Hacks Trailer: Jean Smart Leads a Biting New HBO Max Original Series

Jean Smart is hacking her way into your summer. HBO Max has just released the first trailer for her new series, Hacks, set to release in just a few weeks. The 10-episode Max original will follow the dark mentorship between Deborah Vance (Smart), an iconic comedian, and a 25-year-old outcast Ava (Hannah Einbinder).

In the trailer, we find Deborah Vance at a turning point in her winding career: an aging comedian, her performance opportunities are drying up with frail jokes. In an effort to revitalize her career, her manager offers a new option: hiring a young, bitter, sarcastic assistant to help write her jokes. Enter Ava, the ideal woman for the job. Though the mentorship doesn’t exactly take off, as she heads for the door, Ava’s biting asides comparing Deborah’s home to the Cheesecake Factory grab the comedian by surprise. And with that, a star, as they say, is born.

Along with Smart and Einbinder, Carl Clemons-Hopkins will star as a series regular. Kaitlin Olsen, Christopher McDonald, Paul W. Downs, Mark Indelicato, Poppy Liu, Johnny Sibilly, Meg Stalter, and Rose Abdoo have recurring guest roles in the show.

Hacks is created by Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello, and Jen Statsky, who also all serve as executive producers on the project. Michael Schur, David Miner, and Morgan Sackett also executive produced the series with the three main creators.

The first two episodes of Hacks will debut to HBO Max on May 13, with new episodes premiering weekly. Watch the trailer now:

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Fletcher Peters is a New York-based journalist whose writing has appeared in Decider, Jezebel, and Film School Rejects, among other spots. You can follow her on Twitter @fietcherpeters gossiping about rom-coms, TV, and the latest celebrity drama.

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