back up now, and it must have been down because of a copyright dispute because unfortunately the Arthur Russell song has been replaced with something that doesn't work nearly as well :-(

i think the music in "Olivia" (ep5) had its music changed too but i cant recall what it was previously

awesome news:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/vimeo-finances-web-series-high-707756

Good for the show, but doesn't Vimeo on Demand mean that you have to pay to watch it?

hm i didnt notice that

i wouldnt mind paying a few bucks to see new HM eps though, but it might make it harder to turn new people on to it

Stoked for the reefer madness

new cast/cameo predictions:

• christopher meloni
• amy schumer
• mike bribiglia
• patrick stewart
• scott bakula
• kumail nanjiani
• james franco

this show is great! thanks gr80

seriously this is really good! almost through the whole series. thought they were all going to be comedy but many of them aren't

kind of relieved i don't know anybody like that polyphasic sleeper dude, dude was fucked

gotta say though that the naming convention is kind of annoying, makes it hard to keep track of which episode is which

"qasim" is def the least comedy but its still comedy imo

also my fave ep, except for maybe "rachel"

the ep w/ connan mockasin tunes may be my favorite so far

also i'm pretty impressed w/ how effective the show is w/ a such a short format, so much visual information is packed in the first couple minutes of every episode

I am sad that my favorite episode has a really gross joke abt child molestation

the one w/ the assholes? yea they should've figured something else out

it's the one I always want to show people but never do bcz SPOILER ALERT a lot of ppl have been molested as children that shit's not fucking funny

did that one use to have a grimes song that's since been replaced?

is there a thread for solid web series? The Restaurant on youtube is good

should we do a "actually good web series 2014" thread?

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Wednesday, January 8, 2014 9:13 AM (1 hour ago)

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Wednesday, January 8, 2014 10:28 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

start it! i'd be down but i don't know of any other good web series

i'll wait for 2015

I am sad that my favorite episode has a really gross joke abt child molestation

― aaliyah papi (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, June 10, 2014 5:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the one w/ the assholes? yea they should've figured something else out

― marcos, Tuesday, June 10, 2014 5:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's the one I always want to show people but never do bcz SPOILER ALERT a lot of ppl have been molested as children that shit's not fucking funny

― aaliyah papi (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, June 10, 2014 6:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm! that's my favorite one too and that joke was so weirdly mean-spirited and made it one of those things that i really enjoy but don't really recommend to that many people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgcaIB-PHk

was hoping this was bumped for a new ep

me too

also weird to see ben sinclair w/o a plaid shirt and deep-neck T

his mannerisms - esp his eyes - remind me a bit of peter krause

totally late to this show; the helen episode kinda broke my heart

yea :(

also the casting for this show is incredible, huh? kind of feel like i know all of these characters just by watching them in these short episodes. that annoying fro-haired dude in "dinah" especially.

binge watching all of them today. The Hannibal episode!
kinda bummed that I got turned onto this by Nussbaum in the NYorker; I am officially past my sell by date

Qasim!

all done. amazed at how empathic, honest and kind these are; the bar keeps getting raised.
kinda wish i had been a bit more patient... i want eight more of these like NOW

i know, i blew through them in like 2 days.

ben sinclair gives so much grounding to the show, too, his dealer character is so compassionate to all the characters (when they deserve it at least) and lets their weirdness blossom

it's sex positive without assuming that people who fuck a lot are somehow more free

"so is this like some pick-up artist shit?"
"oh no i don't do that i'm a proud asexual"

what episode do yall use to get people into this show? the assholes one is good but as mentioned upthread the molestation joke is an off-note... maybe "heidi" but the hipster grifter thing is maybe too ripped from the headlines... "rachel" is the best all-around imo but it's a little long.

i usually tell ppl to go stevie -> heidi -> olivia -> rachael -> qasim

start from the beginning to see how it evolves

matilda is a top 5 for me

agree with starting from the beginning but alternately I'm feeling:

trixie -> brad pitts -> helen -> jonathan -> matilda -> dinah -> elijah -> quasim -> rachel

I like how it goes from being light hearted and funny to like really earnest and tragic at times

otm, if you start at the beginning then helen and jonathan hit you pretty hard b/c you are not expecting them

kinda bummed that vimeo ppv is their big break, was hoping they'd get a comedy central or HBO deal

they were in discussions with FX but I guess it didn't work out

does anyone have hard info on how "premium" vimeo works? because i love this show but wtf i am not paying for a new subscription solely to see this unless it is hella minimal.

ok, i think yall are right, just rewatched "stevie" and it's a really deft introduction to his character.

its also short & sweet and leaves you wanting more

kinda bummed that vimeo ppv is their big break, was hoping they'd get a comedy central or HBO deal

― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Wednesday, June 25, 2014 3:01 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea totally

havent watched all yet but think i lol'd the hardest @ "ok fuck it dude i'll stay" in dinah

lol yea his character is so real & gregarious, like a focus-grouped wkiw

otm

the casting, performances, & timing are all so top notch, its kindof mindblowing

end of the Passover ep is also hilarious

i love that magician dude, pops up in 'dinah' too

i'm like four episodes in, this is one of the best things i've ever fucking seen - the "Assholes" one should be expanded somehow.

the molestation zing didn't bother me in the slightest, mostly because those characters were such awful people.

http://www.helpingyoumaintain.com/post/91043559200/mick-watson-of-smart-giant-started-making-these

http://i.imgur.com/oG6MP38.png

http://i.imgur.com/cC6bFyL.png

stevie is a much more accomplished chalk doodler than that poster suggests

u mean Quinn

maybe I do! the cut to the apple bong and the chalk doodling was the first heads-up that this show was going to keep it posi

otm

fyi the near-euphoric use in of fleetwod mac's "gypsy" over the closing credits/slow-mo shot of sinclair on the bike has been replaced by a diff song :-(

it almost sounds like its still playing muffled in the background of the bathroom scene but i cant be sure

by my watch that's:

• fleetwood mac ("stevie")
• arthur russell ("heidi")
• grimes ("olivia")(dont trust my memory 100% on this one)

lol i wonder if there are torrents somewhere of the originals

the songs shouldn't even have to be good (well, "gyspy" is impossible to top) but they should have been a better tonal match at least...the 'heidi' one changes the entire story

the one with the jewish holiday is just...wow

the guy who talks about his failed acting audition is do good

so* good

"that happens to everyone, right?"

