“She is Risen!”
When TMZ runs a bad tip that beloved and controversial comedy legend Deborah Vance has passed away, her fans come out in droves to her home (well, the gates at the top of her impressive driveway) to lay gifts and treasures to pay their respects. Among the flowers and teddy bears are a stuffed can of Diet Coke and a buxom blonde on a crucifix. There is a lot of talk of the end of Deborah Vance throughout the vivacious final season of HBO Max’s Hacks, but she won’t go that easy. By strengthening Deborah and Ava’s friendship, this series goes out on the highest of highs.
At the end of last season, Jean Smart’s Deborah went rogue against the network that she so eagerly wanted to become a part of after Tony Goldwyn’s Bob Lipka ordered Hannah Einbinder’s Ava to be fired. Now under a gag order for 18 months, Deborah cannot perform, speak, or step onto a stage without the threat of being taken into custody. If you are a Deborah believer or worship at the House of Vance, you know that this beloved comedian does not really like being out of work–and that’s putting it mildly.
In the first episode of season five, Paul W. Downs’ Jimmy, Meg Stalter’s Kayla, and Robby Hoffman’s Randi brainstorm how to extend the Vance legacy even though their firm, Schaeffer & LuSaque, is hemorrhaging money and talent so quickly that they have to consider moving into a smaller space. When backed into a corner, Deborah decides that she has to become undeniable enough that the public will demand another resurrection: she decides to EGOT (can we please have a Deborah Vance/Tracy Morgan crossover?) as she sets her sights on winning a Grammy and an Oscar to complete that status before announcing that she will be headlining Madison Square Garden the day after the gag order is lifted. If she can sell out The Garden, she will be, in her mind, secured as one of the greats.
There is a feeling of release set throughout this last go-around. In one of the most emotional moments of the entire series, Ava confronted Deborah when she realized that the famed comic would never put Ava first in any regard. “I put you first, because I care about you,” she said through tears in the finale of season three. “I can’t believe you won’t do that for me. You’ll never do that for me. You’ll never do that for anyone.” Because Deborah did what was right not just for Ava but for herself in the finale of season four, an angry tension gives way to a deeper, bright connection between Smart and Einbinder. In the early episodes of this season, Deborah begins going out with Nico Hayes, a young rocker played by Christopher Briney, who shares a surprising connection when he reveals how he tries to have a personal life all to himself. At the same time, Ava allows herself to be attracted to Eli, a sex worker with a secret, hidden passion for a different type of performance. When Ava and Deborah compare notes, they are giggly and giddy with excitement.
Much like Deborah herself, Hacks ramps up the ambition with pairing the Madison Square Garden long game with Marcus and Deborah reteaming on a large hotel venture. The chemistry between Smart and Carl Clemons-Hopkins hasn’t been as present in the last two seasons so seeing their professional reunion is absolutely delightful, and the opening of episode five reminds you of how the tastes of these two character align. You cannot have a season set on the entertainment forefront without commenting on the position of AI and how it affects those who are trying to tell stories in a truthful, organic way. With Hacks and The Comeback both confronting the issue in totally different ways, these comedies are shedding an astute and hilarious light on a real threat to the creative process.
Directed by Downs, one of the season highlights is an episode that will definitely have the fanbase clutching their pearls is when Deborah and Ava have to pose as a couple in order for Deborah to secure a legendary garment for her Madison Square Garden gig. While most of the season is anti-confrontational between these two, remarkable comic tension comes when they push each other’s buttons in front of Cherry Jones and Leslie Bibb, a couple with a seemingly unshakable foundation. “We’re all dykes here,” Jones’ Kelly tells Deborah when things seem to move towards the hottub. Jones and Bibb are polar opposites. As Bibb seems to float on air, Jones gives Kelly a sturdiness needed to guide the scenes so they don’t stray to too-silly territory.
What can you say about Smart and Einbinder after four of the strongest seasons in the television game? There is a way that they look at one another that indicates not just how much these women have matured and grown with each other, but it shows how much fun they are having as both of their characters and as actors on set. They take up space in the rooms and in the presences of men who count them out and talk down to each other, but they have battled with each other over things big and small for four years. They affect each other so deeply, that they are, in many respects, in love with one another, and this final lap feels absolutely victorious. They look at each other differently this season.
On the most random note, the outerwear in the series finale is some of the chicest the series has ever seen. That’s saying something for a series with consistently spectacular duds.
So much of Hacks is about what to say: the right things, the wrong things, how words transform and change and how we are affected by language and the deeply hurtful barbs we can hurl at one another. Especially towards the ones we love and repsect. Deborah and Ava use words in different ways. One can be considered the woman behind the legend as that legend speaks her truth and her humor out to the world. With all of her glamour and triumphs, it’s odd to consider Smart’s character as an underdog, but she always stands back up. Hacks is everything you want a comedy series to be. It’s biting, naughty, ballsy, fiercely intelligent, and, after this season, sorely missed.
Hacks debuts its final season on April 9 and will premiere new episodes weekly.
