Earlier this year, Ira Glass and his staff appeared on an episode of the HBO show “High Maintenance,” which centered on the creation of a “This American Life” episode. In this IndieWire exclusive, HBO has released the Season 4 trailer for its cannabis-based comedy-drama series “High Maintenance.” As the trailer promises, “The Guy is back to keep spirits high.”. ", The only throughway between these "snackable stories" is Sinclair's nameless weed dealer, who weaves in an out of his clients' lives. ET. A lot of energy goes into trying to find stuff like that and nudging the format this way and that and trying things. Jeffree Star’s New Boyfriend Allegedly Robbed Him and Is Ignoring His Calls, “Since you can’t answer the phone right now, can you give me all the stuff back you stole from my house?”. The Average Tomatometer is the sum of all season scores divided by the number of seasons with a Tomatometer. Press J to jump to the feed. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. “They’re journalists, they’re recording this stuff and using that as their primary source. Ashley Conner photographed the staff in an aesthetically pleasing light: “They lit us very beautifully. Maybe all of that is wildly inaccurate but that's what I got from hearing the episode years ago when it came out. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Comedy about a New York cannabis dealer who slips in and out of the lives of his clients. “It’s such a hurtful thing to hear,” Glass notes, “and they kind of work it out on tape, and [Ben] was just very interested in that as a thing to make drama from. There will also be returning guest stars, such as Crystal Monee Hall, Heléne Yorke, Ken Leung, Julianna Luna Vasquez, Avery Monsen, Rob Morgan, Max Jenkins, Chris Roberti, Becca Blackwell, Chris McKinney, and Birgit Huppuch. Information about your device and internet connection, including your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps. “It seemed like their basic mission was in the general neighborhood that we were in, even though they’re using the tools of fiction and we’re using the tools of fact.”. How Emilia Clarke Kept Her Health Issues a Secret While Filming, “I spent a lot of time just being like: ‘Am I gonna die?’”.
Although she and Sinclair wrote Season 1 themselves, they have since formed a writer's room, per Elle, which helps with them generate ideas. In “Cycles,” creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld interrogate their own show’s creative engines by partially setting the episode in the offices of another long-running anthology series: This American Life, the popular nonfiction radio show and podcast hosted by public-radio veteran Ira Glass. The little differences in it were filled out by Ira and Elna, but it pretty much is the same process.”, Glass, however, has a different view of their method. All rights reserved. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. Fortunately, it seems like Sinclair wants to keep going â for now. We’re acutely aware of our own show.”. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! With its relatively modest budget and fine-tuned production process, High Maintenance is in a position to develop into a long-term project much like This American Life, leading both Sinclair and Blichfeld to ponder the future of the series and how it could possibly continue on for years to come. We want to progress, but we also don’t want to be tied to this as our only mode of expression. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Ira Glass is the host and creator of the public radio program This American Life. High Maintenance is unique in that it doesn't attempt to soar to new, dramatic heights with each coming episode or season. The show is heard each week by over 2.2 million listeners on more than 500 public radio stations, with another 2.5 million downloading each podcast. Nobody hearing my words right now is thinking, Oh man, remember that show, back when it used to be good? "Is there a situation in which I want to be doing this show for 20 years, and for each of those 20 years it's a ten-month-long job?" Sinclair also batted around a version of the story that followed the This American Life staff as they scrambled to put together an episode of their show. Accordingly, “Cycles” went through many different versions before landing on the one that went to air. Martin Picks Least Favorite 'Game of Thrones' Scene, Says Low Budget Is to Blame, See the Emmy Winners and Presenters from the 2020 Virtual Ceremony, Every New Netflix Original Series Premiering in 2020. One thing remains the same though: People really want their weed, and The Guy is back to keep their spirits high. Log in or link your magazine subscription, BTS Army Spokesperson John Cena Explains What Made Him Stan, Stevie Nicks Does the Math and Wishes Harry Styles Was Older, Clare Bronfman Sentenced to 81 Months in NXIVM Sex-Cult Case, The 50 Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now, Chrissy Teigen Shares That She Lost Baby After Pregnancy Complications. The American Life characters rubbed me the wrong way from the jump. It’s not an interesting genre of story in most peoples’ hands. As HBO describes the season: “With a new friend by his side, The Guy drops in on a variety of customers whose disparate lives, jobs, identities and circumstances reveal the human connection that we all seek. "There's certainly no shortage of stories out there, and as the years have gone on, we've continued to bring on more collaborators to generate these stories, so it's actually gotten a bit easier in that way," Blichfeld said.