"no."

otm! that dude is hilarious, it's like a 20-second bit but i just love him

i saw the guy who plays shut-in at PS1 this weekend

i also love the red-head street musician that pops up now and then

"give me, like, 15..........no, like, 45 minutes"

lol yes, love how in to it he is

it's the look on his face as he takes a bite of his sandwich that makes it for me

GHENGIS

http://instagram.com/p/qt1bfVEh4j/?modal=true

yes! can't wait

matilda wasn't my favorite when i first saw it but i watched it again and it's really really good

"give me, like, 15..........no, like, 45 minutes"

― marcos, Thursday, July 17, 2014 10:09 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yes, love how in to it he is

― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Thursday, July 17, 2014 10:34 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's the look on his face as he takes a bite of his sandwich that makes it for me

― adam, Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:33 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
^^^
THIS

saw this on my (early, sick) ride home today

http://instagram.com/p/quhkTFR5Jc/

Had no idea the series existed until reading this thread. Not catching the intermediate-level Brooklyn references, but dialog, acting, technicals are all great. More of this please.

http://i57.tinypic.com/jt9j41.jpg

-IT'S 420 WEIRD-VOICE DUDE!!!

-hey who the fuck is that? you think i don't know that dipshit?

hey man can i get a cigarette and a light for a dollar? oh i don't have a dollar

http://www.vice.com/read/the-creators-of-high-maintenance-are-high-and-eating-all-the-snacks-in-vimeos-office

Vimeo is giving us funding for at least the next six episodes, and the only condition, really, is that we need to produce them and release them by the end of the year.

rad!

def confirms a paywall sitch though

NOVEMBER ELEVENTH!!!

http://www.thevideoink.com/news/vimeo-sets-premiere-date-first-funded-series-high-maintenance/#.VCMer5RdWSq

i'm srsly considering hosting a high maintenance party, starting out with the original 13 for n00bs then going straight in to the new 6

that's a pretty good idea

where do you live again?

http://vimeo.com/channels/highmaintenance

new eps 11/11 bros

From Emmy-winning casting director Katja Blichfeld (30 Rock) and actor/editor Ben Sinclair (Delocated, 30 Rock, Law and Order) comes High Maintenance. The series centers around a cannabis dealer known simply as "The Guy" (Sinclair) who slips in and out of the lives of his clients – an eclectic array of New Yorkers with neuroses as diverse as the city they live in.
As the first-ever Vimeo Original, the already critically acclaimed web series is producing six all-new episodes to help you maintain. Order now, and watch the first three starting 11/11.

oh hah didnt see it upthread

would attend hi maintenance party yes ^____^

$7.99 for all 6 for 12 months, not bad.

Curious to see how it works out for them/Vimeo.

So totally worth it and more! Going to preorder.

"Matilda" and "Rachel" apparently came out after I watched them all (up to "Qasim") and I never saw it!

"Rachel" is SO GOOD and touching and sweet and unexpected!!! I am v, v impressed that someone had the idea to take the episode in the direction that it went.

are these ten minute episodes? or half hour? because if it's the latter that seems fair but paying eight bucks to rent an hour long movie in 2014 seems wrong, regardless of how much i like this show.

yeah Rachel is incred.

fyi the mom is played by Katja Blichfeild (in case you didn't catch that.)

also rachel comey plays herself

xp

rachel is the best episode

They're still 10-15 minutes apparently

1st 3 are up

from the title fade-in of geiger to 6min mark is prob better than this entire new michael mann hacker movie

oh its getting weird

its ALL getting dam

omg @ ruth

need to see this! and yea rachel is probably the best episode. was the first one i saw too.

need to see this!

meaning the new ones, i have watched the first 13 like 3 or 4 times each

but you know what i really need to do......is watch all these over again......WHILE HIGH!!!!

http://grantland.com/features/high-maintenance-vimeo-katja-blichfeld-ben-sinclair/

under my balls at the base of the shaft

lotta good press in the last week.

i really like this quote from NPR's writeup:

Sinclair says he can tell the buzz around the series is building. "When I walk around on the streets now, some people who are doing my character's job will come up to me and be like —" Sinclair lowers his voice to a whisper — " 'I'm doing it right now.' "

tbh hes so distinct cant believe ive never run into him

cant believe they killed off ruth

and just to make that scuba diving joke lmao

my wife saw him on knickerbocker avenue in bushwick last week, was the only time i've ever seen her starstruck aside from alison janney

i saw the guy who plays shut-in at PS1 this weekend

― caek, Wednesday, July 16, 2014 7:05 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

slept-on post

i don't mind that they killed off ruth, she was a little annoying tbqf

glad i sprung for this though, these are good and the creators seem like good folks

shit geiger was a little intense

ASMR ref was hilarious

glad to see the reappearance of that uberman guy from qasim, lol

geiger and genghis both kinda left me a little unsatisfied tbh

ruth was A+ though, that synth rendition of claire de lune was so fucking perfect, it made me tear up (nb: for a second i thought it was tomita's)

agreed re: both geiger and genghis. also naive white dude teaching in tough urban school is a genre that i don't need much more of. feel like a few lines seemed pulled directly from s4 of the wire

ruth was great though

the throwback closing credits for genghis were both eye-rollingly cheesy and deeply satisfying imo

ugh should i pay $8 for this idk if i want to but i want to see them

up to you, homie

fyi vimeo seems to be having a hard time getting their shit together, but from what i can gather (mostly from sinclair furiously posting in the vimeo comments section and on twitter), the next three episodes wont be out till january or february, also the "one year rental" is actually a "lifetime rental"

stevie to be totally honest when i wrote this:

glad i sprung for this though, these are good and the creators seem like good folks

― marcos, Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:12 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it was after watching ruth which was really good but i didn't really feel like any of them had the repeat-watching value that the others did.

