High Maintenance

The beloved web series’ third season on HBO is a new high.

By Emily St. James@emilyvdw Jan 28, 2019, 6:19pm EST

Emily St. James was a senior correspondent for Vox, covering American identities. Before she joined Vox in 2014, she was the first TV editor of the A.V. Club.

Part of The 18 best TV shows airing right now

High Maintenance is sort of like if Doctor Who was a wry comedy about a weed dealer — stay with me here. Most episodes are completely different in tone and feature different characters and wholly different stories. But they’re all linked together by one character: an unnamed weed dealer played by High Maintenance co-creator Ben Sinclair. He pedals around New York City on his bike, visiting people to drop off their pot, and in the process gets little glimpses into their lives. It’s the kind of show that TV needs more of — where the episodes are the whole reason to watch, and the overarching storyline just doesn’t matter. It can be stupid or bittersweet or both at once, and it often pulls it all off with aplomb.

“The show combines a winning slacker charm with a detail-perfect sense of life as lived, right now, in its slice of the city. It is particularly sharp on how the app economy has brought Airbnbs to every corner of the boroughs and flooded the streets with Lyfts.” James Poniewozik, The New York Times

Metacritic score: N/A (85 out of 100 for HBO season two)

Where to watch: New episodes of High Maintenance air Sundays at 10:30 pm Eastern on HBO. Previous episodes are available on HBO’s streaming platforms.

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