The Secret to Hacks‘ Success? Its Women Thrive on Their Own Terms
Photo: Karen Ballard/HBO Max
HBO Max’s Emmy Award-winning series Hacks is many things: A dark comedy, a cautionary tale about why no one should probably ever go to Las Vegas for any reason, and of course, a vehicle for star Jean Smart to continually remind the world why she’s one of the greatest and most versatile actresses working today. It’s also something of a Rorschach test: We all agree that it’s extremely funny, but it’s not clear that there’s a cultural consensus as to why.
A lot of reviews insist that Hacks is simply a story about the art of making comedy, a showbiz confessional that gleefully prods the dark underbelly of the world of professional stand-up and shines a light on the behind-the-scenes workings of an entertainment business that’s often more about connections and favors than real talent. Others claim it’s a tale of generational angst, as a Boomer and a Zoomer come to learn there’s more to one another than the simple stereotypes we see in the media. Depending on who you ask, Hacks is a story about sexism, an ode to the absurdity of celebrity culture, or a workplace comedy about being trapped with a horrible boss.
But the truth is, it’s all of those things at once. At its heart, Hacks is simply a story about women, and if it is also one that touches on all those other things, well, that’s simply because they’re all part and parcel of the lives of the women at its center and the experiences they have navigating the world. This is a story about comedy, yes—but it’s also a comedy about ageism and family and classism and life, all told through a specifically and extremely necessary female lens.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the entertainment industry is unkind to women. Even when women “win,” they still lose—feminist trailblazers are as frequently punished as they are celebrated, asked to sacrifice their identities or self-respect to get ahead, or to fight with other women for the chance to be the token female figure left standing in a group of men. This is increasingly true as those women get older, or mouthier, or stop being willing to play industry games. And while Hacks clearly knows all this, instead of mocking those women, it allows them to roar.
In the most basic sense, Hacks follows the story of Deborah Vance (Smart), a legendary comic in the twilight of her career who hires Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), an up-and-coming L.A. writer looking for work in the wake of an ill-timed, publicly embarrassing tweet, to help her come up with some fresh material. The two clash about almost everything, from what makes a joke funny to the idea of what comedy as an institution is supposed to be and do. But despite their initially confrontational odd couple vibes, what eventually brings them together is the commonality of their experience, as two women who are trying to take control of their stories on their own terms.