'Hacks' Finally Sent In the Clowns
The best television comedy ends this week. It’s a good thing. Hacks first lit up HBO streaming screens in 2021 with their brilliant chronicle of the cross-generational, talent-manager-matched, unexpected creative pairing between Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder). Initially, Vance, a storied stand-up comedian in Las Vegas, on the brink of losing her residency, wants nothing to do with Daniels, the Gen-Z, polyculed-up, bisexual-bobbed television writer. And vice versa. Daniels only arrives at Vance's Vegas mansion because of her own inability to find a job in the overnetworked, too-PC Los Angeles writers’ landscape. She’d been “cancelled” for an unsavory joke she wrote. After blowup monologues at one another upon meeting, Vance sees the spark Daniels has and hires her on the spot, starting their comedic partnership, the revival of Vance’s career and true inception of Daniels’.Five seasons later, and the duo has been through every trial and triumph you could expect. And more. From tours across the US to lawsuits filed between the two, their helming of historic late-night host and head-writer positions (secured only through blackmail.) There’s even a false announcement of Vance’s death, sexual escapades between Daniels and a magician/ sex worker. And so much sapphic, age-gap, underbellied chemistry between Vance and Daniels that an entire section of the internet practically runs on the stuff. It’s the many moments in-between these major plot points that made the show truly shine. Episodically, the show is specific, hilarious and fresh for the new era of dramedy sitcoms that streaming services have ushered in. One episode features a charity golf tournament where Ava almost lets a Republican attendee, portrayed by Christina Hendricks, piss on her. Another shows Vance at the cardiologist, where she runs into Carol Burnett and they have a healing heart-to-heart. In that same episode, Vance goes to the gay bar, does poppers and ends up back at the hospital. The final season even placed Vance and her daughter, DJ, as competitors on a celebrity edition of The Amazing Race, working against the dream duo, Jordan Firstman and Trisha Paytas. Where the show is wild and outrageous (as all good comedy is), it is also heartfelt and poignant (as all good television is.) Lucia Aniello, Jenn Statsky and Paul W. Downs created something entirely new through re-writing some of the most classic TV tropes and archetypes. We watch these women similarly grow into themselves and their relationship to each other. There’s a brutal, comedic, competitive nature between them that never goes away, despite the changes to the creative landscapes they’re working in. There’s a lust that peeks through in the moments you least expect it, one that makes you forget the wild age gap between them. There is a true drive behind each of them, individually, for greatness in their respective crafts, and the show is a result of their reliance on one another to reach those heights. The Hacks ensemble cast proved themselves as the future generation of faces we want on screens. Einbinder’s Daniels is vulnerable, shows her cards too often and overshares. But simultaneously is self-actualized, cunning and can work a room when she needs to: she wears the traits of her generation beautifully. It juxtaposes Smart’s depiction of Vance, and all her restrictive, old-fashioned rules and regulations effortlessly. The show boldly takes another partnership to its audiences, this one between Jimmy LuSaque Jr. (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla Schaeffer (Meg Stalter), the talent manager-and-his-assistant dream team responsible for all of Vance and Daniel’s career highs and lows. By the end of it all, the two are co-managers, they’ve also shared a kiss and almost killed each other numerous times. Stalter’s take on Schaeffer is brash, obnoxious, butting-in constantly. It simultaneously winds and loosens Downs as LuSaque, who’s anal, methodical and cautious to a fault, without her intervention. The sheer number of iconic guest star appearances, from show writer and host of Seek Treatment podcast, Pat Reagan, as a star bellhop, to Julianne Nicholson as a kooky social media personality known as “dance mom”, convey how the show doesn’t shy from inviting new faces to their canon. All of whom bring the comedic precision the show built itself on.During the Hacks finale, the writers stuck to script. Which, if I hadn’t made it clear, is a hilarious one, which they planned from the series’ inception. A dramatic script, especially. The episode opens on Daniels filming her TV show’s pilot, then segues into the grand opening of The Diva, a new venue in Vegas, and the Deborah Vance Comedy Club attached. These wins, these individual successes that Daniels and Vance are finally comfortable enough to celebrate with one another, are dampened soon after. Vance lets Daniels know she’d like to take a European vacation together, finishing in Zurich where Vance has planned t
Black News 
The best television comedy ends this week. It’s a good thing.
Hacks first lit up HBO streaming screens in 2021 with their brilliant chronicle of the cross-generational, talent-manager-matched, unexpected creative pairing between Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder).
Initially, Vance, a storied stand-up comedian in Las Vegas, on the brink of losing her residency, wants nothing to do with Daniels, the Gen-Z, polyculed-up, bisexual-bobbed television writer. And vice versa. Daniels only arrives at Vance's Vegas mansion because of her own inability to find a job in the overnetworked, too-PC Los Angeles writers’ landscape. She’d been “cancelled” for an unsavory joke she wrote. After blowup monologues at one another upon meeting, Vance sees the spark Daniels has and hires her on the spot, starting their comedic partnership, the revival of Vance’s career and true inception of Daniels’.