maybe i feel differently about them now that i paid for them? like i expected them to be better? when i never heard of the show until gr8080 told me about them i had 13 free episodes to watch all at once, it didn't matter that some of them didn't live up to the others. e.g. in retrospect i think the hannibal burress one was one of the worst but i knew i had a bunch more to watch so it lessened the blow of a bad episode

also i think my favorite eps have a lot of ben sinclair in them, he is super likeable and it's fun to see him interact with the other characters

i'm choosing to look at my $8 as a kickstarter/NPR fund-drive type of thing instead of an itues/amazon type of transaction

wise

i guess. given the modern media landscape it's a really bad value proposition for everybody concerned.

agreed, very interested in seeing how it plays out

I mean i'ts $8 for what, 30 or 40 minutes of footage? Obv that is a gross overreduction of the time and effort and etc and all of that but still, that's what the actual exchange is.

wait the $8 is for all 6 right? b/c the first 3 total almost 50 minutes together

$8 for all 6 yes

okay so it's more like $8 for 90 minutes of footage

wonder if they are just gonna make them free after a year or something

Hm maybe I don't understand Internet media economics (probably true) but I paid $4 for a latte today and it gave me less pleasure than one ep of this show, so my own personal math (dubious but it's mine) says $8 is a steal

hey that's a great point

there is full frontal male nudity in one of the three new ones

I've just watched the first 13 episodes (all except the three new ones), and man, this show is great. First two "seasons" were amusing and well-observed, but there's an incredible poignancy to some of the later episodes that takes the show to another level. "Rachel" kind of destroyed me.

genghis is a great ep btw, you guys are crazy

it may play of a cliche subject but it does it in a totally fresh & very real way

i would rank

genghis > ruth > geiger

i thought geiger was kind of funny but im not sure the end delivered on the build-up

ruth > ghengis > geiger for me. Geiger wasn't just heavy, it was a bit wooden too.

feel like a major strength of this show is its very real and human characters and the main dude in geiger was definitely very wooden. was more of a bland caricature than anybody else on this show so far

also d-40 what was fresh about the way genghis dealt with the school setting? i mean "take out your pencils" "i don't have a pencil" or "i need to go to the bathroom" "you just went to the bathroom" or "are you gay or something" or "okay latisha" "WHAT my name is KEISHA" are literally lines that are said in all these fucking tough classroom scenes!

Those are things that happen in every high school classroom

The main difference is I've never seen someone claim to be a proud asexual in that context and then fail to bond with the students

The end of it is completely different

god the people in "dinah" are so chicago. i feel like i worked with the annoying poofy haired dude at a call center.

i felt sort of convicted by that dude at a few points :-/

Lmao

oh yea the dinah episode struck me as very very really, i know all those folks

and just the way the polyamorous girl said "that's TOTALLY valid" in response to a question about polyamory was just really perfect

finishing up watching all of them, plus watching the new ones

didn't realize how many episodes asexual dude is in!

sorry, I mean the asexual magician

mh what did you think about the new ones

Geiger reminded me of the Qasim one, only instead of it having a goofy reveal about one man's bizarre mission to organize his life it was just depressing. I was seriously getting anxious watching it, not because I'm afraid I'm not prepped for a doomsday, but because dude just seemed really consumed.

asexual magician seems like a cool guy, but the episode just made me feel for all my friends in teaching. I think his appearance on the seder episode is still my fave

Ruth is awesome and The Guy as matchmaker was kind of a stretch but seeing two really likeable characters find some measure of happiness made my day brighter.

i frequently ask myself the question "how much would i pay for a really sweet dreamcatcher?"

from the title fade-in of geiger to 6min mark is prob better than this entire new michael mann hacker movie

― johnny crunch, Tuesday, November 11, 2014 12:45 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was so prescient

new episodes go up at midnight EST/9pm PST tonight

alright, i splurged.

pricing model still ridiculous but two episodes in and it's SO GOOD.
love the s1 character callbacks

need to see the new ones today!

i agree that vimeo's experient might not be the best but if you think of $8 as entry fee to all 19 episodes its a bargain at $0.42 per episode

i fell asleep before 11pm last nite-- def watching the new ones tonite

same

tracee chimo is A+ in ESME

yea shes a lil too real

(im watching these during lunch, couldn't wait)

okay, just finished the second season. will rewatch over the next day or two with my gal. This is aces stuff.

Sufjan, Esme and Sabrina - back to previous heights.

Ruth, Geiger, Genghis had me worried (especially Genghis).

sabrina was pretty great, even if the way it bucked the established format sorta rubbed me the wrong way, (not to mention giving me a near panic attack)

sufjan was a good setup but kinda took too long to deliver (heh no pun intended) dude's shirt game has me jealous.

esme was fantastic

dude i've been waiting fifteen fucking years for a ferret ok i don't care what the fuck you think

can't really tell if kabir's doing ok or not. :-/

Ruth >> Sabrina > Esme >> Sufjan >>>> Genghis >>>>>> Geiger

Where is Esme working at the beginning of that episode? Is it supposed to be a hostess bar or similar?

Also:

didn't really expect this show to have me thinkin bout gender issues

that's "the asshole" running the weedspot, isn't it?

Where is Esme working at the beginning of that episode? Is it supposed to be a hostess bar or similar?

it's the headquarters for the all-female weed delivery service she works for

that's "the asshole" running the weedspot, isn't it?

don't think so

Ah...Thx.

i hope we catch a glimpse of Orly life-coaching in a future episode

haha these were great

chad is such a great fuckin character, too real, all these people are too real

esme was good but orly was a little over the top imo though

Sufjan, Esme and Sabrina - back to previous heights.

Ruth, Geiger, Genghis had me worried (especially Genghis).

