Add Category
Hacks
★★★★★
Stan
The second season of Hacks didn’t end on a cliffhanger and while it would have left many of us bereft, could certainly have worked as a satisfying enough conclusion to this sharp, insightful comedy-drama.
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are back for a third season.Credit: Stan
Even so, the deliciously acerbic Deborah (Jean Smart), the old-school Joan Rivers-esque comedian and the goofy but earnest Gen Z comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder), who was hired to help freshen up Deborah’s material, are back for a third season – and it does not disappoint.
A year on from where we left them, Deborah is enjoying a renaissance on the back of the Netflix special Ava helped her write (she’s even made the exclusive recipient list for Tom Cruise’s annual coconut cake) and Ava, who she “fired” and set free, is back in LA living with her actress girlfriend Ruby (Lorenza Izzo) and writing for a satirical news program.
But both women are less than content, despite their respective successes; Ava remains bitter/mildly obsessed with the fact Deborah cut her off completely after she effectively re-launched her career, and Deborah, who now has two young writers working for her, is restless – even now she’s back at the top of her game.
When the pair run into each other at a comedy festival, it doesn’t take long for their dynamic to pick up where it left; soon they’re texting each other jokes and insults like flirtatious teenagers. When Deborah ends up guest-hosting a late-night show, it’s Ava she turns to for help writing material.
And then Deborah learns that this TV show will be looking for a new host – something she has been, in her view, denied for decades – and she asks Ava for help pitching herself for the gig. Ava uproots her life and moves back to Las Vegas, much to her girlfriend’s disgust: “You’re always going to be working for her,” she tells Ava.
But in this season, there’s something of a shift in the power dynamic. There’s still a certain codependency between them, and Deborah is just as demanding and selfish as ever, at least initially, but across the season they achieve something closer to equality.