Photo: Jake Giles Netter/Max
The new season of Hacks picks up one year after the events of the season-two finale, which was two years ago for us … it’s not just you; it’s been a while. But much like our series’ protagonists, let’s bound ahead as if the baggage of the past could never weigh us down, and the strange interregnum since we last saw each other isn’t hanging over us one bit!
Deborah’s special was a sensation, and she is riding high: too big a deal to attend Marty’s unveiling of a slot machine with her face on it, busting out the Macarena at the Time 100 gala, starring in a Tostitos Scoops Super Bowl commercial. However, we quickly see the sour side of her success: Everyone pretends to like her no matter what she does. It’s tough to workshop new material when the crowds laugh before she even gets through a joke. She’s up at all hours rearranging her salt-and-pepper shakers — according to Josefina, this is a sure sign of a crisis — but is pretending everything is totally fine! She is great!! What makes you think she isn’t super fine and absolutely great?!!
Though Ava was stung by Deborah’s rejection, she, too, is thriving on her own: She’s writing for a Daily Show–style program and is happily cohabitating with Ruby, the formerly ex-girlfriend who is currently playing (Beanie from Lady Bird voice) the titular role in a DC show called Wolfgirl. But Ava has not let go of Deborah; the sight of Deborah on a billboard is enough to make her rear-end a bus. We can tell all is not really well in Ava’s romantic relationship because Ava lies to Ruby about the nature of the car accident, pretending it wasn’t her fault.
What do you know: Deborah needs someone who can be an asshole, and Ava needs a person with whom she can be an asshole. It’s a love story, baby. Just say yes!
At Deborah’s place, a stylist has pulled some options for her next big event. It would appear, given the over-the-top sycophancy of said stylist, that Deborah is onto the untenable nature of her situation — she needs someone in her midst who will be honest with her — and so when she leads a field trip to her “closet” (an airplane hangar; perfection), it seemed like the whole point was that she was going to pick something terrible on purpose. And this is exactly what she was doing when she emerged in this mustard-yellow poofy number with Diana-wedding-dress sleeves. But then the twist is … she likes it? She loves it?? And only Ava (more on her in a minute) can get her to see the truth???
I do not mean to nitpick, but this dress is mission-critical for character and plot, and it is so obviously, evidently hideous that it cannot do its job. I’m supposed to believe that Deborah genuinely believes this crinoline catastrophe, which looks like something you’d wear to play one of the ugly stepsisters in a community theater production of Cinderella, is “gorgeous”? No! It doesn’t even look remotely like anything we’ve ever seen her wear. She is a slinky suit gal, a leopard-print lover (later in this episode, we will see her MIX leopard prints!); she frequently decks herself out in head-to-toe sequins. So if the article of clothing in question was supposed to be something Deborah could love but was actually terrible … it’s not like they didn’t have options, you know what I mean? It could’ve been some beyond-tacky sequin leopard print, sort of bad Shania drag, to which Deborah would be drawn against her better judgment.
Anyway, all important parties will collide in Montreal: Ava’s boss has invited her to be on what sounds like a truly insufferable panel about comedy being good for the world; Jimmy and Kayla are scouting for some fresh, young voices to zhuzh up their roster of AARP-card carriers; and, much to Ava’s shock and horror, Deborah is in town to collect her prize for comedy special of the year. More breaking news for Ava to process in real time: Deborah has hired two writers, Logan (Jordan Gavaris, Orphan Black clone club assemble!) and Mirya (Dylan Gelula, vocal-fry superstar and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt alum), to replace her.
Jimmy and Ava meet Winnie Landell (THE Helen Hunt), head of the network on which Ava’s show airs, who introduces herself in an absolutely fantastic manner (by telling Jimmy she fucked his dad). Ava’s boss invites her to a swanky after-party and Ava bolts upstairs to change but winds up in the elevator, of course, with Deborah. While Jimmy and Kayla have a little side high jinks wherein they sign a comic they did not see and who, reportedly, only has three months to live — oops! — Ava and Deborah have a faux-friendly reunion, which Ava cannot stomach. Soon, they’re back in Deborah’s room, discussing the famous Tom Cruise coconut cake (“Kirsten Dunst said it was one of the best cakes she ever had, and she was in Marie Antionette”) and getting back on real speaking terms. (I feel like I should note here that, for a comedy about comedians, these episodes aren’t particularly funny, but I did laugh at Ava’s elaborate justification for consuming the cake despite her belief that “leading-man culture is really toxic”; she’s interested in the cake “from an anthropological standpoint.”)
Here, we get the predictable turn that Ava will be the one who tells Deborah that the dress is ugly, with an assist from a gay bellhop (Pat Regan of “Seek Treatment” fame). Intimacy reestablished, Deborah tries, oh-so-casually, to get Ava to do free labor for her by workshopping a punchline; when she insists she’s asking as a “friend,” Ava calls her out for being a shitty one who hasn’t texted her back in nine months. Deborah won’t level with her — she keeps deflecting with bad jokes — and Ava bails.