It’s understandable that Sinclair feels an affinity with This American Life. 2020 Bustle Digital Group. He’s also one of the editors of the podcasts Serial and S-Town. All rights reserved. Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. He says the main point of comparison between his show and Sinclair’s involves the chaos of trying to find a story to tell. High Maintenance ... View All High Maintenance News . Sinclair saw Baker’s story, and how it’s reflected through Yara’s, as a reflection of his own diarist impulses. © 2020 Vox Media, LLC. Didn’t realize Ben did improv with the actors “all the time.” It really makes the show even more incredible.
Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. "I probably want a little more time to just go be a human being and live a life.". Is that a true story? She eventually says that she admires how Owen’s ambitions are smaller than hers because it means that he would never impede her own professional goals. But—. Sinclair's co-creator and ex-wife, Katja Blichfeld, however, told Vulture that High Maintenance "could conceivably go on forever, be it with me and Ben at the helm or others." By jumping through time and four different performances, the movie paints a portrait that is fractured instead of illuminating. We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Are Justine and Caleb just showing off at this point? Indeed, High Maintenance has become famous for the anthology series' empathetic storytelling. The First 2020 Presidential Debate Scored Massive Ratings. In Season 4, highlights have included the recurring character Evan, who is an asexual magician. Eventually, they began to work together to figure out what an episode involving This American Life offices would look like and how it could potentially shine a light on the High Maintenance production process. The Guy finds a lost canine. Nonetheless, they’re eager to break certain patterns in order to stay modern and stave off repetition. "I think we need a break, but I don't think it's the last season," Sinclair told Pitchfork in late March. This sparks a devastating argument between the two of them that’s all captured on tape, which Yara later brings in to work to receive notes from the staff. All rights reserved. In addition to Glass, this season of “High Maintenance” will see new guest stars in the form of Nick Kroll, Rebecca Hall, Larry Owens, and Calvin Leon Smith. Also set to get you into the groove of this season is Ira Glass, who — alongside his team at NPR’s “This American Life” — guest stars as himself. In the middle of her interview, Mark admits that they probably wouldn’t have ended up married if he had met her when she was 100 pounds heavier. Ira Jeffrey Glass (/ ˈ aɪ r ə /; born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality. We’re doing actual reporting, even if it’s on personal stories.”, He also stresses that no one would actually bring in a tape of a stoned conversation for staff review.
Cookies help us deliver our Services. I re-listened to This American Life weed episode from 2014, to see if you'd talked about this. A creepy psychological thriller starring Tamara Lawrance, Fiona Shaw, and Jack Lowden. Creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld have experimented with various stories from varied perspectives, toying with extending select narratives and revisiting fan-favorite characters while pushing forward with new, surprising stories. It eventually morphed into a story about, as Sinclair puts it, “how stories get told when you have to do it on demand week after week, which is what we’ve been doing for almost ten years.”. We’re making up fake shit and taking truth to re-create it. The trailer (which you can watch below) also promises that this season will get you into a particular groove, if the 1981 Dave Raynor jam “Leave Me Alone Tonight” that plays throughout as Ben Sinclair’s The Guy travels all around New York City to deliver colorful characters their weed. "So we were just trying to go back to telling stories of unusual people. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Ira Glass was born on March 3, 1959 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA as Ira Jeffrey Glass. But while the High Maintenance writers room may have a seemingly unlimited story supply, Sinclair seems a bit more worn out than his collaborators. "Going back to basics also meant we brought back a lot of our favorite and fan favorite characters.". As High Maintenance enters its eighth year of existence, the web series turned HBO anthology faces the hazards any long-running creative project inevitably encounters, primarily the potential for stagnancy. Looks like you're in the UK. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. Still, he and the staff had strong reactions to Yara’s journalistic practices. Ira Glass, Writer: This American Life. Recalling his early conversations with Glass about “Cycles,” Sinclair explains, “The reason why I went to [Ira] with a workaholic story is because that man is very involved in that show and I think maybe something he’s working on is figuring out how to make it a little more automated and set up so that he doesn’t have to have such a strong presence in it, that it can kind of go on its own hopefully one day.”. No. “Is there a situation in which I want to be doing this show for 20 years, and for each of those 20 years it’s a ten-month-long job?” he wonders. Characters outside of a certain professional and class status are “often made relatable to HBO’s audience by being supplied with some quirk, hidden talent or non-normative sexuality,” writes Staley, asserting that “the show depends on its audience’s prejudices in order to undercut them.”. So while it will hopefully come back, fans may be in for a bit of a wait. It initially was going to be an episode about being a workaholic that followed Glass as he endures a particularly stressful day. Glass concedes that critical nature had to be elided in order to get through certain plot points. A reckoning between her dueling halves is exactly what Beckett’s character needed.