I offer my sincerest apologies to my neighbors who heard me yell “KISS!” at my TV screen while watching the season premiere of Hacks.
It is basic and lazy to reduce the character dynamic between Deborah (Jean Smart) and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) to sexual tension. And yet I am nothing if not basic and lazy—it’s probably why I’m still single. So it was impossible to ignore that these two actresses have created the most exhilarating dynamic between two characters that I’ve seen on TV in years.
Following its Emmy win for Best Comedy Series, Hacks is now back for Season 4, and is unrelenting. The jokes are vicious. The relationships between its characters are toxic. It’s breathtaking television.
We’re finally in a sweet spot for great television—The White Lotus and The Pitt are excellent, Michelle Williams is giving the best performance of her career in Dying for Sex, and The Last of Us is about to return with a season even better than the last.
Hacks belongs in that conversation with them. It is comedy done at the sharpest and smartest level, with some of the most fascinating performances on television. There’s a reason Jean Smart wins every award there is for her work as Deborah, and Hannah Einbinder should be holding trophies next to her after every ceremony.
If you’re like me, you’ve watched the final scene from Season 3 of Hacks once a week since it aired. The fallout from that intense showdown between Deborah and Ava, in which Ava blackmails her way to a head writer job on Deborah’s late-night show, is the starting point of Season 4. Suffice it to say, these characters are not on good terms.
Ava is trying to assert confidence and authority worthy of her new job. Deborah, offended by the blackmail, is trying her best to get Ava fired. Neither is fully succeeding at their mission. This standoff works because of the rich history these actresses have imbued their characters’ relationship with. Both the hurt and the pettiness exudes in every interaction. Watching Ava flail and Deborah feign “I’m better than this” is endlessly fascinating.
Hacks has a deep bench of supporting players, including co-creator Paul W. Downs as Deborah and Ava’s manager—caught in the middle of their feud—Meg Stalter as his assistant, Carl Clemons-Hopkins as Deborah’s chief of staff, and Helen Hunt as the head of the network. The show has perfected its dosage of how much to rely on these supporting scene-stealers. You know them enough to be invested in their own tangential storylines, but the show doesn’t waste time diverting your attention away from the Deborah and Ava of it all.
With two episodes available to watch now, Hacks is giving The Studio a run for the smartest comedy on TV right now. Interestingly, both skewer show business. At a time when we’re desperate for good content to distract us from [glances outside] everything, it’s fun to have TV shows that do that while also lampooning the industry itself. The call is coming from inside the house.
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