With every episode cycle of “High Maintenance” so far, the budget got bigger and the stories got continually more ambitious, all while the show never lost its soul. The originally self-funded web anthology series from creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld followed an affable bearded pot dealer (Sinclair) known as “The Guy” as he delivered weed to his clients around New York City. While it started as a short film-style comedy series, it gradually became something more intimate, with deeply empathetic and emotionally resonant portraits of its characters in 19 episodes aired on Vimeo.
Now that it’s an official television program airing on HBO (starting at 10 p.m. Sept. 16) with a six-episode new season, Blichfeld and Sinclair have more resources and a 30-minute runtime, and they use them to fully realize these stories. It not only feels like the same underdog show fans loved, it’s also better than ever. Everything you loved about the web series is still there: the relatable dialogue, the pitch-perfect casting (several fan-favorite characters from the web series, including Hannibal Buress, Dan Stevens’ Colin and Michael Cyril Creighton’s Patrick, return for the new season) and the hilarious but self-aware jokes about creative-class urbanites with episodes centering on La Croix and morning raves. (If you’re new to “High Maintenance,” you can read our roundup of the 10 best episodes to get started).
What’s different about the new episodes is also a welcome change: All but one of the episodes focus on two of the Guy’s clients. Every pairing is deliberate, like the one of Eesha (in a star-making turn from actress Shazi Raja), who tries to balance being a partying college student with her family’s oppressively strict religiousness, and their pot-smoking neighbors. “High Maintenance” works because it’s one of the most compassionate shows on TV. Focusing on the private lives of its characters, the what-happens-behind-closed-doors intimacy of the people who smoke pot, the show’s big heart extends to even the surface-level unsympathetic characters, like the “Hipster Grifter” Heidi or Max and Lainey, the assholes from the web series played by Max Jenkins and Heléne Yorke. Even a dog surprisingly has one of the best acting performances in the entire set of new episodes.
While self-awareness is one of the richest attributes of “High Maintenance,” with its affectionate but still-biting look into the eccentric lives of city-dwellers, a scene on the set of a “Girls” episode and an extended mediation on race and class politics in the underground weed economy strike into arguably too-meta territory. Those minor qualms aside, Blichfeld and Sinclair have a winning series, one that continually evolves with endless story possibilities.
3.5 stars (out of four)
@joshhterry | jterry@redeyechicago.com