― the gabhal cabal (Bob Six), Thursday, February 5, 2015 5:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea otm, ruth was pretty good but yea the first three of s2 had me a little worried too. geiger was really bad

i didn't think geiger was bad, but it was in the same style as qasim, which is an outlier from the general tone that isn't as enjoyable to me

yeah but where Qasim slowly spun a beautifully complex riddle, holding out on the (hilarious and horrifying) answer until the bitter end, Geiger just kind of plopped down a hacky premise at the top and kicked it around until it abruptly ran out of steam

nb i watched Geiger again and i like it now, its just def in my lower-tier HM episodes

wkiw shroom dealer that's friends with the weed dealer guy

one for fun two for woo

mushroom dealer's australian accent was confusing because it was somehow similar to her long island accent in orange is the new black.

man i want some shrooms, that would be a good time. probably been 15 years since i last did shrooms

three for wheeeeeeee

i love how the first time* the show ventures in to actual drug humor its shrooms and not weed

*maybe with a few exceptions now that i think about it, ruth's freakout in bradd pitts

somebody forgot the magical box

ruth's freakout in bradd pitts

somebody forgot the magical box

ruth's freakout in bradd pitts

somebody forgot the magical box

forks are you high

Just started watching this. Not a smoker, never been a smoker, but this works brilliantly as both parody and propaganda, so thumbs up.

loved these

lake house episode a little too close to comfort for me i think

the extended universe they're creating is so great

Haven't watched the second season yet but wanted to pop in and say me and stevie D got high and watched all of season 1 in one go =0

Ditmas park episode was waaaaaaaay too close to home. Literally, badumdum

lake house episode a little too close to comfort for me i think

co-sign

not totally surprised that most of chad's friends are just as obnoxious as he is

kabir seems all right though

also lol does anyone smoke as much weed in the whole series as the couple in sufjan? they are doing bong rips and passing joints nonstop

basically two of the most comfortable people who have ever existed

lol yes

lol i am just now recalling that when i was telling friends abt a portugal trip i was planing last year, one gave me the contact info for her friend's intentional community and said i should pay them a visit.

stevie d how come you never get ME high

positive vibes!

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/highmaintenance/117634114

i've recommended this series to about 10 diff buddies irl now and i don't think a single one has gone to watch them, wtf is wrong w/ ppl

$8

Correct way to do it is smoke em up and binge

tru

Moving to HBO!
http://deadline.com/2015/04/high-maintenance-series-hbo-pot-comedy-1201412884/

Thought that was esp. interesting in light of these recent remarks:

The fact is, their marriage is tied up in a risky experiment. High Maintenance is one of Vimeo's bestselling titles. But Blichfeld and Sinclair say there's a huge disparity between the number of people who paid for the new episodes and the number who have watched them for free.

"I had expectations," Sinclair admits, running his fingers through his beard. "I couldn't help but to. And I'm a little like, whaa? It does seem like the paywall is an issue."

"I mean, it doesn't 'seem,' " Blichfeld interjects. "The paywall is an issue." With Vimeo's backing, the couple can now afford to pay their cast and crew, and they don't have to work day jobs. But they're not exactly rolling in it.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2015/04/high_maintenance_creators_katja_blichfeld_and_ben_sinclair.php

can't imagine why ppl would balk at paying $8 for six short-ish episodes in the age of Spotify and Netflix and BitTorrent and all of that

Kind of wonder if content producers could effectively contextualize the entertainment value? Yeah, you pay $8/month for all the videos ever on Netflix, but High Maintenance is ~40 minutes of content (more?) for $8 - or the price of a fast food meal, two Starbucks coffees, roughly equivalent with drinks and snacks to what you'd pay to see a movie, etc..

I actually paid for the episodes but as a result, my credit card was frozen because of the 'suspicious' nature of small random payments.

xp I mean when you break it down like that, it is a v fair exchange imo -- but it's a departure from what ppl are used to paying for content these days, I think.

this is good news, a better value proposition, broader audiences and (hopefully) bigger budgets and longer eps.

idk i really, really love short episodes; i think more shows should do it, it's like these tiny little morsels

tiny morsels are nice sometimes

Tiny little nugs

yeah, i agree. i don't want a very special hour long episode of high maintenance, or one that's really expensive to shoot for some reason. i just want a solid 10-12 minute episode that's shot mainly in one room and down the street.

yeah, a few of those and I'm set

i will go on record as wanting a half hour of high maintenance; i like their longer form work.

why don't you just watch 2 or 3 episodes together and pretend that the same character is just changing names and bodies but it's rly the same person in the same episode

*updates spreadsheet*

i don't dislike the longer episodes. it's just that i think part of the charm of the episodes so far was that you were never sure if they'd be 7 minutes long or 12 or 20. They all felt like they were as long as they needed to be. obviously the details about the HBO stuff are scarce right now but it's difficult to imagine them cranking out anything but a standard-length show.

i just watch all of them in one sitting right now, that works well too

They could do two 15-minute "segments" within a single half hour, like Louie used to do.

Love American Style... on weed

http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/20/qa-with-the-creators-of-high-maintenace/

They could do two 15-minute "segments" within a single half hour, like Louie used to do.

― jaymc, Monday, April 20, 2015 3:34 PM (2 days ago)

i hope they do this and then like one or two 30min eps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAXPY2dBq9I

I think of this a lot

basically two of the most comfortable people who have ever existed

― gr8080, Saturday, February 7, 2015 12:54 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i have many more years to go (i think) before i am visibly balding like ben sinclair but i really really like that he has a very cool-looking balding style that is not the ubiquitous shaved or buzzed head that is typically prescribed to balding dudes

that ad was embarrassing btw xp

theres a dude in my area who owns/runs a tennis shop who looks a lot like Sinclair. has a similar vibe too, not quite as idyllically warm and gregarious but hes a real dude not a character so to be expected.. ive contemplated bringing it up to him a few times, but assume once the hbo show starts he'll realize or someone else will tell him, if he doesn't already know idk

that ad was embarrassing btw xp

fwiw it's a supercut of several longer ads, still pretty embarrassing but Sinclair is the best part of each

they were shooting a scene with a psychic outside my apartment very early today

i don't think either ben or katja were in the scene but they were both watching on monitors

my fiance is out of town. i have this playing in the backround and am pretending i have roomates

apparently it costs half a month's rent to see a broadway show

i'm sorry... privates?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzSgxHd0MKo

huh

All episodes have been taken down from Vimeo for the move to HBO, damn.

no wtf

wow even the ones that they charged for, that's fucked up

the ones they charged for always had a 12 month expiry date iirc

High Maintenance premieres Friday, September 16 at 11 PM, followed by other episodes subsequent Fridays at the same time, exclusively on HBO

:(

:)

All episodes have been taken down from Vimeo for the move to HBO, damn.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, July 6, 2016 11:09 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no wtf

― sexy dander (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, July 13, 2016 6:33 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow even the ones that they charged for, that's fucked up

― adam, Wednesday, July 13, 2016 7:50 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the ones they charged for always had a 12 month expiry date iirc

― Number None, Thursday, July 14, 2016 2:29 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea this sucks, the 12-month thing too was waved off iirc, ben said in some comment thread that that was just a technical thing w/ vimeo and there wasn't going to be an expiration

finally saw 2nd season on hbo

i liked how a lot of the eps dealt with white anxiety lol

wait the old web episodes are on HBO? nice.

starts tonight!

what's the format gonna be? how long are the episodes?