Later, we see Ava on the panel answering a very straightforward question about how to stick with comedy when the industry is brutal with a few tossed-off platitudes, and then — we are to believe, given the music change and the camera getting closer to her face — a more genuine, useful answer (enjoy the time before you make it, you’ll never get it back) but honestly given the real-world context of which Ava would surely be aware (unlivable conditions leading to SAG/WGA strikes, industry in free fall), the second answer is almost as useless as the first one.
In the morning, everybody caves: Ava texts Deborah the better kicker for her joke (it’s “toilet”); Deborah attempts to deliver the cake but Ava’s already checked out. But by the next episode, our exes are on texting terms again. Their conversations have the giddy, illicit feel of an affair — lots of texting under the table when they’re with other people — and it’s clear that their divided attentions are going to cause problems for them (why would Ava be texting and driving already when she literally just rear-ended a bus??) and for the relationships they’re supposed to be paying attention to — although, as per usual, it’s Ava whose life is more fragile and uproot-able. It’s on Deborah’s terms and turf that their reunion will be set.
Naturally, the show requires Deborah and Ava to get back together, but I’m curious what you all make of Ava’s decision-making here. Is this a savvy, good-for-her-career call made by someone who is in a better place than she used to be? Or are you with Ruby, who sees this as Ava backsliding into a toxic relationship? I will say I would be more on the pro side of this if Ava at least had her own housing. I love that she is literally moving into Deborah’s house at the end of the episode. Boundaries: Why bother?
We also get a B-plot of Deborah discovering that there’s loads of Deborah Vance merch on Etsy, a site she has never heard of, and that there are smarter ways to solve your problems besides legal action. Marcus wisely suggests they bring these independent sellers in, promote them on QVC, and take a cut of the profits. Great work, Marcus, and A+ for the line delivery from the Etsy seller who responds to the threat of a lawsuit by saying, “It would be an honor to be in litigation with Deborah.” (I did enjoy the visual gag of Deborah dropping a giant stack of paper on Marcus’s desk because she “printed out a bunch of websites” even though I feel like Deborah would not know how to work her printer.)
This episode hinges on a few key events that I found hard to buy: first, that Deborah is finally acquiescing to doing a guest spot on Late Night after turning them down four times because she was afraid to fail. (She could just tell jokes from the special as all comedians do; she already knows the special is a hit, so what’s the risk?) Second, she realizes she has no good late-night-guest stories, so to create a new one, she … punks Carrot Top? (Extremely dated and odd on all counts.) Third, she lands a guest-host spot when the host falls ill with salmonella, and the writers’ room is so parodically terrible she has to call in Ava for support. (Not saying all late-night shows are always ON, but really, they’re that bad? Their best pitch is “you wear a wig, can we do something with that”?) Fourth, Ava leaves her job in the middle of a coffee run to save the day at Late Night. (After her boss just put her on that panel and called her his “favorite writer,” she really thinks she shouldn’t at least drop off the coffee, fake a medical emergency of her own, and then go see Deborah? Also, I won’t pretend to know the geography, but wouldn’t it take Ava the whole hour just to get from one part of L.A. to the other … isn’t the traffic there really bad … are they on the same lot or something?)
I appreciated that brief, sweet moment before Deborah went onstage where she saw her younger self in the mirror. Lovely, quiet beat there. Then Deborah hosts and kills, despite there being a panic about having a guest slot to fill. (I thought we would just see the comic Jimmy and Kayla signed in the premiere — unless he already died?!) Deborah got VERY lucky with that pulled-from-the-audience guest who worked in TSA and had stopped a guy in a metal detector who was wearing a cuck-cage; she let a male actor bench-press her and jokes about how lucky his girlfriend is to be sleeping with him (“It’s not a ‘me too’ if I do it”).
Miraculously, Ava did not get fired from her old job despite this bout of unprofessionalism; instead, she has a three-month hiatus, the perfect amount of time for her to work for Deborah again, who has learned in an off-the-record chat that the real host of Late Night plans to step down when his contract is up. “It’ll be some other guy’s show soon,” he tells her as if there’s no way it’s Deborah’s for the taking.
Earlier, while packing for a trip to Iceland, where Ruby will be shooting but also taking time off for a little romantic getaway in a “gligloo” (that’s a glam igloo), Ava uncovered what she thought was an engagement ring in the closet. This is such a classic trope that I immediately felt like it was fake — one of those things that only happens in TV or movies but never in real life — and as it turns out, the ring is a Wolfgirl prop. I will say the fight they have about it later, when Ava attempts to spontaneously propose with it (!), contains the extremely funny-in-context accusation from Ruby that Ava “I knew you didn’t read the graphic novel.”
Ruby does not take well to Ava’s desire to take the Deborah gig. Ruby will go to Iceland and she and Ava will be “on a break,” relationship future TBD. The very real threat of losing Ruby — who Ava seems very excited about but also cannot be herself around, see above re: car-crash subterfuge — is not enough to keep Ava from working with Deborah again. Not even Wolfgirl can stand in the way of true co-dependent love.
