High Maintenance gets really real in “Namaste” – although I wish it had been directly named after the yoga place “Namastuy” – and plays out like a slice of New York real estate life. Unlike the past two episodes of the season, there isn’t an ending that brings together the disparate segments and characters, but rather a general theme that binds the episode together.
Split in half, the first part of the episode focuses on Danielle Brooks’ realtor Regine as she hustles up work during a busy day on the job, with her end goal of her own brownstone in sight. Although Brooks is eminently watchable, her segment largely consists of just that – watching her work. We also see her branch out from her old dealer to the Guy, because she really wants a vape pen. The ending of her segment is relatively abrupt – she sees that the particular brownstone she wants, currently resided in by an old man she’s pals with, is suddenly up for sale, to which she says “Fuck!” I thought we would circle back to her later in the episode, but we didn’t. At first I thought she seemed upset because the place was for sale but she wasn’t able to buy it yet, but maybe we’re supposed to assume the man died and that is why it’s up for sale? The episode doesn’t totally make it clear. Then her character disappears, so it wraps up a little more ambiguously than these episode segments tend to do.
However, what I do like about Regine’s section is that because the Guy is not in it at all until near the end, it reminds the viewers that High Maintenance is just a great anthology and “slice of life” show, and it really doesn’t need “the Guy” to justify its existence. As I’ve said before: it isn’t a show about weed, it’s about humanity and the Guy is just a convenient connective tissue. Sometimes he’s an active player in the story, but he doesn’t need to be for it to be engaging for us. The Realtor segment – and, really, all episodes of High Maintenance do this, but I wanted to underline it – highlights that people who enjoy smoking weed are not usually obsessed with it, or have it as their main priority in life as many anti-marijuana fear-mongers would like to think. It’s something that is often a stress reliever for these characters, offering a little relief in their busy lives in a way that a glass of wine or beer might do just as well for others.
The completely casual existence of weed in these characters’ lives (except for the Guy, I suppose, because it’s his livelihood) is further underlined by how little their stories are actually related to their smoking habits. That’s how it goes for Candace (Candace Thompson) and John (John E. Perry) and their story this week. Like last week’s Molly and Brenna, Candace and John are two characters that originated in the early days of the web series. The last time we saw them they were also trying to get creative about affordable housing, renting out part of their apartment to a series of Airbnb-ers in Trixie. This week, they get notice that they’ve been approved to move into literal “affordable housing.” While the apartment itself is “the smallest place they’ve ever lived” according to John, it is also the cheapest and comes with a dishwasher, a large window and a bathtub.
What seems good on paper quickly turns into a headache as the two struggle to make their tiny space work and meet any friendly faces in the building. I’m not familiar with how the affordable housing lottery systems work, but it seems as though only certain floors of the building hold that specific housing and everyone else knows it, as they seem especially standoffish towards Candace and John (even for New Yorkers). Additionally, Candace and John are not given a key fob that gives them access to the more luxurious apartment amenities like the roof deck, sauna, and gym. Candace and John almost make headway with another couple in the building, until they make the mistake of asking to borrow their key fob. Luckily, the couple has their pass code written on their kitchen white board, so Candace snaps a pic.
In addition to not being able to use the amenities, which, as Candace partially yells later, is messed up to let people treat them like houseguests who don’t have full rights to everything in the building even though they have been approved to live there as well. They can’t smoke outside of their big, beautiful window. John does it once and gets spotted (or sniffed out) by residents on the sidewalk below, including a front desk man who quickly informs him there is “no smoking in the building.” This at least results in a pretty hilarious picture for us when the Guy visits and they have to elaborately encase their apartment to keep the smoke from being detectable. Suddenly these three adults look like college kids in a dorm room, as John rolls up a blanket against the bottom of the door, tapes the door’s edges and they exhale through those homemade contraptions made of cardboard toilet paper rolls and tissue that are supposed to weaken the smell? Or something? They can’t be that useful.
The Guy gets invited to the sauna with them, which with other customers might be odd, but long-time viewers know that the Guy, Candace and John go way back: they would all equally be comfortable with getting semi-naked in front of each other. Of course, the fun doesn’t last long, because they’re found out and ordered to leave the sauna. Which is when, understandably, Candace goes off on the doorman about the injustices of this system in the building until he just can’t handle it and says, “Fine, just leave soon!” It’s a well-acted moment, because you can tell that Candace – a fiery personality who doesn’t really beat around the bush as it is – has been genuinely frustrated with their situation, even as she was trying to make the best of it. She would of course prefer key fob use and an apartment they can smoke freely in, but they can’t swing it right now. So they’ve got to get creative with what they’ve got. As she says, “I’m just trying to game the system before it plays me.” She nearly laughs it off like a joke, but it’s a relatable sentiment of trying to live in a grind. And one of the biggest grinds out there is life in New York City, particularly when it involves finding a good place to live. It’s a sweet moment between Candace and John that also subtly reminds us why the Guy has such a big business and what his services can really help to alleviate.
Strays:
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- Episode written by Hannah Bos & Paul Thureen & Shaka King, and directed by Shaka King. No Sinclair OR Blichfeld! You could hardly tell.
- The table of young people chatting obliviously as the restaurant around them fully closes was TOO REAL. I wasn’t even a waitress for long (or even a full waitress, really, just a counter server) but I always had closing shifts, and the people who came in late were my enemies.
- Just thinking about getting high and going in the sauna for even a minute is making me feel nauseous.
- The end credits scene is the skinny young man from the short segment in-between the episode halves, doing whatever his thing is that involves his VR glasses and someone stroking him with a feather.
- Next week’s episode looks FUN.
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