Weird that it's a Friday night show.

this is not terrible but its lost almost everything that made the webseries good

Sheesh, it was one episode! I thought the second segment was strong.

def had some laughs just like it shd be titled a diff show maybe idk

the diva blonde girl was p good

glad that it appears they're going with the jaymc/gr8080 plan:

They could do two 15-minute "segments" within a single half hour, like Louie used to do.
― jaymc, Monday, April 20, 2015 3:34 PM (2 days ago)

i hope they do this and then like one or two 30min eps

― gr8080, Wednesday, April 22, 2015 10:54 AM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

decent episode but i thought it was a weird choice to devote one half of the HBO premiere to an excruciatingly long single scene with a mildly rewarding punchline (considering HM's storytelling via artful editing is one of is greatest strengths) and the other half to a continuation of already-established characters from the web series, not to mention a meth freakout played for laughs in a show that is being marketed as one about weed

basically the total opposite of everything i'd go for in a premiere in front of a whole new audience & something i would think would play better as a 4th or 5th episode but i have faith that the remaining 5(?) eps will be good

best moment by far was Max's monologue in the support group

which was immediately ruined by the meth freakout

first ep appears to be free on hbo's website?

correct.

eh this was okay i guess but not that good

chad living in a theater was pretty funny

totally! but again the kind of callback that would have been more effective deeper in the season imo

yea there really wasn't any kind of "inaugural" feeling here and i guess they are just kind of viewing this as a continuation rather than some new beginning but for any new viewers i thought this was a poor introduction to what makes the show good... even sinclair's character who is the anchor of the show was just kind of vacant and missing

chad asking the guy if he meant "that's so chad" as a pejorative and the guy admitting that he did reminded me of a half baked theory ive been kicking around for a while about what if any overall statement they are trying to make with the show and what The Guy is supposed to represent, which I've been meaning to put into a post itt

its still only a half-formed idea for now tho

Twist on the first was sort of amusing, I guess?

End of the second completely undermined the excellent parts that came before it.

Both seemed to be more reliant on drama than the webisodes. but I remain hopeful.

The Guy is god imo

on the contrary, i think he is supposed to be an ubermensch

fav scene of the first ep was the ghost dancing over the credits

xp ooh I like that better

Is chad supposed to be David Eggers?

on the contrary, i think he is supposed to be an ubermensch

― gr8080, Monday, September 19, 2016 6:19 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol explain please

the sex scene was a little ... gratuitous but lol i guess this is on hbo now

i liked how all over the place this ep. seemed

the new ones were just ok. i don't like how the Guy has a bigger role now

or, in other words, sometimes his appearances in the episode felt shoehorned in. like they were contractually obligated to have 10 minutes of the Guy in each episode

lol the only reason i latched on to the ubermench idea was because of the "UberMan" theme that ran through the Qasim episode (to sublime effect). beyond an absence of divinity and a focus on worldliness, i dont think there's much nietzsche in HM/The Guy at all (fwiw i only have a rudimentary understanding of nietzsche)

anyway, my half-baked theory:

HM works because its a show about weed that avoids stoner comedy and instead finds humor in the trials of nyc/urban/modern life etc that make people want to get fucking high. making the main character someone who's services need to be rendered in the privacy of ones home is a great device to get inside the personal lives of a diverse population and explore the ways that stress plays out. one of the main statements i see HM making is that the bullshit the world throws at us is often enough to make us act and treat each other (and ourselves) terribly. The Guy serves as an ideal yet fallible example of rising above and treating your fellow man (and yourself) with kindness, compassion, and honesty.

sometimes this manifests as The Guy being a sort of off-kilter guardian angel like getting a man in diabetic shock home safe, talking with a guy who hates his job about a career change, or setting up two lonely souls on a date. sometimes its doing the right thing when no one is looking, like offering encouragement to a vulnerable and intoxicated woman where other characters may have made a pass at her. in "rachel" he's just the right person to tell a man he looks great in drag. in "Esme" there's a moment during the confrontation with Orly where the aussie woman yells something like "nobody likes you!" and The Guy gives her a chiding "HEY", coming to the defense of even his enemy in the face of unnecessary cruelty. when questioned about his own dishonesty, he doesn't hedge at all and comes clean that he only wears a wedding band so that people will feel he's trustworthy. he's not a spineless pushover either - when he's wronged or cheated, he'll stand up for himself.

all of these examples are admittedly subtle- maybe just the easygoing nature of a carefree stoner instead of any sort of grand statement. but if you stand him up next to a self-obsessed jock devoted to a intergalactic alien angel, i think there are enough hints that The Guy is meant to be our UberMan.

nice

thank you grady, v good post

I'm not sure the ubermensch necessarily would spend most of his time affecting the self-realization and self-actualization of others but I like it

mb he's more like the o.g. emersonian oversoul which nietzsche was clearly into. top post

surely occupies space between living and dead if he's fighting bike ghosts.

I thought this was great and i'm super happy to see new eps.

The pun about personality in the title is obvious isn't it? Or is that a term that's gone out of use?
Is there another pun there than personality /drugs?

Just watched 1st 4 or 5, thought they were good. Got everything up to the pay to view as well as the 1st full length. Will look forward to the rest.

Haven't been able to see the new ones on HBO, but isn't he more of a bodhisattva figure than ubermensch?

