the new ones were just ok. i don't like how the Guy has a bigger role now
― 龜, Tuesday, 20 September 2016 21:21 (eight years ago) link
or, in other words, sometimes his appearances in the episode felt shoehorned in. like they were contractually obligated to have 10 minutes of the Guy in each episode
lol the only reason i latched on to the ubermench idea was because of the "UberMan" theme that ran through the Qasim episode (to sublime effect). beyond an absence of divinity and a focus on worldliness, i dont think there's much nietzsche in HM/The Guy at all (fwiw i only have a rudimentary understanding of nietzsche)
anyway, my half-baked theory:
HM works because its a show about weed that avoids stoner comedy and instead finds humor in the trials of nyc/urban/modern life etc that make people want to get fucking high. making the main character someone who's services need to be rendered in the privacy of ones home is a great device to get inside the personal lives of a diverse population and explore the ways that stress plays out. one of the main statements i see HM making is that the bullshit the world throws at us is often enough to make us act and treat each other (and ourselves) terribly. The Guy serves as an ideal yet fallible example of rising above and treating your fellow man (and yourself) with kindness, compassion, and honesty.
sometimes this manifests as The Guy being a sort of off-kilter guardian angel like getting a man in diabetic shock home safe, talking with a guy who hates his job about a career change, or setting up two lonely souls on a date. sometimes its doing the right thing when no one is looking, like offering encouragement to a vulnerable and intoxicated woman where other characters may have made a pass at her. in "rachel" he's just the right person to tell a man he looks great in drag. in "Esme" there's a moment during the confrontation with Orly where the aussie woman yells something like "nobody likes you!" and The Guy gives her a chiding "HEY", coming to the defense of even his enemy in the face of unnecessary cruelty. when questioned about his own dishonesty, he doesn't hedge at all and comes clean that he only wears a wedding band so that people will feel he's trustworthy. he's not a spineless pushover either - when he's wronged or cheated, he'll stand up for himself.
all of these examples are admittedly subtle- maybe just the easygoing nature of a carefree stoner instead of any sort of grand statement. but if you stand him up next to a self-obsessed jock devoted to a intergalactic alien angel, i think there are enough hints that The Guy is meant to be our UberMan.
― gr8080, Wednesday, 21 September 2016 19:58 (eight years ago) link
nice
― a (waterface), Wednesday, 21 September 2016 20:05 (eight years ago) link
thank you grady, v good post
― marcos, Wednesday, 21 September 2016 20:05 (eight years ago) link
I'm not sure the ubermensch necessarily would spend most of his time affecting the self-realization and self-actualization of others but I like it
― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Wednesday, 21 September 2016 20:06 (eight years ago) link
mb he's more like the o.g. emersonian oversoul which nietzsche was clearly into. top post
― ogmor, Wednesday, 21 September 2016 21:15 (eight years ago) link
surely occupies space between living and dead if he's fighting bike ghosts.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 21 September 2016 21:31 (eight years ago) link
I thought this was great and i'm super happy to see new eps.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 22 September 2016 01:49 (eight years ago) link
The pun about personality in the title is obvious isn't it? Or is that a term that's gone out of use?Is there another pun there than personality /drugs?
Just watched 1st 4 or 5, thought they were good. Got everything up to the pay to view as well as the 1st full length. Will look forward to the rest.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 22 September 2016 07:09 (eight years ago) link
Haven't been able to see the new ones on HBO, but isn't he more of a bodhisattva figure than ubermensch?
― Half-baked profundities. Self-referential smirkiness (Bob Six), Thursday, 22 September 2016 12:22 (eight years ago) link
Dealer has the ability to as well as job of maintaining the high of a bunch of people who at at least one point would be called high maintenance.Wonder if the concept came to the writer on hearing somebody described by the term?Like, how does a high maintenance maintain their high?
― Stevolende, Thursday, 22 September 2016 12:31 (eight years ago) link
their website url is (used to be?) maintaining your high dot com
― gr8080, Thursday, 22 September 2016 13:08 (eight years ago) link
http://www.helpingyoumaintain.com
― ogmor, Thursday, 22 September 2016 13:22 (eight years ago) link
oh yeah duh
― gr8080, Thursday, 22 September 2016 13:36 (eight years ago) link
are the old episodes available on hbo? i don't see them there
― marcos, Thursday, 22 September 2016 13:41 (eight years ago) link
they appear as a separate show called "high maintenance web series"
― gr8080, Thursday, 22 September 2016 13:53 (eight years ago) link
really like the bodhisattva parallel, and as i said i only tossed off the ubermensch comparison as a response to mh's "the guy is God" post & because of the Qasim episode where the UberMan idea is introduced (as a man so lost in devotion to his body & an absurd deity that he can't relate to his fellow man)
it's an idealized humanist character with no link to divinity, but other than that i only really mean uber man in the literal sense and not a Nietzschean sense
― gr8080, Thursday, 22 September 2016 14:32 (eight years ago) link
i like the bodhisattva angle a lot
― marcos, Thursday, 22 September 2016 14:33 (eight years ago) link
hope chauncey appears again
― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Thursday, 22 September 2016 14:41 (eight years ago) link
yeah i have a hunch the 2 method actors will be appearing on chad's stage by the end of this season
― gr8080, Thursday, 22 September 2016 14:53 (eight years ago) link
― 龜, Tuesday, September 20, 2016 5:21 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yea i think something that i missed from this episode was the little snippets of other characters you would get in older episodes when the guy would visit other customers or run into friends, e.g. the gay asian guy talking about filming a protest scene, the parents w/ the young toddler kid, the hardcore stoner dudes w/ the burned hand. the guy has importance when he's w/ other people and not necessarily in/of himself imo
― marcos, Thursday, 22 September 2016 15:00 (eight years ago) link
I saw HBO Ep1, I liked it, the assholes still make me cringe and the show feels a) terrible for beginners who don't know the web series b) not really sure of what to do with itself for a full half-hour. If they're going to do what they're doing w/ Ep1, this is not going to be a good half-hour show.
― laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, 22 September 2016 15:05 (eight years ago) link
Like would it be nuts to just have each half-hour episode just be a series of shorter little vignettes that are maybe or maybe not connected?
having actual time constraints is tricky when the prior stuff just ran as long as was comfortable and now it's a matter of shoehorning in the right amount of content to fit the format
this was actually two episodes, right?
― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Thursday, 22 September 2016 15:09 (eight years ago) link
yeah it was basically two episodes w/o a title card to separate them
― gr8080, Thursday, 22 September 2016 15:11 (eight years ago) link
― laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, September 22, 2016 11:05 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark
animaniacs did this pretty well
― 龜, Thursday, 22 September 2016 15:11 (eight years ago) link
― gr8080, Thursday, September 22, 2016 9:53 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
ah ok but they don't appear to be free huh
― marcos, Thursday, 22 September 2016 16:28 (eight years ago) link
free if you have hbo go / cable package
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 22 September 2016 16:40 (eight years ago) link
so no, not free.
excellent mutli-part The Room reference in the episode
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Thursday, 22 September 2016 17:49 (eight years ago) link
in the new episode, i meant.
"you're my favorite customer", etc
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Thursday, 22 September 2016 17:50 (eight years ago) link
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, September 22, 2016 12:40 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
oh that's a bummer
― marcos, Thursday, 22 September 2016 17:52 (eight years ago) link
Haven't been able to see the new ones on HBO, but isn't he more of a bodhisattva figure than ubermensch?― Half-baked profundities. Self-referential smirkiness (Bob Six), Thursday, September 22, 2016 8:22 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark
― Half-baked profundities. Self-referential smirkiness (Bob Six), Thursday, September 22, 2016 8:22 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark
more liek bodhisativa am i right
― a simba man (Will M.), Thursday, 22 September 2016 17:59 (eight years ago) link
budhisativa
2nd ep worked better imo
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 24 September 2016 22:19 (seven years ago) link
a sign of great art imo
^^^
― serge thoroughgoods (will), Saturday, 24 September 2016 23:07 (seven years ago) link
no one told me there were little interview intros!at the point I wonder if I wish they were optional they end so they are great
― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Sunday, 25 September 2016 03:05 (seven years ago) link
really loved the subtle contrast of The Guy following the rules and the swingers breaking the rules
― gr8080, Sunday, 25 September 2016 13:27 (seven years ago) link
this episode was better than last week's imo
― marcos, Monday, 26 September 2016 18:22 (seven years ago) link
ehh
― a (waterface), Monday, 26 September 2016 18:27 (seven years ago) link
i didn't like how the second ep played a 'lol uptight immigrants' joke
― 龜, Thursday, 29 September 2016 02:53 (seven years ago) link
idk I come from an immigrant family and I thought it was fine
― marcos, Thursday, 29 September 2016 03:01 (seven years ago) link
but I feel u
Have you guys seen Easy? It's like a pointless and bad version of this set in Chicago
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Thursday, 29 September 2016 05:02 (seven years ago) link
sweet, i gotta check that out!
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Thursday, 29 September 2016 05:05 (seven years ago) link
― marcos, Wednesday, September 28, 2016 11:01 PM (yesterday) Bookmark
to me it felt exactly like white person in a creative writing class trying to write non-white characters... just a lot of reliance on tired ideas
― 龜, Thursday, 29 September 2016 11:32 (seven years ago) link
rewatched the episode where the asexual magician decides to try his hand at being a teacher. forgot how bleak the ending was, but with the little HBO-provided Ben/Katja intro it made it kind of worse!
"we have a few friends who are teachers, and uh.. it's really hard work! thanks!"
the nutrition lady who came to speak to the class has that crazy thing where people think public speaking is ENUNCIATING really CLEARLY and you can see every one of her teeth somehow when she speaks. where does this thing even come from?
― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Thursday, 29 September 2016 14:01 (seven years ago) link
this is ok, but I seem to remember the web series actually being funny
― Number None, Thursday, 29 September 2016 18:21 (seven years ago) link
kind of stopped just short of being infantile but the dog episode was still so well done.
― gr8080, Sunday, 2 October 2016 01:23 (seven years ago) link