6 Web Series To Watch If You Like High Maintenance
Missing The Guy now that he’s on HBO? Try these jaded magicians, blazed moms, and Bushwick bartenders instead
We’re thrilled for High Maintenance and its debut on HBO — hopefully this means more money, more creative freedom, and more opportunities for show creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. However the move to a network comes at a cost for the audience —the Vimeo episodes were conveniently short and, crucially if you don’t have HBO, free. Luckily there are a ton of great web series that will scratch that HM itch.
As fans know, finding a series to replace High Maintenance isn’t as simple as finding stories about weed. H.M.’s set up — following a nameless pot dealer called “The Guy” as he sells to his clients across New York City—works on a few levels. First and foremost it explores a New York we love to watch, a New York at its most absurd, bizarre, hilarious, annoying, and loveable. High Maintenance also excels at a smart, irreverent humor that cashes in on cultural issues. From a Park Slope lesbian battling middle age to two women in hijabs exploring Brooklyn, these shows hit the same marks, so sit back, relax, and take a hit of comedy.
1. The Impossibilities
This quirky show is also on Vimeo, where High Maintenance got its start. It follows Willa, a “daffy lesbian yogi,” and Harry, a “jaded children’s-party magician” and their lives in New York. This is the show to watch when you want to feel like weird, fun things are happening around the City, only one hot yoga class away.
2. Shugs and Fats
Shugs and Fats follows the High Maintenance set-up of “unlikely protagonist experiences New York life” ; here it is two women who wear hijabs while exploring modern Brooklyn. The show mines a fish-out-of-water dynamic with a light touch, using cultural touchpoints as opportunities for funny, observant conversations.
3. Cannabis Moms Club
These six-minute episodes on Whohaha go beyond the obvious joke (“moms!? smoking pot?!”) to offer spot-on takes on modern mom culture, from the dos and don’t of children's’ birthday parties to necessities of female “we time.” It’s a fun show with just enough bite to keep the jokes fresh.
4. Hipsterhood
If you enjoyed “Heidi”, the episode of High Maintenance where The Guy delivers to a pair of terrible Williamsburg twenty-somethings, then try Hipsterhood. This romantic comedy riffs on the difficulties of dating as a self-aware/self-absorbed hipster. The show ostensibly takes place in Silver Lake, California but could just as well be in Brooklyn or any other place where young people preen.
5. F to 7th
Like High Maintenance, F to 7th is about to make a jump to network tv, courtesy of TV Land. Before it does, watch the series online and experience the witty, often awkward humor as Ingrid, an “old-school” lesbian living in Park Slope, copes with middle age.
6. East Willy B
If you can hit pause on your nausea over the most recent rent hikes, there’s a lot of humor to be found in the gentrification of New York City. East Willy B takes on one of the most striking examples, Bushwick, and mines it for humorous stories about the clash of new and old Brooklyn. The show follows Willy B and the customers at his sports bar; as co-creator Julia Ahumada Grob told the New York Times, “We affectionately like to call it the ‘Latino Cheers’ set in gentrifying Brooklyn.”
Looking for your next favorite show? Head to Stareable.com for reviews of thousands of web series, all in one place.