Dealer has the ability to as well as job of maintaining the high of a bunch of people who at at least one point would be called high maintenance.
Wonder if the concept came to the writer on hearing somebody described by the term?
Like, how does a high maintenance maintain their high?

their website url is (used to be?) maintaining your high dot com

http://www.helpingyoumaintain.com

oh yeah duh

are the old episodes available on hbo? i don't see them there

they appear as a separate show called "high maintenance web series"

really like the bodhisattva parallel, and as i said i only tossed off the ubermensch comparison as a response to mh's "the guy is God" post & because of the Qasim episode where the UberMan idea is introduced (as a man so lost in devotion to his body & an absurd deity that he can't relate to his fellow man)

it's an idealized humanist character with no link to divinity, but other than that i only really mean uber man in the literal sense and not a Nietzschean sense

i like the bodhisattva angle a lot

hope chauncey appears again

yeah i have a hunch the 2 method actors will be appearing on chad's stage by the end of this season

the new ones were just ok. i don't like how the Guy has a bigger role now

― 龜, Tuesday, September 20, 2016 5:21 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or, in other words, sometimes his appearances in the episode felt shoehorned in. like they were contractually obligated to have 10 minutes of the Guy in each episode

― 龜, Tuesday, September 20, 2016 5:21 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea i think something that i missed from this episode was the little snippets of other characters you would get in older episodes when the guy would visit other customers or run into friends, e.g. the gay asian guy talking about filming a protest scene, the parents w/ the young toddler kid, the hardcore stoner dudes w/ the burned hand. the guy has importance when he's w/ other people and not necessarily in/of himself imo

I saw HBO Ep1, I liked it, the assholes still make me cringe and the show feels a) terrible for beginners who don't know the web series b) not really sure of what to do with itself for a full half-hour. If they're going to do what they're doing w/ Ep1, this is not going to be a good half-hour show.

Like would it be nuts to just have each half-hour episode just be a series of shorter little vignettes that are maybe or maybe not connected?

having actual time constraints is tricky when the prior stuff just ran as long as was comfortable and now it's a matter of shoehorning in the right amount of content to fit the format

this was actually two episodes, right?

yeah it was basically two episodes w/o a title card to separate them

Like would it be nuts to just have each half-hour episode just be a series of shorter little vignettes that are maybe or maybe not connected?

― laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, September 22, 2016 11:05 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark

animaniacs did this pretty well

they appear as a separate show called "high maintenance web series"

― gr8080, Thursday, September 22, 2016 9:53 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ah ok but they don't appear to be free huh

free if you have hbo go / cable package

so no, not free.

excellent mutli-part The Room reference in the episode

in the new episode, i meant.

"you're my favorite customer", etc

free if you have hbo go / cable package

― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, September 22, 2016 12:40 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so no, not free.

― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, September 22, 2016 12:40 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh that's a bummer

Haven't been able to see the new ones on HBO, but isn't he more of a bodhisattva figure than ubermensch?

― Half-baked profundities. Self-referential smirkiness (Bob Six), Thursday, September 22, 2016 8:22 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark

more liek bodhisativa am i right

budhisativa

2nd ep worked better imo

a sign of great art imo

^^^

no one told me there were little interview intros!
at the point I wonder if I wish they were optional they end so they are great

really loved the subtle contrast of The Guy following the rules and the swingers breaking the rules

this episode was better than last week's imo

ehh

i didn't like how the second ep played a 'lol uptight immigrants' joke

idk I come from an immigrant family and I thought it was fine

but I feel u

Have you guys seen Easy? It's like a pointless and bad version of this set in Chicago

sweet, i gotta check that out!

idk I come from an immigrant family and I thought it was fine

― marcos, Wednesday, September 28, 2016 11:01 PM (yesterday) Bookmark

to me it felt exactly like white person in a creative writing class trying to write non-white characters... just a lot of reliance on tired ideas

rewatched the episode where the asexual magician decides to try his hand at being a teacher. forgot how bleak the ending was, but with the little HBO-provided Ben/Katja intro it made it kind of worse!

"we have a few friends who are teachers, and uh.. it's really hard work! thanks!"

the nutrition lady who came to speak to the class has that crazy thing where people think public speaking is ENUNCIATING really CLEARLY and you can see every one of her teeth somehow when she speaks. where does this thing even come from?

this is ok, but I seem to remember the web series actually being funny

kind of stopped just short of being infantile but the dog episode was still so well done.

I was irritated by the conceit at first but it won me over around the midway point.

I was irritated by the conceit at first but it won me over around the midway point.

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, October 1, 2016 11:22 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yea at 14 minutes in i was like this really sucks .. i guess i started to feel different when the cage was introduced

my gf turned to me like 2 minutes in and said "the whole episode is going to be like this, isnt it"

also

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/podcasts/our-top-five-denzels.html

i've loved all these episodes (i haven't seen the web series) and i thought the dog one was especially great, save for maybe that weird fantasy cut scene in the beginning that overtly implies the sexual dynamic b/w the dog and the walker

but otherwise i thought it neatly hit all the emotional themes this show aims for and i liked the concept too

Jordan u must watch the web series!! It's imo the best show of the last decade.

main difference between the HBO episodes and the web episodes is the shoehorning into a specific running length and casting actors that are recognizable from other recent shows, which seems kind of jarring. Not that the web episodes were cast with total unknowns (especially not the ones that had cameos like Hannibal Burress) but it was less noticeable

i miss having free access to the web series, it is super lame that they migrated those to hbo for subscribers only

I mean im sure they had to contractually or whatever

im really hating the hbo series and it makes me sad.

It's been hit and miss. Liked the swingers and the dog was interesting, the Muslim college student could have used a full half hour of fleshing out I think.

Definitely has not reached the highs of the webisodes though - Uberman, the second date ball dunking, etc.

