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Comedic reality shows operate more like sitcoms than reality shows. Shows like Duck Dynasty, for instance, don’t pretend that what’s in front of the camera is just happening naturally; there’s some manipulation there, even if it’s just via casting more than anything else. A new comedy reality series from Jimmy Kimmel takes place in a Hollywood cannabis dispensary that’s trying to go corporate, despite being full of employees that, well, work in a cannabis dispensary.
HIGH HOPES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.” We see a view of residential neighborhoods, then the camera zooms down to a nondescript house. An alarm goes off; a man wakes up and immediately rolls and lights a joint. He even smokes in the shower.
The Gist: High Hopes is a reality series that mostly takes places at MMD Hollywood, the flagship location of the MMD chain of cannabis dispensaries. The chain started in 2006 when weed was only legal for medicinal use in California — the name “MMD” stands for “Medical Marijuana Dispensary — and only took cash. Owners Slava and Mishka Ashbel talk about those early days, when they were so clueless they didn’t even realize they should buy a safe for all that cash until they got robbed one day.
Now, with recreational cannabis legalized in California and many other states, MMD has been looking to not only become more of a professional, corporate organization, but they want to expand into other markets. Some of the people who work at the store, near Hollywood Boulevard, are on board with this, like the very professional assistant manager Morgan, but others aren’t ready for MMD to become, like, a real job, man…
One of those people is Uriel, who has worked there in various capacities — “He’s fucked up every job possible,” says Mishka — and when the brothers introduce Uri to the cameras, they admonish him for eating behind the register. Still, he’s family, and if the brothers ever fired him, their father, who owns a big stake in the company, would just hire him back.
There’s also the super-handsome “budtender” Jared, who’s got rizz, as the kids say; he wants to be known for more than his looks, but he has a natural charm that keeps customers coming back. The brothers have been hiring new people to meet increased crowds; the dude we saw smoking in the shower is Freddie, whom the brothers (and the show’s producer) recruited when they saw him in a news report about the lines outside a new Michigan dispensary. They loved his stoner vibe and easygoing manner, and we see him on his first day at the store.
They also bring back Dani, who used to work for MMD as a budtender in the “old days”, and has always been a “pain in the ass” to the brothers. But she’s also an amazing salesperson, so at this juncture, the good with her outweighs the bad.
In the first episode, Slava tries to tell Uri that he can’t get high before work anymore. At the same time, the brothers want to throw him a surprise birthday party, and Mishka asks his girlfriend/assistant Sumi to plan it. He sends Dani to their house to help Sumi, but Sumi gets annoyed when Dani insists that they hire a masseuse, despite the fact that it’s going to be a room full of people who are going to be busy smoking weed.
Jared and Dani give the shy, awkward Freddie some tips about flirting, and Freddie joins Uri and the brothers at the corporate headquarters for a “Buyers’ Club” meeting, where they sample new products. Yes, that means they are allowed to get stoned at work in this instance.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? High Hopes is a funny workplace reality series in the same vein as Pawn Stars or Comic Book Men.
Our Take: Jimmy Kimmel is one of the executive producers of High Hopes, which should tell you all you need to know about how serious the show is. Its showrunner/director is Ben Steinbauer, a documentary filmmaker best known for Winnebego Man, and he also fully admits that they were going for funny situations with this show. The staff is an amalgamation of people from various stores in the MMD chain, and Steinbauer and the Ashbel brothers recruited Freddie specifically for the series.
The idea that MMD is trying to go corporate when pretty much all the employees are anti-corporate types is where the comedy lies in this show, along with the on-the-street interviews with people who talk about getting high. As much as the Ashbel brothers try to make MMD a “serious” company — they hired a former Jamba Juice executive as their CEO — employees like Uri and Dani are always going to march to their own beat. And, let’s be honest: How corporate do you really want to be when you end up hiring a guy like Freddie, who is essentially a real version of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo?
Uri and Freddie are the show’s breakout stars, though Dani will have her moments; as MMD decides to roll out their own cannabis brand, Dani will do the same, despite the conflict of interest. But for pure comedic purposes, we’ll be watching the show for Uri, who will try everything he can do to keep MMD weird, and Freddie, who is a funny guy with a unique vibe who is so not Hollywood, which makes him fit in with this group of “misfit toys” perfectly.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: “I was beyond surprised,” Uri says about his birthday party. “My birthday was a month ago.”
Sleeper Star: Mishka fully admits that he and Sumi “don’t make sense on paper,” given that he’s overweight and smokes weed and she doesn’t smoke at all and works out. But that “opposites attract” vibe works for this show, because Sumi might really be the only adult in the room with most of these people.
Most Pilot-y Line: There is lots of footage of “the old days,” which leads us to believe that this isn’t the first time the Ashbel brothers have tried to make a reality show.
Our Call: STREAM IT. High Hopes is funny enough and has enough quirky characters to keep viewers entertained. It’s definitely something you can watch while waiting for your gummies to kick in, that’s for sure.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
