Is High Maintenance The Wire of Comedy TV?
How an Indie Comedy Quietly Mastered Prestige Storytelling
I’ve always thought about television as falling into two neat categories—scripted fiction or unscripted reality. Some shows quietly reshape how we think about television, blurring the line between fiction and reality so seamlessly that they almost trick you into believing you're watching real life. Very few shows pull that off, and even fewer do it so effortlessly that they create something completely new.
High Maintenance is one of those rare exceptions. It doesn’t just depict life—it feels like life. It walks a near-impossible tightrope between scripted narrative and documentary realism, between humor and sociology, between being about something and simply being. It captures the poetry of everyday existence, making us feel like we're eavesdropping on lives that existed long before we tuned in and will continue after we leave.
That’s what makes High Maintenance stand out in the comedy world, and why it might just be The Wire of its genre. But to really make sense of this comparison, we need to ask: Why don’t we say this about Veep, Arrested Development, or other prestige comedies with devoted followings?
Why High Maintenance Stands Apart
A lot of HBO and critically acclaimed comedies have a unique voice, high-level craft, and a strong creative vision. But High Maintenance does something different—it doesn’t just build a fictional world, it documents the real one.
Shows like Veep, The Office, or Parks and Recreation use mockumentary-style humor. The shaky cam, cutaways, and awkward silences create an illusion of realism, but the characters and situations are still heightened for comedy. High Maintenance, on the other hand, never announces itself as documentary-style, yet it often feels more real than actual mockumentaries. There’s no wink at the camera, no forced confessionals—just unvarnished, seemingly unfiltered life.
Other unconventional comedies, like Arrested Development and Atlanta, also push the boundaries of storytelling, but they still feel firmly fictional. Arrested Development reinvents the sitcom format with its rapid pacing and self-referential humor, while Atlanta bends reality with surrealism and dream logic. Both shows are brilliant, but they invite you to admire their cleverness. High Maintenance achieves something much harder—it doesn’t ask for recognition. It just is.
This comes down to how creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld approached storytelling. As Blichfeld once put it, "We try to make sure that our characters don’t all feel like they would be at the same dinner party." That’s such a profound thought—most TV shows, even the best ones, tend to center on groups of people who naturally belong together. A group of coworkers. A dysfunctional family. A tight-knit friend circle. But High Maintenance wanted something looser, something more true to the way cities actually feel.
Each episode drops us into completely different lives—people from different backgrounds, subcultures, and income brackets. The only real thread between them is geography, and even that feels incidental. The show’s world doesn’t feel curated or carefully arranged—it feels as scattered and unpredictable as real life.
Prestige on Its Own Terms
Prestige television is usually defined by ambition—complex storytelling, morally ambiguous characters, or large-scale narratives. The Wire, created by David Simon, transformed the crime drama by treating it like a sociopolitical study of Baltimore rather than just another cop show. High Maintenance does something similar for comedy. Instead of relying on tightly written arcs or high-concept premises, it finds its depth in the quiet, fleeting moments that most shows overlook.
Unlike other comedies, High Maintenance rarely follows a conventional setup-and-payoff structure, yet it never feels incomplete. Part of this comes from its origins as a web series before moving to HBO. Unlike most prestige TV, which starts in a writers' room with studio backing, High Maintenance was born out of indie filmmaking, and it never lost that raw, intimate quality, even when it transitioned to a major network.
Take, for example, “Matilda”, an episode that follows a deaf woman navigating the city, using no spoken dialogue. Or “Grandpa”, which tracks a man and his dog through a day filled with unexpected connections. These stories aren’t about punchlines or conflicts—they’re about fleeting, human moments that feel as authentic as anything on television.
A Different Kind of Legacy
Like The Wire, High Maintenance was beloved by critics but never became a mainstream phenomenon. Both shows had a devoted following and immense cultural influence, even if they weren’t the biggest commercial hits.
Yet their impact is undeniable. The Wire changed how we think about crime dramas, proving that television could be as sociologically rich as a great novel. High Maintenance changed how we think about comedy, proving that humor doesn’t need punchlines, conflict, or even a main character to be deeply moving.
Both shows expanded the language of television, making room for storytelling that didn’t fit into neat, familiar categories. If prestige TV is about capturing life in its most vivid, authentic form, then High Maintenance is absolutely The Wire of comedy—prestige on a completely different axis, one that isn’t about spectacle or high-stakes drama, but about how effortlessly real something can feel.
Why This Comparison Matters
Comedy, even when brilliant, rarely gets the same level of deep analysis as drama. While shows like The Wire are studied for their sociopolitical themes, comedies—even the ones that push boundaries—are often treated as lighter entertainment. But High Maintenance deserves to be talked about with the same depth and appreciation.
Prestige TV is often associated with ambitious dramas that have redefined television—shows like The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Six Feet Under, and The Leftovers. These series are revered for their storytelling, thematic depth, and cinematic craftsmanship. The Wire is part of that lineage, but High Maintenance deserves similar recognition for the way it navigates a comparable tone within comedy.
Just as The Wire redefined crime dramas, High Maintenance hit that same mark for comedy—proving that humor, like drama, can be just as immersive, truthful, and profound, even if it didn’t revolutionize the genre in the same way.
The prestige of another level.
If you haven’t seen it yet, High Maintenance is available to stream on Max in US and JioHotstar in India.