This moving, hilarious tale of two comedy frenemies is so good it should be one of the best-loved things on TV. Jean Smart’s performance is a masterclass in how to break an audience’s heart
Hacks should, by rights, be one of the biggest and best-loved shows on TV. It beat The Bear for outstanding comedy series at last year’s Emmys, and is a triumph of dazzling wit and some of the most lethal backstabbing ever committed to the small screen. In the UK, at least, it hasn’t made the largest impact: probably because, until recently, new seasons hadn’t streamed here since 2022. It recently found a home on Sky (thank goodness), just in time for this fourth outing, which comes complete with a load of starry cameos that HBO have demanded that journalists keep stumm about. If you thought that the toxic frenemy vibe between The White Lotus’s blond BFFs was lacking, say, 500% more shrieking; multiple HR complaints; comedy-flavoured barbs; and a drug-fuelled night out in Vegas, this is the show for you.
Once again, we find ourselves in the company of veteran, vinegar-tongued comic Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), the erstwhile protege she loves to hate. At the end of season three, their rollercoaster relationship made another hellish loop, with Ava blackmailing Deborah into appointing her as the head writer on her new late-night chatshow. As this season begins, the animosity between the pair is clear to anyone within a mile. “She just called you the C-word,” permanently exasperated manager Jimmy (Paul W Downs) tells Ava. “And not in a cool, RuPaul way – in an angry boomer way!” Deborah plays dirty, even sending an anonymous tip to the network that Ava is using drugs at work. But Ava knows that the best way to square-up to her boss is by putting that writerly brain to work and – at least in the first part of the series – Einbinder gets all the cattiest lines (among them: “Aren’t you and Mary Magdalene neck and neck for the title of world’s oldest whore?!”) Unfortunately for the pair, their unlikely collaboration is exactly the angle that the show’s PRs are trying to push, with the New York Times on board to publish a major feature on Ava’s crucial role in Deborah’s renaissance.
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