The Max Original comedy series Hacks is back for season 4, and this critic couldn’t be happier. Jean Smart’s renaissance has been an absolute delight, and of her many roles, Deborah Vance is a favorite. While the second season ended in a way that allowed the show a satisfying end if it wasn’t renewed, season 3 absolutely did not. Getting to see Ava and Deborah back together for a fourth go is cause for celebration, even if season 4 is off to a bit of a slow start.
Coming into season 4, Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) won the hosting spot for Late Night, the role that she had been waiting to receive for decades. She initially promised the head writer position to Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), but as Deborah began to realize the weight of what she needed to accomplish, she decided to rescind her offer. When Ava saw that she was about to get fired, she threatened to tell the network head, Winnie Landell (Helen Hunt), about the tryst that Deborah had with Bob Lipka (Tony Goldwyn), the owner of the network.
In the first episode, Big, Brave Girl, Deborah and Ava are back in an antagonistic relationship. Deborah is angry that Ava went behind her back that way, and Ava is angry that Deborah would try to have her removed from this position. The two play a series of pranks on one another that keep them from having any productive conversations. However, following a disastrous press conference where Deborah refused to discuss her new role in the context of being a woman, Winnie decides that the New York Times Magazine cover story should be about how Deborah and Ava are doing these jobs that men have traditionally done.
Meanwhile, Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) needs to explain to Deborah that he is stepping away from his job with her. She is upset, and in one of the first really excellent scenes of this season, Deborah exclaims that every time she’s about to get what she wants, everyone leaves. It’s one of the first real moments of vulnerability that we see from her in season 4.
Episode 2, Cover Girls, starts with Deborah and Ava discussing staffing choices. Deborah continues to fight Ava on writers, continually pushing for people that she already knows who have been writing for a long time. She does agree to join Ava to see a comedian perform, but when Deborah discovers that the woman is pregnant, she walks out, leading to a shouting match between her and Ava. This is when Deborah finally tells Ava her concern: Ava writes for a niche audience, and Late Night will be a far broader audience.
Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter) are trying to figure out their new partnership. Kayla brings in Randi (Robby Hoffman) to take her place as the assistant, and while we don’t get a lot of Randi, I think this dynamic is going to be interesting as the season continues.
The episode ends with Deborah and Ava attending a dinner with Winnie, where she tells them that they have to make Late Night work and fast because it’s a dying market. After a conversation with Marcus about the sale of her QVC brand, Deborah tells Ava that she has hired some of the writers that Ava suggested, and all of them are heading to Vegas for a writers’ retreat.
While there are some truly funny moments in the first two episodes of Hacks – Kayla saying “Let’s go to Claire’s and get my tits pierced” absolutely had me on the ground – season 4 starts out rehashing old ground that we’ve already covered. Last season showed so much growth in the relationship between Ava and Deborah, so to start out with all of this antagonism between them felt stale.
It’s not that these reactions are not believable. Deborah lashing out because she feels stressed with this high-profile job is fine, and Ava feeling defensive as she’s entering a new position also works. The problem was that we saw Deborah make strides to be more open and honest, not just in her comedy but personally last season, and that character work felt walked back when it took so long for her to explain why she rescinded Ava’s head writer offer.
If Hacks was an old-school 20-episode sitcom, taking almost two episodes to get to some kind of resolution might work, but with only ten episodes this season, it felt wasteful to spend time returning to the same dynamic we saw at the show’s beginning. Coupled with a somewhat inscrutable storyline between Deborah and a coyote, the first two episodes were a bit of a letdown.
That said, Hacks has consistently been one of the funniest shows airing in the past few years, and there are sparks of what has made it work in the opening to season 4. It would have been nice if they hadn’t squandered much of the first two episodes, but I refused to lose hope in the show. They have shown that old dogs can learn new tricks; let’s see if they can apply that to the rest of this season.
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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