High Maintenance, a show written and directed by Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, and starring Sinclair as The Guy, started as a Web Series and made its way to HBO. The show tells the story of a weed dealer (The Guy) who bikes around the city, meeting buyers in their apartments. Whether he’s biking to the apartment of a reporter trying to con him into an interview, the hotel where a threesome is taking place, or the apartment of a nudist, The Guy meets a whole host of characters he spends a few minutes of his day with. But the most important character in the show is the city. So many important shows have taken place in New York City, like Girls, How I Met Your Mother, Sex and the City, Friends, or Broad City. While all these shows had such different takes, they were all so distinctly New York.
As season 4 of High Maintenance airs, let’s take a look at the ways the show is so authentically New York and the ways it really isn’t.
So New York - The City Is Filled With All Sorts Of Kooky Characters
In a small town, you might have the one weird but harmless guy who lives down the road that everyone knows, while New York, on the other hand, is filled with so many interesting characters. The show’s best at showing these people off. In one episode, we see The Guy delivering weed to a nudist apartment. In another episode, he sells weed to a woman trying to beat the world record for the longest time spent dancing without stopping. We also see him selling to Patrick, a gay agoraphobe who has a small crush on him. But the best part? The Guy is never phased and makes friends with them all.
So Not New York - People Are Too Nice In The Show
New York City is known for its unfriendliness. And yet, the show is filled with moments where strangers connect, share weed, or cry over the election of the 45th president together.
Sure, people angrily walk through the streets, but for the most part, people are talking to their neighbors and being nice to Uber drivers. Everyone is exceptionally nice to The Guy, and you never see anyone buying their weed and shoving him out the door. High Maintenance is a show about human connection in a city that is not known at all for human connection.
So New York - People Have More Than One Job
Most of the characters on the show have multiple jobs. New York is an expensive city, and unless you have a well-paid job, you won’t make it in the city without a steady rotation of gigs. The gig economy really prospers in the city. The Guy probably spends 10-12 hours a day biking around the city, while other people have Uber gigs, long bar shifts, and annoying cooking jobs. Though some of the characters somehow get away with not working, that’s an anomaly on this show that is so centered around work and capitalism.
So Not New York - The Apartments Are Big
New York rent is bonkers, and many people struggle to live in the city unless you’re rich like the characters on Sex and the City. And yet everyone in the show seems to live pretty comfortably, whether they’re obviously rich, or working long hours, or many jobs. Even The Guy’s friends, Candace and John, who move from a hippie-coop when their affordable housing application gets accepted, talk about their nice new apartment as small, even though it’s actually quite beautiful and large for an apartment in New York.
While High Maintenance tries to talk about economic disparity, the classic horror stories of New York apartments the size of a closet costing an arm and a leg seem very far in the show.
So New York - The Show Is Actually Diverse
Unlike other shows that portray New York as very white, High Maintenance’s cast is quite diverse, portraying racial diversity, and a plethora of LGBTQ+ characters. Given one of the writers/directors is a queer woman, its not surprising that there are so many queer women on the show. And given that each episode showcases two different stories, the show manages to cover the lives of so many different New Yorkers, as they cross over into each other’s lives. The episode where the drag queen coming home from the club saves the life of the Hasidic Jewish man who has left his community in the bodega/restaurant is a perfect example of these different lives coming together.
So Not New York - Not Enough People Are Online Dating
In a city so big and so hard to connect in, there aren’t enough characters on High Maintenance using dating apps. No Tinder? No Grindr? It seems so unbelievable when everyone these days is trying to connect through their phones. Talk to anyone who lives in New York, and you’ll know no one is leaving their apartment to try to hook up or ask someone out at a bar or cafe.
In a busy city filled with rude people (another classic New York stereotype), it seems unlikely that any of the characters, other than The Guy, might easily meet new people to date.
SO NEW YORK - The Show Often Takes Place On Movie Sets Or Photoshoots
The characters meander casually through the streets when they accidentally step into a movie set. This episode takes place on a movie set starring Jemima Kirke, where The Guy, not surprisingly, shows up to sell weed to the director, writers, and staff working on set. Another episode takes place on the set of a photoshoot for a campaign splattered across New York, where the main character Mamie, gets photographed for her agelessness. The large set is a classic New York brick loft and is peppered with celeb cameos. Late at night, Mamie proceeds to graffiti her photograph, surprised every time she sees a picture of herself somewhere new.
So Not New York - “M.A.S.H”- Season 3, Episode 1
The thing that’s the least New York about the show? Season 3, Episode 1, when The Guy takes an RV out of New York City, leaving the skyscrapers, crowds, and constant sirens behind for some greenery (and we don’t mean weed).
He then unexpectedly goes to an old friend, Berg’s funeral, who he was planning to visit, and just missed. As he paddles on the lake, has a calm and relaxed woodsy vacation, and generally moves a lot slower through both his life and his new connection with a woman named Lee, the episode contrasts the high energy feel of the New York City he left behind for a couple of weeks.
So New York - A Perfect Cast Of All The Famous New York Comedians
New York is known for its comedy scene and High Maintenance takes advantage of that when casting. Among the many famous people in the show, are Hannibal Burress, Aparna Nancherla, Bowen Yang, Kate Berlant, Margaret Cho, Julio Torres, Michelle Buteau, and Negin Farsad who all show up as guest stars or cameos. These comedians up the number of laughs in the show and make the viewer really feel like they’re in the Big Apple. All that’s missing is some of the famous New York drag queens leaving their shows, famous musicians walking the street, or Broadway actors making their way home.
SO NOT NEW YORK - Where’s The Traffic?
Except for a few episodes where busy streets figure as an important part of the plotline, like in the episode about the agoraphobic man who only leaves his apartment after his mother dies, most of the scenes show a pretty calm New York. The Guy’s bike rides are usually pretty smooth, and he only gets into an accident once, which seems unlikely for a city known for its traffic and for being incredibly busy. Somehow The Guy even manages to seamlessly use an RV to get around and meet clients when his bike breaks, despite the bulkiness of the vehicle.
