Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder shine as their characters face interesting evolutions without losing what made us love them in the first place.
The Big Picture
-
Hacks
Season 3 evolves characters and relationships, maintaining humor and relevance with fresh storylines. - Deborah and Ava navigate a new dynamic as peers, addressing toxic baggage while striving for a late-night show.
- The show seamlessly blends comedy, drama, and social commentary while authentically portraying bisexuality and aging.
I’ll be honest — I was a little nervous about where Hacks was going to go after that Season 2 finale. The moment when Deborah (Jean Smart) cuts Ava (Hannah Einbinder) loose so she can thrive on her own was so perfectly bittersweet that I couldn’t wait for Season 3, but I also couldn’t begin to picture what it would look like. The show’s freshman and sophomore seasons had such a specific rhythm and power dynamic that the finale seemed to blow up in the most beautiful way. Season 3 proves me right, but luckily, the show is all the better for it. Hacks has always been great about evolving with the times, keeping its references relevant and its jokes fresh, and it’s managed to seamlessly achieve the same with its characters and their relationships. This is still the Deborah and Ava we know and love, but they’re in different places in their lives — and with each other — which allows for fascinating and fun advancements.
Hacks
Explores a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.
- Release Date
- May 13, 2021
- Creator
- Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky
- Cast
- Jean Smart , Hannah Einbinder , Carl Clemons-Hopkins , Mark Indelicato
What Is ‘Hacks’ Season 3 About?
The new season picks up a year after Season 2 ends. On the surface, Deborah and Ava are living their dreams. Deborah is on the Time 100 list. making crowds roar with laughter when she’s not even trying. Ava is in a serious relationship with actress Ruby (Lorenza Izzo) and has a coveted writing job on a progressive, critically acclaimed show called On the Contrary.
But it quickly becomes clear that neither of them is truly happy. Deborah is restless and unchallenged now that she’s at the top; Ava’s not as excited about her work as she should be and can’t fully be herself around Ruby. Something’s missing, and when the two run into each other at a comedy festival, it doesn’t take long for them to realize that something is each other.
The writers do an amazing job of making the audience feel their separation. Hacks is agonizingly off-kilter with Deborah and Ava apart, with the first piece of the Season 3 premiere intentionally rocky and wrong. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder, as things immediately snap into place the second the two come face-to-face again and commit to navigating a new dynamic — this time as something akin to peers — as, together, they try to achieve something decades in the making: getting Deborah her own late-night show.
‘Hacks’ Season 3 Solidifies Deborah and Ava as TV’s Most Interesting Dynamic
Smart and Einbinder’s chemistry is simply undeniable. As fun as it’s been to watch Deborah boss Ava around for the past two seasons, it might actually be even more enjoyable to see them find their footing and interact as relative equals, whether they’re getting drunk at a frat party (yes, that really happens — and the show manages to make it feel natural) or going on a predictably disastrous hike. They bring such ease and simplicity to one of the most nuanced and complicated relationships on TV.
Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing. Despite their growth, Deborah can still be deliciously selfish and arrogant, while Ava is delightfully messy and awkward. There’s a core of love between them, but that doesn’t mean there’s no toxicity or codependency. Real baggage and tension is simmering under the surface, with Deborah hurt by her past and Ava hurt by Deborah’s actions. Complex questions are raised and explored, and the show digs in deeper and more fearlessly than ever before on the subjects of aging and feminism, the cycle of trauma, and the evolution of culture and the entertainment industry. My only qualm is that Hacks could easily be an hour-long show — and sometimes might be better for it. Some storylines are disappointingly glossed over or cut away from early and would benefit from diving into more thoroughly.
The show has never been bolder or more earnest — not in a saccharine way (don’t worry, there’s still plenty of bite) but in an authentic one. I know I’ve cried at Hacks before, but I don’t remember ever crying quite this much, and that’s partially due to Season 3’s emotional role reversal of sorts. Deborah is more in tune with her sadness and fears, while Ava taps into her anger.
The aforementioned hiking episode stands out as some of Smart’s best work — which is really saying something, considering she’s consistently brilliant. In it, Deborah grapples with her mortality and loneliness in a refreshingly raw way. “The magic of ‘one day’ is that it’s all ahead of you,” she tells Ava. “The best thing about being young is you don’t have to savor everything.” We also get to see her face her past head-on, embracing a meaty arc that further examines the tumultuous relationship with her sister, Kathy.
