Instead of a straight review, this series of posts looks at what can be learned from watching with a critical, writing-focused perspective. First up, the fantastic web series, HIGH MAINTENANCE, created by Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. It also happens to be one of the Top Five Things I Watched in 2013.
A fairly lightweight episode, “Trixie” deals with NYers dealing with their Air BnB customers and their (weed) dealer. The Guy has little impact on the plot — mostly he gives our female protag (Candace Thompson) an opportunity to tell a flavorful little tale about waitressing and Appalachian white trash. But it’s tasty morsels like this that are the most striking things about this episode. Specificity like the details in this story carries us through the episode. They pave over the plot gaps, making the episode less of a story and more of a brief burst of character study.
There is a sparse constellation of plot points: couple opens apartment up to AirBnBers, female protag implores male protag to crack down on increasingly rude/bizarre AirBnBer behavior, stress-relief pot smoking, male protag finally tells loud AirBnBers to shut the fuck up. But it’s really the tiny specific off-hand details in the dialogue that kept my interest.
Things like the male protag’s nickname being “Papi”, the couple calling sex “teety”, the female protag claiming she’ll have to live in a trailer next to her grandma in West Virginia unless they get a grip on this AirBnB thing. We’re dropped into the middle of a relationship with in-jokes, histories, and lingering conflicts. It’s a good relationship to watch. These minute specific details are delivered off-handedly and accumulate quickly, animating the relationship into a living breathing thing.
And, of course, the episode is funny. The duck-duck-goose* structured joke with the weird Q-tip guy is a good bit, and the insensitive marriage therapist The Guy visits is a funny plot diversion. But the protagonists’ relationship, as it’s built by those specific details, is the engine that drives the episode. They have clear goals they’re reaching for (make rent, handle renters) but the episode isn’t about overcoming these obstacles. It’s a rich snapshot. Considering that the episode is almost 7 minutes, which is already on the long side of the webisode spectrum, it’s a neat feat.
Other eps:
“Stevie”
“Heidi”
“Jamie”
* I’m using duck-duck-goose here in reference to the “rule of three” but where the last thing is kind of a curveball. The Q-tip guy example: (duck) he surprises one protagonist by standing behind them awkwardly swabbing his earhole while watching them, (duck) he surprises the other buy doing the same thing, then (goose) they find two disturbingly waxy Q-tips left in mug.
FADE OUT 