OnScreen Review: “Hacks”

If you haven’t heard of the new HBOMax show Hacks that’s not a surprise. It has flown mostly under the radar. This comedy/drama starring Jean Smart just ended its first season, so I thought what better time to introduce it to you all? Hacks centers around fictional character Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), one of the first prominent female comedians whose career has stalled, and she has been reduced to a residency at a Las Vegas Hotel. To revive her career her manager sets her up with one of his other clients, another female comedy writer named Ava (Hannah Einbinder) who’s own career has now halted due to a tweet that got her in trouble. The two women struggle to find common ground and connect in order to save both their careers.

Now, while I found this show funny and for the most part enjoyed it, I do have some mixed feelings. I think the character of Deborah Vance is fantastic! Even though the character is fictional it still feels like the audience is getting a glimpse into what being a woman comedian in the ’60s and beyond looks like. It’s like seeing an alternate version of Joan Rivers. Jean Smart does an unbelievable job of portraying this character. She’s funny, snarky, mean, but you also have so much sympathy for her and even though she can be unbelievably rude, you still like her. To make a character like Deborah likable is no easy feat and Smart pulls it off with ease. She is without a doubt the best part of this show. She is reason enough to watch it. I’m expecting an Emmy nomination at the least!

Although Jean Smart is absolutely fabulous, there are still things about the show that I am having a hard time getting behind. In particular, the character of Ava played by newcomer Hannah Einbinder who serves as Deborah’s new writing partner. With Deborah and Ava, we get the generational fight between boomers and millennials. Deborah keeps commenting on how entitled Ava is because she’s a millennial. As a millennial, I want to dispute this and say it’s not true, however, Ava is giving us a bad name. She is completely entitled and thinks that people she knows in show business should just give her opportunities because she knows them. I also find Ava to be incredibly pretentious, but oddly it feels like her pretentiousness is coming from a place of desperately trying to seem cool. It’s like she wants everyone to think she’s so smart and full of confidence but her trying too hard makes her seem pretentious. It’s a very odd combo. The thing that drives me craziest about the character of Ava is that it seems like every episode she learns a lesson and grows, becoming less entitled and pretentious. But then the next episode comes around and it’s like she forgot everything, and she creates another huge mess that she has to get out of. I can’t figure out if the writers don’t want you to like Ava and that’s why she acts this way or if this is simply not developing a character arc far enough. I hope the character of Ava becomes clearer in a second season.

There are some other minor things that confuse me about this show (like the character of Kiki who works in a casino, is friends with Deborah, and befriends Ava, but it seems like we both learn too much about her life and not enough to understand her character’s relevance). Maybe it’s just because it’s the first season and the writers haven’t worked out the kinks yet. With that being said I did still really enjoy this show. As a said before, Jean Smart’s performance makes up for any imperfections. All episodes of Hacks are now streaming on HBOMax. Happy Watching!