Meanwhile, Einbinder has always been excellent, but it’s clear that she — along with Ava — has become more confident and self-assured with experience. She, too, gives a great performance throughout, though she shines particularly bright in the premiere and the finale episodes when Ava comes into her own in a way we haven’t seen before, finding her voice and going toe-to-toe with her mentor. I kid you not when I say that the finale is reminiscent of Succession at its best, and that’s massively due to Einbinder’s masterful performance.
‘Hacks’ Season 3 Gives Everyone a Chance to Shine
While Deborah and Ava are the heart and soul of the show, Hacks has always done right by its supporting characters, too, and this season is no different. Kaitlin Olson makes her return as Deborah’s daughter DJ and also gets some more depth, still reckoning with recovery while also going through some big life changes. She appears most prominently in an episode revolving around a roast of Deborah, which is about as chaotic as you’d expect.
I’ve always felt the show doesn’t quite know what to do with Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins), and while his arc could be a bit more fleshed out, he does get some good material to sink his teeth into this season. It’s meaningful to see Marcus continue to try and find his place in Deborah’s life as her career needs to change, and hilarious to watch his interactions with hardcore gay Deborah fans. The latter even pays tribute to the powerful relationship between divas and their gay man stans a la Cher, Madonna, Lisa Vanderpump — TheShockNews goes on.
I’m well aware I’m in the minority who usually finds the Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter) storylines a weaker point of the show, with the louder, more absurdist style of comedy they usually bring occasionally grating and bumping up against the more grounded wit. But this season, I was pleasantly surprised by how well their arcs gelled with the rest of the story. They are much more integrated and necessary to the overall plot than in previous seasons as they creatively problem-solve to get Deborah a shot at late-night, whether that means playing the world’s most expensive game of pickleball or reading a bizarre screenplay by Fatty Arbuckle’s relative. Kayla becomes more dimensional than ever, and it’s nice to see Stalter given the chance to flex a slightly more serious muscle for a change.
‘Hacks’ Season 3 Has Its Finger on the Pulse
I’ve talked a lot about the more dramatic elements of the season, but rest assured, this is still one of the funniest shows on television. Few series are able to successfully satirize the entertainment industry, and fewer still can manage to effectively skewer Gen Z or Boomers. Hacks manages to do all of the above with razor-sharp specificity, from jokes about Hollywood looking for movies about “the hot animated spoon from Beauty and the Beast” to getting Deborah’s image out there by having her appear on gas station pump screens. It’s incredible how locked-in the writers are to the current moment, honing on the smallest, weirdest, yet most universal details to evoke the biggest laughs.
Not only is Hacks one of the most hilarious shows, but it also remains one of the most authentically queer, too — especially when it comes to how it handles Ava’s bisexuality. I’m calling it now: Christina Hendricks’ involvement is going to alter many a sapphic’s brain chemistry. That entire storyline taps into an experience that’s so quintessentially gay girl — one that’s never been put on TV to make the community feel so seen and understood yet brazenly called out at the same time. As one of said gay girls, it’s a really special feeling to be so simultaneously loved and roasted.
It’s also special to see Deborah being influenced and changed by Ava and her identity — even if Deborah is resentful of it at times. Even when tackling issues as sticky and loaded as cancel culture and wokeness, the show very rarely ever veers into heavy-handed or cheesy territory. Hacks always puts its characters first, focusing on humanity and the humor that naturally arises from them before anything else. At the end of the day, that feels like the biggest secret to its success.
Hacks Season 3 manages to make one of the best comedies even better. Its third outing strikes a delicate balance between letting its characters grow and evolve while never forgetting what made us fall in love with them in the first place. It’s smarter, funnier, and more moving than ever. If we’re lucky enough to be blessed with a Season 4 (and after that finale, we better be), there’s no doubt it will be able to reinvent itself all over again.
Hacks
Hacks has never been funnier or more moving, letting its characters evolve while retaining what we’ve always loved about them.
- Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder give incredible performances and are electric together.
- The supporting characters are all integrated well and given their moments to shine.
- The humor is incredibly sharp, effectively tackling everything from the entertainment industry to cancel culture.
- Time limitations force the pacing on some storylines to feel too fast and choppy.
Hacks Season 3 premieres with its first two episodes May 2 on Max.
This article was originally published on collider.com