TV Recaps Fall TV Animated ... is one of our most recurring characters on High Maintenance from the web series to now. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! She looks on with hilarious layers of concern and love as she takes her charges — awkward and fumbling and a little inappropriately flirtatious — through their choreography. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! This shouldn’t be a surprise. He’s been our guide through all of these stories, taking us with him into people’s lives, but now that we can see his life, it’s obvious it’s just as much a mess as anyone else’s. Fathers, lock up your sons. The Guy (Ben Sinclair) dons a stage wig during the High Maintenance premier. This is a scene that takes place between friends, or whatever you call your ex-wife’s current girlfriend (yeah, the guy was married!). What’s going on in his head is imperceptible to the outside world—but High Maintenance lets viewers see how wild one person’s inner life can be. Sometimes they keep us out. (This was after allegations of sexual misconduct against James Franco made it a necessity on his show “The Deuce.”) It’s fascinating to see an insider perspective — presumably Kim is based on the show’s own intimacy coordinator — on what is a certainly an opaque process to the general public. While certain vignettes will always resonate more than others, early episodes of Season 4 prove that creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld still have plenty of stories to tell — some of them downright transcendent. High Maintenance Season-Premiere Recap: Phantasmagoria of Despair The beauty of High Maintenance is its depiction of a humane urban community, even amid tragedy. Contrast these scenes with the final story, in which The Guy is robbed and locked out of his apartment, so he stays at  his neighbor Gwen’s to lick his wounds and wait until he can get a spare key. This is our window into The Guy’s personal life, and it’s the first one we’ve ever gotten. This is fruitful territory for HBO, which was one of the first networks to formalize hiring intimacy coordinators as a regular practice. But the crowning achievement, at least so far, is a storyline following an on-set intimacy coordinator. The Guy delivers to a building where a resident relies on her front door and then the elevator door to keep him out. 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That can start to feel pretty normal after a while, even if you grew up in a rural area where people don’t carry around house keys because the door is always open, but it has a psychic effect as well: we become closed off, silos living in our own personal narratives. This can feel like a shitty city, especially during any given rush hour on the subway. 'High Maintenance' Recap: 'Tick' 'High Maintenance' Episode 2 Recap; High Maintenance Is Far More Than a Stoner Comedy; Our Stories Never Really Belong to Us 'High Maintenance… “Ex,” like episode 4 “Tick,” purports to be about the literal exes in its characters’ lives — The Guy for Patrick and Gwen’s girlfriend for The Guy — but come on, that wouldn’t be any fun in a series that traffics in puns, or for a recapper who sits and watches every episode with his tinfoil hat on, looking for all the hidden meanings? ‘High Maintenance’ episode 1 recap: We’re all actors in the great play of New York City. More than 20 years later, HBO is airing a very different little show, one that is just as in love with the unique texture of New York City while reflecting the breadth of characters that make it so beautiful. The psychic becomes an agent of change in Patrick’s life, manifested in the token of the obliquely referenced The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (a bestseller and cultural phenomenon centered on the concept that you should only keep things around you that bring you joy, a nice companion mantra for HM). Gwen (Rebecca Naomi Jones) was hoping to spend the evening alone, recharging from her taxing job as a social worker (from what we can gather in her work calls). These episodes have since migrated from Vimeo to HBO under the title “High Maintenance Web Series”. ‘High Maintenance’ episode 6 recap: Don’t hold the door. ”So what if I break a few glasses, kick a few asses?” she sneers over a menacing synth riff on the electro-stomping title track. But amazing things can happen if you let the outside into your life. “Ex” can mean “former,” but it’s also a prefix for “out of” or “outside.” Patrick finally allows himself to go outside and pull himself out of a La Croix/Helen Hunt shut-in spiral, and The Guy is locked out of his apartment. The self-help book is the impetus Patrick needs to remove the clutter (physical and emotional) from his life. Open your door once in awhile. Written by the ever-brilliant Isaac Oliver, who has been a writer on the show since 2018, “Trick” is certain to be a standout episode in a very promising season. The official website for High Maintenance on HBO, featuring full episodes online, interviews, schedule information and episode guides. This Article is related to: Television and tagged HBO, High Maintenance. All The Guy wants after he’s robbed is to go home, but he doesn’t have his keys. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! The kindness he has experienced when he puts himself out into the world has changed his life for the better. Compost, and its myriad metaphors therein, becomes the theme for a fictional episode of “This American Life,” presided over by none other than Ira Glass in a guest appearance. The client is exposing himself literally and figuratively to The Guy, laying out all of his insecurities, and it resembles more of a therapy session than a drug transaction. