High Maintenence (2016--)

Screenshot from trailer

Many people try to stretch a good thing until it rips. Fortunately, even after transitioning from a Vimeo short series to a 30-minute long HBO series, the creators of High Maintenance have kept the show's essence strong.

Each episode is nostalgic. The kind of nostalgia characteristic of experiences you have never had, the kind of nostalgia that doesn't anchor itself to any specific moment, but to all moments in a squinty-eyed Christmas-tree-light-fuzz kind of way.

High Maintenance is a series of vignettes connecting New York's inhabitants--beings of differing ages, lifestyles, backgrounds, identities, species--by a pleasantly average weed dealer. Each vignette is crafted with care, holding each character and their story to a high level of respect. The series thrives by its placementy of each character on this oddly level playing field of being human (for the most part). Despite drastic differences in their everyday and their challenges, they are united. Yes, they are united by the dude selling them all weed, but they are also united by something...bigger. Don't get me wrong, differences are not glossed over; they are present, but characters and viewers are united with the commonality of being human.

Screenshot from trailer

I'll mark this as to-be-continued because I have much more to say on the show, and I have been meaning to write about it for awhile. For now I need to head to the gym (trying to strengthen my arm & back muscles so that I stop hunching!).

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I am back a few days later before 5 in the morning on a workday because I can't seem to sleep. Anyway.


To sum up what I had written earlier, each episode feels like a package wrapped carefully and intentionally. From the asshole hipster pair to the older Chinese immigrant couple to the neglected dog, the series spans wider than others do. Individuality is highlighted where at first it may not appear to be present, and vice versa, actually. I am thinking of the episode featuring the Muslim teenage girl, whose mere appearance calls her belonging into question. We see her struggling with the common experiences most American teenagers face, no matter their background--her balance of family and self, her exploring of who she "is", along with more individualized challenges.

Screenshot from trailer

It struck me, watching this, that I truly do not remember another fictional piece of media I have consumed that features a Muslim family. This was not something I was unaware of before, but seeing such a powerful depiction of this character forced me to acknowledge my lack of exposure not just intellectually, but emotionally. I felt, and feel, a renewed anger about the lack of representation of a variety of people and experiences in mainstream media.

Of course, when I feel this way I have to check myself. Young, upper-middle class, Christian-raised, white woman isn't the most lacking demographic in American media. My own identity, though mainstream media still has quite a way to go in its representation of women in general, white women included, is pretty goddamn represented and comfortable, comparatively. I am learning the art of balancing my identity with my emotional response to inequality because my identity allows me to experience these emotions only empathically. I have the ability to detach from the emotions if they become inconvenient because they are not of me. I am trying to understand how to care without being capricious.

Screenshot from trailer

That was a major tangent, but I will keep it here. That train of thought is an important part of High Maintenance. These vignettes call upon the viewer's engagement. They are too short to think for us; they leave too many ends open, so we have close them ourselves.

Watch the trailer here