criterionforum.org

An interesting review that also takes swipes at Black Mirror and Master of None:
High Maintenance: An Anthology Show That Really Works

I love this show. I'm highly anticipating season 2. Setting an anthology show about different NYC residents and their daily lives is an easy way to get my support since I love the simplicity of day-in-the-life stories and NYC offers a broad and diverse populace to pull from (even if it's all fictional). The episode focusing on a single guy's dog and another about an elderly couple were two of my favorite moments of TV in 2017 (2016?). I was thinking of making a thread for this but wasn't sure if anyone was as big a fan as I am.

While I haven't watched the earlier web-only version of the show, the HBO edition is, indeed, wonderful. Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld have taken their cue from Linklater, specifically Slacker, by using the weed dealer's travels throughout the city as a way to connect the various vignettes. The result is an anthology show that doesn't feel like one. Without having to commit to one scenario for the length of a program, High Maintenance is able to present a collection of moments that do not require any development beyond what we are shown. The first episode of the second season had that lovely moment where the tired passengers in the subway car begin batting around the balloon to the delight of the young boy, a scene that plays perfectly in its isolation.