Quinn returning as someone who has her own assistant to be terrible to now was pretty great

tic ep was best of the new batch yet imo

milo z otm x 2 imo but it's a very small sample size

smartphone class with older people reminded me of of the gallery attendant guy I saw at the museum over the weekend quietly grunting "ok google, football scores" at his phone over the weekend

lmao

tic ep was good but theremin player story was kind of pointlessly thrown in, it would've been its own ep in the web series but w/ the formatting it feels like it was forced in

do you think the hipster grifter sued high maintenance irl and that's what gave rise to this ep

given that this show was created by casting directors I guess I should not have been surprised at a Brett Gelman gag, that motherfucker is everywhere

I'm enjoying this. Binge watched 4 episodes of it last night. The only real mis-step was the overly self-referential "Selfie" episode.

the instagram girl bit was the first time i felt they were really being just mean

I don't know it it was mean. I did end up feeling sorry for her

Awesome season finale.

I thought he found instagram girl had shared stuff related to him that could be compromising and was directly against what they'd agreed.

Hadn't realised that this week was finale. Even at his apparently most fallible he seems remarkably mellow. Phone tossing aside. Can't say more than that but did seem more in control of himself than others might be.

good coconut la croix joke

xp, instagram girl was a dick; I agree. But they painted her as crazy stupid and vapid and TALKIN BOUT MY GENERATION

they painted her as lonely

Patrick made a friend!!

this is heartwarming

the instagram girl bit was the first time i felt they were really being just mean

― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Saturday, October 22, 2016 8:25 AM (yesterday) Bookmark

yeah it felt like gross nihilism to me too

i thought the second part of that episode softened it slightly but yeah it left a bad taste in my mouth

it's the same as the "everyone rates everyone" episode of black mirror! practically watched them back to back, the whole ethic of being socially performative but kind of flailing

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/michael-cyril-creighton-actor-without-limits

i liked the instagram girl until she cried at the end & you realize its just making a dumb point about *kids today and their social media*

it was hilarious though when she's interviewing the Guy

surprised folks are so down on the new ones, they feel pretty of a piece w/ the original run except longer year—i guess occasional pacing issues

I love this show! Like mh says, it's heartwarming. But not in a syrupy way.

the dog episode was best imo

the finale was great

it might have been struggling to find its feet but honestly i'm willing to cut this series all kinds of slack given its one of the only shows right now that's about actual humans not sci-fi/fantasy/comic book hyperviolent gritty bullshit AND has any sort of kindness or affection for its characters instead of portraying them as vain sociopaths (transparent et all)

the first half of the finale was really wonderufl and 100% reminded me why high maintenance is one of my faovurite things ever. when it's at its best it's SO empathetic. (not slamming second half, i am only watching half 2 now)

helen hunt guy is a fave

reprisal of homeless heidi was super lame i thought but whatever

havent watched finale yet

the first half of the finale was really wonderufl and 100% reminded me why high maintenance is one of my faovurite things ever. when it's at its best it's SO empathetic. (not slamming second half, i am only watching half 2 now)

― a simba man (Will M.), Thursday, October 27, 2016 2:53 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh wow yea totally. first half was really good, honestly i teared up a little

i p much got misty the second i saw his face again and then EVERYTHING after that was just so lovely

second half was p good too

Weird that they are giving The Guy some backstory. It was well-done, but I'm not sure if I wanted any of that. It was kind of more fun to think of him as some kind of magical/spiritual being...

second half was really good

i have a big crush on rebecca naomi jones; seen her do some theater in nyc and she is really really good
also Vivian!

ive been wanting to share the older episodes with some friends but they are all gone, i can't find them anywhere. bummer man

even on HBO?

they were on hbo on demand recently (in canada)

yea all i see are the 6 hbo episodes

Still on HBO Go under 'High Maintenance Web Series'

(in the US)

just watched most of the new ones for a second time, they are actually all really good and on par with or better than a lot of the original web series imo

just listened to the two dope queens episode with ben sinclair. he is a very charming dude.

https://www.thecut.com/2018/01/profile-katja-blichfeld-of-high-maintenance.html

huh. extra curious to see these first episodes now.

Dire article.

A distateful level of celeb fawning:

“She’ll be the only one who’ll notice an extra’s socks and say ‘They’re wrong for this neighborhood,’” he says. “We’ll think that’s crazy, and then in the playback we’ll be like ‘The socks are wrong.’” With Katja, “There’s just a thing that everybody does, we kind of look to her to see if she’s smiling, or if her eyebrows are up, or if she’s attentive, or if she’s not really into it. You kind of try and read how she feels to gauge how to move forward.”

I see the same thing when we’re eating lunch a few weeks pre–tattoo date at Marlow and Sons, a restaurant where she knows everyone, of course. There’s a subtle way she wields control that makes everything about the situation perfect.

not necessarily arguing that, extra curious to see what a diversified (? at least more than just these two) writing room does for the show

Dire article.

― Luna Schlosser, Tuesday, January 16, 2018 3:12 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yeah i found it kind of nauseating tbh

i couldn't make it through the second paragraph, about how perfectly she handled telling the tattoo artist to waive the rule about not letting anyone else behind the counter because she was going to be interviewed

Even though the shop has a rule that no one who’s not being tattooed is allowed past the reception area in front, Blichfeld convinces them to waive it for me. She does this without being a jerk but without being apologetic, either — she just listens to the explanation for the rule, making eye contact the whole time, then tells the artist why I need to hang out with her while she gets tattooed: “I’m being interviewed and this is the activity I said we’d do,” she says, un-self-consciously, like “being interviewed” and “doing an activity” are nothing to be ashamed of, which they’re not, but still. Blichfeld treats everyone she interacts with pretty much exactly the same, which is to say, she treats everyone with patience, curiosity, openness, and honesty, and then at the end of the interaction she gets exactly what she wants.

fuck everyone in this century

checking out some other stories on thecut.com. oh cool, look at this promising rectangle on the front page. i bet it's going to move up near the top of the rectangles for a while, and even after other rectangles get to the top of the mountain, it'll linger on in the 'more stories you might enjoy' section for at least a day or two longer, fantastic. equinox is a really great company, i wonder how the ceo handles life

https://i.imgur.com/sfTt5lK.png

Nussbaum likes the new season:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/22/high-maintenance-an-anthology-show-that-really-works

In the show’s second season on HBO, airing this month, the ease is back, thank God, and the series feels, even in slighter moments, newly confident, with an increased ability to reflect a larger world in flux.

crossing my fingers. I need this right now!

