Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hacks’ On HBO Max, Where A Popular Comedian Takes On A Young Writer To Help Make Her Material More Relevant

Despite the fact that Jean Smart has been in TV viewers’ homes since Designing Women debuted 35 (!) years ago, she continues to surprise with every role she takes on. And, whether she shows up as the governor on Hawaii Five-0 or Mare’s mother in Mare Of Easttown, she leaves an impact. But she hasn’t starred in something for awhile. In Hacks, a comedy (produced by Mike Schur’s Fremulon) where she plays a Joan Rivers-like comedian who is a self-made superstar, she gives one of the best performances of her career. Read on for more.

HACKS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The camera is situated behind comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) as she finishes a set at her residency at the Palmetto hotel in Las Vegas. We then follow her as she goes to her dressing room, talking to stagehands and others along the way.

The Gist: Deborah Vance is a legend who has been in the business for decades. She’s always working, despite reaching a level of success where she can take a private jet from Vegas to LA to peddle her jewelry line on QVC, then go back to her massive Vegas-area mansion.

Right before her 2500th show, Marty (Christopher McDonald), the owner of the Palmetto, has lunch with her, which is where he drops the bomb that he wants to book younger acts on Fridays and Saturdays. When he says he wants to book Pentatonix, she basically tells him to fuck off and storms out of the restaurant.

At the same time, a young comedy writer named Ava (Hannah Einbinder) has essentially been “cancelled” because of a misguided tweet. Her agent Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) can’t find her any work, but when his biggest client, Deborah, calls complaining about Marty cutting her appearances, he gets an idea. He knows Deborah needs to appeal to a younger audience, so he proposes to Ava that she take a job writing for Deborah, who until now has written all of her own material.

Ava, ever woke, scoffs, calling her the “QVC muumuu lady.” But when she desperately interrupts a former colleague’s lunch to ask if she’s hiring for her new how, she learns just how radioactive she is in the business right now. After an equally desperate boink with her Postmates delivery person, she reluctantly takes the interview.

One problem: Deborah has no idea Jimmy set this up. And when Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins), her COO, tells her, she’s pretty angry. She feels she doesn’t need a writer, and when the interview starts, she realizes Ava hasn’t studied up on her career at all. For her part, Ava ditches politeness and tells her that she didn’t want to do this interview, anyway, and tells her why she agreed to it. That’s when Ava tells Deborah the tweet that got her in trouble. Deborah, who has been “cancelled” more times than she can count, intercepts Ava as she leaves to help her improve on the bad joke that made her toxic in Hollywood. Then Deborah hires her.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It feels like Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, the creators of Hacks, more or less crafted Deborah’s character by doing a deep dive on Joan Rivers’ life, starting with the 2010 documentary about her, Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Our Take: The idea behind Hacks, that a comedian who has fought her way to the top — and continues to fight — mainly because she’s a woman connects with a young woman who feels work should be handed to her, is a tantalizing one to contemplate. Generational differences are just the tip of the iceberg that will be explored as the working and personal relationship between Deborah and Ava is developed.

There’s also the issue of how Deborah, much like Rivers, takes nothing for granted and doesn’t rest on her laurels because she knows what it was like for women in the business when she started. It’ll be a stark contrast to Ava’s feeling that she has captured the comedic voice of the 2020s and that show business should be handing her one opportunity after another. But then there’s also the idea of how Ava can get “cancelled” by one tweet when what happened to Ava “sounds like a Tuesday to me,” says Deborah.

But what we’re eager to see is how wearying the grind is getting for Deborah. It’s in those small moments, where she’s looking at herself in the mirror or eating alone with her dogs, that Smart’s fantastic performance has the most emotional impact. You can tell that, while she knows she’ll be in the battle for her career until the very end (just like Joan was!), the battles are weighing on her. Her ex-husband, whose death in the first episode shakes her, left her for her own sister. Her closest friends are her staff. She pads around her overly-decorated mansion with her dogs, mainly concerned about her next gig or joke. There aren’t a whole lot of characters like this on TV right now, and Smart nails the combination of drive and pathos that keeps Deborah going.

We’re not sure about Ava, though; through the first two episodes, she seems like yet another overprivileged millennial who overshares online. The obvious outcome of this first season is that, by hook or by crook, she’ll learn some of the fight that drove Deborah, and learn how she needs to take charge of her career and life so she won’t get cancelled again. Deborah, on the other hand, will — we guess — learn how to relate to the “youngs” through Ava.

But, aside from Ava’s advice to not use Anna Nicole Smith jokes anymore because “she’s long dead,” what will Deborah really learn from Ava? Not sure. But we’re willing to watch and find out.

Sex and Skin: Like we said, Ava boinks her Postmates driver. But she’s really holding a candle for a former girlfriend.

Parting Shot: After hiring Ava, Deborah backs her Rolls up her very, very long driveway. In the background, we see the skyline of Las Vegas.

Sleeper Star: Carl Clemons-Hopkins is a calming presence as Marcus, and we’ll see how he factors into Ava and Deborah’s working relationship going forward. Kaitlin Olson also shows up as Deborah’s daughter; you don’t bring her onto a project without giving her more to do than the funny but short scene she got in the first episode.

Most Pilot-y Line: While we think Meg Stalter is funny as Jimmy’s inept secretary Kayla, the gags where she has no idea how to listen in on his calls without interrupting got a little old.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Hacks not only gives us a topic we don’t see all that much on TV right now, it gives Jean Smart a chance to shine in a lead role after years of standout supporting gigs (like she’s currently doing in Mare Of Easttown).

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.

Stream Hacks On HBO Max