High Maintenance - Very good web-series. Discuss.

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

Oh this started up again? Excellent

I think they have the best casting of any show on TV. So many fun characters!

Larry Owens was outrageously good.

wow the NPR writers' room was nightmarish, what a horrible job!

had no idea that was Ira Glass until the bit at the end lol

Ira seems like he might be very into playing the cool mentor figure, with his long hair and young staff. Also it's always weird to hear his voice (and Zoe Chace's) coming out of a human face.

The Guy's name is Rufus!

this season has been pretty good

pretty sure his name is Uncle Rufus

i liked this episode but it seemed a little anticlimactic for end of the season. also, forgive me, but I didn't get the crash pad; was it an air bnb that is used mainly by people who work for airlines? why were destiny and her sister there?

It's Cosmo Rufus

(I haven't actually been able to watch this season past the first few, our HBO Go plug was disconnected)

i think seasons 2 + 3 are the best ... not sure how to rank the vimeo series with those but it's up there as well, with the asterisk that its a different show in some ways

1 I think is the worst, and 4 a slight step down from 2+3

this show kind of half gives me fomo and half makes me miss my friends & our irl adventures

and I REALLY want to see a COVID season

Series 4 finally arrived on amazon prime in the UK.

Would like to see a few more views on this series. Thought it was a bit uneven - with a few dull episodes ( the sneakers episode, the amazon parcel stealing wife episode, the dental assistant episode and - sadly - even the finale). Maybe the series overall had its run.

Cashed.
https://tvline.com/2021/01/14/high-maintenance-not-returning-for-season-5-hbo/

:(

Sad, in a way.

I have mixed and uneven feelings about it. I’ve just rewatched it all over Xmas, and for me the original web episodes remain the best. And bear repeated viewing.

Series 2 of HBO was a big improvement on the first series. The series 3 premiere set outside New York offered an interesting possibility to develop the series in a new way, with a deeper focus on The Guy’s background. But ultimately, they didn’t choose to do that - though there were some strong individual episodes. Series 4 however was a bit of a disappointment. Especially after the long wait here in the UK for episodes.

a shame cause they're perfectly suited to do a pandemic season

i agree s2 + 3 were actually pretty great and 4 and to a greater extent 1 a bit disappointing

def was looking forward to a pandemic or post pandemic season of this show though :(

Yeah I wanted more

Season 3 of this show was so meh I never even checked out the last season. I still liked the web series format the best, though season 2 of the HBO show was pretty good. Basically, the more the focus of the show shifted to the Guy and away from the customers whose lives we got to briefly know the worse the show became.

Bummer. Even when it wasn’t at its best this show had more love of humanity in it than any other.

It'd be cool if they did a few final 5 - 10 minute web episodes just for the fun of it to mark the end. It'd be good to see life going on- despite the pandemic - for Chad, the asexual (but not romantic) magician, the Ditmas Park couple etc.

Aww I like s3

I can't remember at all which seasons are which with this show, seems like a weird one to have strong season-ranking opinions about to me given the lack of any arcs. Obvs the web series is distinct, though even there the transition to broadcast hasn't been that jarring on second watch, and there are things in the web series I'd misremembered as happening later, like his niece visiting

I liked that most of the actors in this show, you'd never see on other shows, and it's easier to slip into buying the "slice of life"-iness of it,
but then I started noticing some actors in other shows...

the john wilson show has sort of taken up that mantle.

yeah I was really hoping for a pandemic season of this show. disappointing, but at least it sounds like they decided not to continue, rather than getting the carpet yanked from under them. I know they also split up quite a while ago so who knows, maybe that working relationship wasn't so great anymore.

i take this announcement as a sign that Blichfeld and Sinclair are now ready to fully uncouple and run their own directions. could definitely see them doing aa special in a few years, no reason not to do a covid flashback then.

I can't remember at all which seasons are which with this show, seems like a weird one to have strong season-ranking opinions about to me given the lack of any arcs. Obvs the web series is distinct, though even there the transition to broadcast hasn't been that jarring on second watch, and there are things in the web series I'd misremembered as happening later, like his niece visiting

― rob, Saturday, January 16, 2021 12:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i get this but also i just remember not enjoying s1 at all (first adaption to HBO, felt uneven), then they caught a rhythm and the show developed, and then 4 kinda falls off IMO, it felt like a pretty natural arc to me

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2020 season is nominated in the 2020 ILX TV poll:

ILX's Best Television of 2020 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 29, 2021

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

funny-sad occurrence re: media etc: i got rid of my HBONow because i was sick of flipping thru menus and not watching anything, and none of their new shows were hooking me

i got Mubi in an attempt to be more intentional about how i spend my couch time. i just watched The Cruise from 98, about Timothy Speed Levitch as a tour guide, and *now* i get this extra resonance for having him appear in and narrate the S3 finale (and the title duh) and i can't go back to watch it! i can barely find any commentary about it, nothing has made it to youtube except the trailer

I can't remember at all which seasons are which with this show, seems like a weird one to have strong season-ranking opinions about to me given the lack of any arcs. Obvs the web series is distinct, though even there the transition to broadcast hasn't been that jarring on second watch, and there are things in the web series I'd misremembered as happening later, like his niece visiting

― rob, Saturday, January 16, 2021 12:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i get this but also i just remember not enjoying s1 at all (first adaption to HBO, felt uneven), then they caught a rhythm and the show developed, and then 4 kinda falls off IMO, it felt like a pretty natural arc to me

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Sunday, January 17, 2021 3:20 PM (one week ago)

Having moved on to S2, I have to concede that S1 is indeed messy. It's definitely not entirely a wash: Grandpa, Tick, and Ex are good imo. But the first two eps are half good/half not, and "Selfie" is all meh. So yeah if you were coming into that having followed the webseries, I can see being pretty disappointed.

Plus then in S2 they seem to have figured out how to use the longer running time to much better effect compared to S1's tendency to simply combine two short segments. I watched "Derech" last night and the way it sort of floats from story to story is so impressive; "Globo" also does this trick extremely well.

Series 1: meh episodes - Meth(od), Selfie

Series 2: meh episodes -Ghost, goalz

Series 3: meh episodes -Craig, Proxy

Series 4 - meh episodes -Voir Dire, Backflash, Screen, Adelante, Hand, Soup.

Looking at the list of episodes, the first 3 series are pretty evenly balanced - though I think the highs of the good episodes in series 2 and 3 are good.Series 4 was a dramatic falling off - with over half the episodes being poor.

Not enough discussion of series 4 though. I was wondering if anyone has any experience of the ketamine nasal spray (esketamine) featured in 'Solo'?

* highs of the good episodes in series 2 and 3 are greater.

Series 1: meh episodes - Meth(od), Selfie

I get why one wouldn't, but I actually like the hyper-annoying friend couple in Meth(od). The segment with the british actors pretending to be american meatheads falls flat though, that should have been a 2 minute throwaway joke at most. And then I really don't like the sex party / bickering couple segment in Museebat, which I think uniquely and distractingly features three more-recognizable-than-usual actors.

I'll have to check the rest of your list once I catch up rewatching.

I should probably cut Meth(od) some slack as having some good qualities , but it's only episode I skipped when I rewatched the whole collection over Xmas as I just couldn't get past the beginning.. And it was such a disappointment as HBO opener.

def a hugely perplexing decision to launch the series with that episode, the webseries is mostly warm and inviting and even the part I do like is HM at its most acidic

the part *of Meth)od)*

Really miss this show sometimes