Yay! I love this show. That interview/hagiographic puff-piece, though...

ben sinclair was super chill about his split with his ex wife on colbert, seems like a good guy

they’d have to be pretty chill to still collaborate, although like the article says, some of the scripts kind of got a harsh vibe for a bit there

Money moves mountains tho

What is "propaganda for egg-freezing"?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTixIvhRTFcp46VRzAsYbkElEyJZq04Pz6buHuxIlJ0qynpn-5V

xp presumably single women who think they might not be in the right spot to have kids when they're most fertile putting some eggs on ice just in case they decide to later

yeah, i have family that did that shit; it's expensive and painful and frustrating and ultimately not super likely to be useful

i understand what egg-freezing is, my partner and i have done it. i'm not sure why "propaganda".

ah, sorry. there's folks who argue that, without a specific plan, it's a way to profit off of the intersection of women in the workplace and biological clock without addressing the underlying issues.

your personal situation is your own, not trying to be disrespectful.

would welcome your feedback on that tbh. i feel like it put my family through a lot of pain and frustration and cash following a messy breakup.

ha, it was the most stressful experience of my life, and the most expensive, but we're both glad we tried

the fact that egg-freeing became 90s comedy shorthand for "crazy lonely lady" is just heaping cruelty on something that's already a lifetime stress-high

generally though, i think it's great, i think people more should do it, but it should not be that fucking expensive, and come with better counselling options than it currently does

[/end thread deviation]

Premieres tonight

I hated the season opener last time (about the two friends having a nervous breakdown) - too cruel, where the series had never been cruel before. Would love to start watching again if it's improved.

yeah, cruel was p good word for the last opener. fingers crossed for this season

new one is kind of o_O

yeah I thought it was pretty bad

the best part of the show is a little dip into someone's life around the time the guy passes through

this one tried to make the general atmosphere of NYC on a bad day the main character, had a really one-note "whoa gross" joke, and then filled the gap with the personal doings of the guy which weren't all that well-done

the weird nightmare was a little too something

at least the web-series is very good

mh otm but it still felt good to be back

yeah, this is still a welcome return, even in the ongoing diminishing returns

I do laugh whenever Homeless Heidi shows up, guiltily

That was ok, I enjoyed the vibe even if several moments were eye-rolling.

I'll never get tired of watching Ben Sinclair's reaction shots.

I assume non-white actors get super bored of playing the "dignified but unknowable" role

Y'all are such whiners. I loved the premiere! Really captured the everything's-going-to-shit-but-it's-affecting-me-mostly-only-tangentially thing that's happening right now. The threesome twist was revealed perfectly, and even the bit with the balloon was done well (I thought). I laughed, I teared up, what else do you want, jackels?

i also loved the premiere; thought the "omg, the worst thing is happening right now" moment was a dead on hit as to what NYC felt like in the days after trump was elected... i saw multiple people crying in the streets. I think i cried in the streets!

it didn't seem believable that the type of people who would be so distraught by trump winning would also spend election night off the grid having some sex party

well that is (at least one of the reasons) why they didn't make it about the election but instead made it LOOMING HORRIBLE THING THAT HAS HAPPENED

okay, but also it was totally about the election, so

It wasn't about the election. Something completely unexpected happened overnight.

it wasn’t specifically about the election but... it was about the election

Thought this was fairly solid. DJI OTM about the threesome twist, well executed. Only complaint here is the leaden and clumsy dialogue which takes me out of it, characters feeling like one-note stereotypes (the brief conspiracy guy scene where he mentions elon musk).

they left the traumatic event vague for a reason, and it was clear that it was related to trump, but it wasn't about the election, imo. it could be all sorts of things: trump using a nuclear bomb, an drone strike killing even more civilians than they commonly do, trump going full on fascist and ordering a special force to murder a bunch of US citizens, etc.

Karl otm

Is "the guy" rich?

he makes a pretty decent living indicating he’s skirting the line between dealer and distributor but his overhead appears low

this show is good but yes I want jackals

it was ok

about as good as some of the other episodes last season. it does suffer a little from having to fill the time slot imo

balloon moment was a little too feel-good we-are-all-in-this-together

last ep was heavy handed

liked keyboard lady returning

second half felt like the web series again. idk maybe because they rehashed the plot line w/ the mouse more or less

i liked that they had suburban boomers at the center of a storyline (in theory more than practice, unfortch)

last ep was solid - drug dealer woes about multiple visits to the same person in one day were OTM as well

Show feels more and more like Slacker with every passing ep, which is a welcome feeling to me.

balloon moment = coke ad

i didn't have any problem w that scene, it felt authentic...life in the city and on the subway includes these occasional nice moments

last one was really good!

was super happy to see Machine on there

yeah this was good

dude's friendship with the guy in this ep was great

baruch's dancing style was inspirational

i think he gave that chick a drink he found in the men's room, ew

lol yes, I was thinking how bad that was, but dude's broke and uh... yeah I'll ignore that happened

show is transforming in to something kind of new and different

i still don't like it as much as the best web series eps, but i still like it

they did a great job of capturing the tedious yet anxious dread of sitting in the ER triage area

they really did

yeah i liked the last episode a lot, best of season so far imo

does anyone else worry w/that IV drip of painkillers? like the way he refused it at first...i wonder if he has a history?

I think it was more that he figured he'd just vape up discreetly, but that ended up actually ramping up his anxiety. Peeling up the bandage to take a peek sure didn't help.

tbh opioids freak me out, the addictive potential is scray

*scary

I think the potential's there, it's mostly chronic pain management where you get in trouble

I've been prescribed them three times (wisdom tooth removal, abscess surgery, broken wrist) and never felt the need to continue after my prescription ran out because the pain was gone or manageable. the first two were vicodin and the last was percocet, though, and wow there's a difference. hospital would probably just be a morphine drip

appreciated how he was goofy as heck on the combination, it was well-acted

Beruch episode might be my all time fave

yea agreed it's one of the best ones

nice use of weyes blood in the last one (w drugdealer)