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. 30 essential albums from the last 30 years. There are as many fascinating New York stories as there are fascinating New Yorkers, and “High Maintenance” continues to mine the depths for the most luminous ones. See all episodes The Latest TV News New York was Carrie Bradshaw’s true first love, and it was the fifth member of the gang, as much a part of the show as Mr. Big or Manolo Blahniks. High Maintenance remains fresh, observational and throughly accurate into its fourth season, and its ethos is more dawning than ever: It knows what makes contemporary Brooklyn so special. Season four of HBO’s High Maintenance, the half-hour comedy created by Katja Blichfeld and series star Ben Sinclair, will premiere on February 7, 2020.The new season consists of nine episodes and will air on Fridays at 11pm ET/PT. Stream Season 4 episodes of High Maintenance online and access extras such as interviews, previews and episode guides. When a hungry radio reporter’s (Natalie Woolams-Torres) first story derails, she decides to pitch an impromptu fight with her boyfriend (Marcus Raye Perez) instead. Via screenshot. 19 webisodes of High Maintenance have been released. While last season saw Sinclair’s The Guy exploring his desires more than any previous seasons had, Season 4 (at least the first two episodes provided to critics) returns him to the periphery, where he was during the show’s early web series days. But this isn’t a business transaction. Based on the web series from Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, High Maintenance stars Sinclair as “The Guy,” a bike-riding, weed-delivery salesman with an eclectic variety of Brooklyn clients. Come to the bar. He’s even able to “break up” with The Guy, freeing himself to find love from someone who is able to reciprocate. We only saw a hint of it before during Gatsby’s episode, when it looks like he and Beth may be dating, but the details get colored in a lot more in this story (as Gwen is literally working in her adult coloring book). Next: High Maintenance Recap: Messy Spano Random Thoughts Before I Go : The werewolf baby unboxing at the end was disturbing but definitely fitting given the two stories in … 30 Rock encapsulated New York’s uncanny ability to grind you down perfectly here. High Maintenance. Copyright © 2020 Penske Business Media, LLC. In High Maintenance’s season finale, however, the final story they have to tell is about the kindness of strangers and acquaintances, that sprouts like weeds (nice) through the cracks in the pavement. High Maintenance is actively trying to fight this mindset, to open us up to the world around us, to the human stories going on right under our noses. ... who lands in an uncomfortable situation on a job at a high-profile photoshoot. His travails throughout the city as he shoves balloons into taxis and changes costumes in deserted stairwells captures the hustle and bustle of New York’s multi-talented hoofers. After Victor notices his partner Ellen has a new habit, a secret blows up amid already simmering tensions in their relationship. Seeing two fine and sexy bigger folks sharing intimacy and tenderness, not to mention a funny shower and sex scene, is a refreshing reprieve from typical Hollywood couplings. The naked guy even recognizes as much, tipping The Guy because he feels like he’s been given an extra service. All rights reserved. The Guy is robbed in a vestibule, literally trapped between two doors. Our instinct in the face of it all might be to shut ourselves up and shut out the world. His encounters with The Guy used to be due to a crush, but in this episode they are more about companionship and the need for human contact. But even Kym’s boundaries are challenged by a budding romance with an asexual magician (charming repeat-player Avery Monsen). Patrick (Michael Cyril Creighton), who first appeared with his sick mother and all of his Helen Hunt fan art in “Helen,” is now alone in “Ex,” agoraphobic and emotionally bound to his apartment. share. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail, Enjoy vintage subway and bus rides through 12/30, Immerse yourself in a winter wonderland at the Greenpointers Polar Vortex Holiday Market this Sunday (12/1), Some like it hot: Nowadays has a sauna and other winter specials, Your 2019 guide to every single Brooklyn coworking space, 7 reasons not to leave Brooklyn this Thanksgiving, November 6 is coming: here’s what you need to know. While acknowledging all of its humor and heart, the world of “Sex and the City” was moneyed, white, and apolitical. Offers may be subject to change without notice. In 2016, High Maintenance moved to HBO. [HBO] HD. Though they clearly have a relationship and Gwen hears people’s problems on a daily basis, she’s not down to play the role of therapist to The Guy. tweet. “All the world’s a … Since High Maintenance first premiered as a modest webseries in 2012, a lot has changed. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Recaps from The A.V. Following their storyline is a singing telegram artist, played by the stand-up comedian and singer Larry Owens (“A Strange Loop”). It’s also a huge turn for The Guy, who is always greeted warmly in his client’s homes. Gwen tries to enjoy herself in the apartment, only for new interruptions to keep coming to the door. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. As of February 7, 2020, 26 … Get in the holiday spirit with a vintage ride. It’s a nice ending to the story, and a good message from the show to us in its finale: Life can be pretty fucking terrible.