Time Out New York: Cover Story With The Co-creators Of HBO's High Maintenance
Photograph: Jake Chessum
It’s said that art imitates life, and for Brooklyn-set High Maintenance creators Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, that’s a gross understatement. Take the first episode of season two of the duo’s HBO show, which opens with the Guy, Sinclair’s weed-dealing everydude, receiving a phone alert that “something bad happened.” Viewers quickly understand (though it’s never explicitly said) that it’s November 9, 2016, when the city awoke to the presidential election results and seemed stuck in a fog of disbelief. The draw of High Maintenance is that—in a sea of series that claim to depict the “real” New York—it conjures up an awed feeling of déjà vu for locals, even when plotlines delve into the absurd. You leave scenes thinking, That’s my city. That’s my life.