We need to talk about “Grandpa.”
“Grandpa” is the third episode of the new, 30-minute HBO version of High Maintenance, the terrific web series that details the exploits of the Guy (Ben Sinclair), a weed deliveryman in Brooklyn. Actually, that’s not quite right—High Maintenance is about the various people the Guy crosses paths with, from his customers to their neighbors. The Guy flits in and out of each story, but is rarely the central character.
Even within the show’s parameters, however, “Grandpa” is unique: Most of the new HBO episodes paste two shorter stories together to make a half-hour, usually with some bit of ingenious connective tissue. “Grandpa,” on the other hand, follows a single story from start to finish, and it’s not about the people at the periphery of the Guy’s delivery route—it’s about an enormous, shaggy, wolfhound-labradoodle-ish wriggle of fur named Gatsby. Sinclair and his High Maintenance co-creator, Katja Blichfeld, have made a 30-minute film about a dog that’s told almost entirely from the dog’s point of view, and it’s heartbreaking and hilarious and brilliant.