Five seasons later, and the duo has been through every trial and triumph you could expect. And more. From tours across the US to lawsuits filed between the two, their helming of historic late-night host and head-writer positions (secured only through blackmail.) There’s even a false announcement of Vance’s death, sexual escapades between Daniels and a magician/ sex worker. And so much sapphic, age-gap, underbellied chemistry between Vance and Daniels that an entire section of the internet practically runs on the stuff.
It’s the many moments in-between these major plot points that made the show truly shine. Episodically, the show is specific, hilarious and fresh for the new era of dramedy sitcoms that streaming services have ushered in. One episode features a charity golf tournament where Ava almost lets a Republican attendee, portrayed by Christina Hendricks, piss on her. Another shows Vance at the cardiologist, where she runs into Carol Burnett and they have a healing heart-to-heart. In that same episode, Vance goes to the gay bar, does poppers and ends up back at the hospital. The final season even placed Vance and her daughter, DJ, as competitors on a celebrity edition of The Amazing Race, working against the dream duo, Jordan Firstman and Trisha Paytas.
Where the show is wild and outrageous (as all good comedy is), it is also heartfelt and poignant (as all good television is.) Lucia Aniello, Jenn Statsky and Paul W. Downs created something entirely new through re-writing some of the most classic TV tropes and archetypes. We watch these women similarly grow into themselves and their relationship to each other. There’s a brutal, comedic, competitive nature between them that never goes away, despite the changes to the creative landscapes they’re working in. There’s a lust that peeks through in the moments you least expect it, one that makes you forget the wild age gap between them. There is a true drive behind each of them, individually, for greatness in their respective crafts, and the show is a result of their reliance on one another to reach those heights.
The Hacks ensemble cast proved themselves as the future generation of faces we want on screens. Einbinder’s Daniels is vulnerable, shows her cards too often and overshares. But simultaneously is self-actualized, cunning and can work a room when she needs to: she wears the traits of her generation beautifully. It juxtaposes Smart’s depiction of Vance, and all her restrictive, old-fashioned rules and regulations effortlessly.
The show boldly takes another partnership to its audiences, this one between Jimmy LuSaque Jr. (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla Schaeffer (Meg Stalter), the talent manager-and-his-assistant dream team responsible for all of Vance and Daniel’s career highs and lows. By the end of it all, the two are co-managers, they’ve also shared a kiss and almost killed each other numerous times. Stalter’s take on Schaeffer is brash, obnoxious, butting-in constantly. It simultaneously winds and loosens Downs as LuSaque, who’s anal, methodical and cautious to a fault, without her intervention.
The sheer number of iconic guest star appearances, from show writer and host of Seek Treatment podcast, Pat Reagan, as a star bellhop, to Julianne Nicholson as a kooky social media personality known as “dance mom”, convey how the show doesn’t shy from inviting new faces to their canon. All of whom bring the comedic precision the show built itself on.
During the Hacks finale, the writers stuck to script. Which, if I hadn’t made it clear, is a hilarious one, which they planned from the series’ inception. A dramatic script, especially. The episode opens on Daniels filming her TV show’s pilot, then segues into the grand opening of The Diva, a new venue in Vegas, and the Deborah Vance Comedy Club attached.
These wins, these individual successes that Daniels and Vance are finally comfortable enough to celebrate with one another, are dampened soon after. Vance lets Daniels know she’d like to take a European vacation together, finishing in Zurich where Vance has planned to have an assisted suicide. She has a cancerous mass that’s spreading, and doesn’t want to undergo chemo. Despite Daniels’ protests, Vance’s mind has been made up.
In Paris, the pair drink wine and collect art. Daniels tries driving stick shift and fails miserably while Vance cackles. They dissect the pieces in the Louvre, crudely calling the Mona Lisa “mid”. The clownery that formed the beloved duo is clear and beautiful as ever. The final installation of Hacks featured an intense bickering-turned-screaming match between Vance and Daniels, which of course, ends up being futile: Vance changes her mind and decides to take on treatment.
She realizes, through Daniels’ unrelenting wisecracks about her, ones that keep coming just days before her planned death, that she has one more hour of comedy left in her. She wants Daniels to help her write it, and squeeze whatever’s left out of life along the way. She’s having the second croissant in every way.
Hacks had nerve and knew it. The show wasn’t afraid to take risks across its half-decade of HBO airtime. Downs, Statsky and Aniello took swings with the feats and feelings they wrote their faithful cast into. Hacks knew when it was time to take the HBO stage. It saw the red blinking light in the back, acknowledged its time was up soon, and left it all out there for its final season. Hacks changed the comedic television scene, leaving a legacy for its peers and prodigies to look at and try to similarly match the magic it created.
Images via Getty
