The opening episodes of season 4 of Hacks left this critic feeling a bit cold, but episode 4, I Love LA, is the first time that I’ve felt a bit of hope for the remainder of the season. Hacks has been one of my favorite comedies since it premiered four years ago, and my disappointment with season 4 has been well noted, but I am hopeful that things are getting back on track and we can begin to see the team that Deborah and Ava can be, rather than two women constantly at each other’s throats.
It is the run-up to the first show. Everyone is working extra hard. Deborah is on a starvation diet, and Ava is run so ragged that she can’t remember why she’s walking into rooms. The two have a tense but cordial relationship as they solidify details for the first show. Everything seems ready to go, but Deborah has a panic attack at the dress rehearsal. Ava blames it on how little Deborah has been eating, and Deborah blames it on Ava’s bad writing, but the truth is, Deborah is just nervous, recognizing the weight that is on her shoulders as the first female late-night host.
Winnie sends Deborah to a cardiologist to ensure everything is okay, and while there, she meets up with an old friend who tells her that her trick to calm her nerves was to focus on one audience member, rather than the whole. When Deborah goes back on opening night, we see her focus on Ava, saying the jokes directly to her.
After the show, Ava intends to take the writers out to a bar so they can watch the show, while Deborah intends to have dinner with the guests and Winnie. Ava’s writers are so exhausted that they bail almost as soon as they arrive at the bar, and Deborah also finds herself alone. Deborah invites Damien (Mark Indelicato) to join her at dinner, and the two end up at a gay bar where Deborah finds herself in a cage, taking poppers. She falls, hitting her head and landing in the hospital.
Ava is still her emergency contact, so she arrives at the hospital. It’s one of the few times that the two are alone without Stacey as an intermediary. When Deborah realizes that she is going to miss the show, Ava takes her to the waiting room to watch. The two compliment one another on a well-done first show and credits roll, with a lovely tribute to those who lost their lives in the LA wildfires.
The opportunity to see Deborah and Ava finally connecting and remembering what they love about one another was a breath of fresh air in this episode. I’ve always loved the way that Hacks has made the frustration between Deborah and Ava focus far more on their generational differences rather than just being mean girls, and season 4 has felt far more personal. There were, of course, always personal attacks from Deborah, but most of the conflict has been a result of their age difference.
In I Love LA, we finally see a bit of the old dynamic between these women that has made the Hacks so enjoyable to watch. Yes, there is friction between them, but we begin to see the underlying connections that bind the two of them together.
I also appreciated this episode because it showed that, as hard as Deborah is, she is also a bit of a softie. She goes to the gay bar with Damien because he is telling her how hard it is to be an LA gay. Her compassion for the people closest to her has always been what makes her a relatable character, so having an opportunity to see that again was nice.
The biggest downfall of this episode was definitely the way that it played Jimmy and Kayla. This season has taken a few cracks at telling some stories with the two of them, but none have really led to anything substantial. It felt like there might be something there in this episode, but after starting a storyline with them, it just got dropped and was not followed up on. This is disappointing because they are another pair that felt like they had an understanding last season, only to have that largely ignored in season 4 of Hacks.
Even with that disappointment, this episode was a significant uptick from the previous three. Hacks has the potential to be one of the funniest shows on television, but it achieves that best when it does something that we haven’t seen before. While I Love LA has shades of previous seasons, there was enough fresh material to make it worthwhile. And if they can get Deborah and Ava back on track, this season could still be something special.
Hacks Season 4 is now streaming weekly on MAX.
Learn more about the show, including how to watch, at the site for the title.
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