In the more than a quarter of a century
that I have been watching the Emmys few victories have sparked more of a joyous
reaction than Hacks upset of The Bear for Best Comedy Series last
year. It's not that it didn't absolutely deserve to win; it's that no one was
willing to give it a chance against the juggernaut that was The Bear going
into the Emmys.
Now just a few months afterwards
we see what a difference a year makes. After a third season that was considered
underwhelming by fans and some critics The Bear has basically dropped
off the map when it comes to winning awards after dominating almost every
awards show during 2024 for its first and second season. With the exception of Jeremy
White winning his third straight Golden Globe it has essentially been shut out
of every major awards show that met at the end of the year and Hacks has
been the dominant force, winning the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for
Outstanding Comedy series and Jean Smart making a clean sweep of the end of
year Best Actress in a Comedy for the second time in Hacks three years on
the air. Hacks is now the eight hundred pound gorilla going into the
Emmys for Best Comedy Series leading up to the 2025 nominations and the frontrunner
in this category. Whether it manages to repeat this year remains to be seen;
there are quite a few formidable new contenders this year and that was after
the SAG Awards gave Only Murders in the Building the prize for
Outstanding Comedy Series last February.
But if Hacks doesn't repeat
it will not be because the fourth season is any weaker than the previous one or
indeed the previous three. On the contrary having finally gotten around to
watching the first three episodes this weekend, show runners Lucia Aniello, Jen
Stasky and Paul W. Downs make it clear that they intend to keep pushing both
the show and its two leads out of their comfort zone. Indeed having had Ava finally make a
move so underhanded in the final minutes of last season towards Deb, the
question was: where could Hacks go from here?
The answer was to immediately resume
the show from only a minute later. We see Deb and Ava walking out of the
writers room after their confrontation with Deb saying, " You finally did
it, you big, beautiful girl." Ava had essentially extorted Deb into giving
her the job of head writer at late night, the position that Ava had done everything
to help Deb get and then at the last minute snatched from under her.
We've seen Deb be vicious towards
Ava before; that's essentially been their thing ever since the show started –
but its rarely been done with more cruelty than now. It's clear that at a basic
level Deb does feel betrayed by Ava's actions. This is the culmination of a forty
year dream for her and even though she claims not to have feelings we know if
you cut her she does bleed. We see it when she reacts incredibly painfully
towards Marcus's announcement that he has decided to sell her QVC line of
fashions so that she can have her full dream and she reacts by saying that
everyone leaves her.
The problem is Deb has never been
on a spotlight this big before and it's clear she doesn't know how to handle
it. Ava is capable of helping her but Deb's own pettiness has gotten in her way
so many times in her career and it does so at a press conference which starts
out friendly and which she sabotages because she won't take Ava's jokes. Ava
does take this personally (who wouldn't given the circumstances) but she's
never done anything as cold as threaten to send an email to the wife of the
head of the network in front of Deb in order to get her to say she's won. When
they do a photo shoot in front of the Times cover Deb whispers to her:
"You did win. But you broke my heart," Ava says: "Well, you
broke mine first." It's the first time the two of them are honest the
whole episode.
Ava knows that she has crossed a
line, though she won't admit it. When Deb's psychic shows up as an executive
producers and tells her that the pure aura she has is gone, Ava blinks from the
idea. Deb is already infuriated because of the covers on the Times Magazine has
given Ava too much credit and she still thinks Ava is too green to work in the
world of late night. She accurately points out that the viewership of late
night is far more conservative than Ava's audience for humor and it’s a reality
check. However both Deb and Ava get a far more brutal one when one of the head
producers tells them very coldly just how deep the water is. Late Night is
struggling so badly that they were considering junking it and running clip
shows. They need the show to be a huge hut, they need it to go viral and if
they don't succeed they will drown.
All of this, I should mention, is
grimmer than it sounds. As is always the case with Hacks its actually
hysterically funny. Much of the credit as always goes to the cast.
Are their any superlatives left
to describe Jean Smart's work on Hacks that all of the awards she's
received since it debuted haven't already made clear? I should add every year
she has won the Emmy the field keeps getting stronger. Last time she managed to
defeat Ayo Edebiri and Quinta Brunson, each of whom had won the year before as
actors and Selena Gomez, who was nominated for the first time for her
incredible work on Only Murders. This time out she'll be fighting it out
between those two and almost certainly such formidable contenders as Kristen
Bell for Nobody Wants This and Natasha Lyonne, back for the second
season of her masterpiece Poker Face. (There is a sign momentum may be
on Lyonne's side; she triumphed at the Astras over Smart last week.) All of
these performers are incredible no question but Smart always takes it to a
different level. This is just as true during the opening of Season 4 when she
finds herself dealing with the betrayal of what happened just a few days ago. She's
been getting out of her comfort zone ever since she and Ava started working
together but this is the NFL and for the first time, she thinks she may be in
too deep. She's also deal with trying to move forward; the scene at the end of
the second episode where she and Marcus admit their work relationship is coming
to an end is both sad and funny at the same time, which is Smart's sweet spot on
this show.
Hannah Einbinder is currently the
frontrunner for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy this year. She should
have won last year; not because The Bear isn't a comedy but because she's
as much a force to be reckoned with as Smart is. Ava has changed as much personally
for her work with Deb and has been the subject of far more abuse for three
seasons as a result. Now she's actually realized her dream, far quicker than
Deb has, and now she's beginning to face the fact that she might not nearly be as
confident as she appeared. Einbinder's character is honestly far better for the
often cringey humor that Hacks can do so well and it also shows Ava
being willing to be more physical. Desperate to make a dinner meeting that Deb
scheduled without her, she leaps on to a studio bus and is adamant about using
her phone on it. And in the second episode when Deb confronts her at her apartment
(above a mall) she starts trying to go up a down escalator before meekly
decided to turn around and stand still (her pathetic act of defiance)
The show also has an incredible double
act with Kayla and Jimmy. Paul W. Downs has been incredible ever since he took
on what seemed to be the ultimate cameo for himself. But each season Downs continues
to reach new heights as the always put upon agent who will do anything for his
clients and keeps getting subject to horrendous abuse from, well everybody. No
one takes him seriously except himself and he honestly should be able to do
better. But Jimmy is learning from experience. And one of those lessons is
never underestimate Kayla.
Meg Stalter continues to steal
every scene she is in and every line out of her mouth is funny, even when she's
serious. What's fascinating is that even Kayla has managed to grow immensely
from where she was even last season. Her job as Jimmy's partner may have been
given under extreme circumstances but those who underestimate her do so at
their peril. In the second episode Kayla hires the least likely candidate for
an assistant – a Jewish New Yorker who just came to California and now thinks
she's an atheist – and Jimmy wanted to dump her. But by the end of the episode
she has set up a website for the agency, put up a head shot and is working as
Kayla's assistant too. And while this was going on Kayla has managed to sell a pilot
for a streaming service for the animal clients she had crowded the office – a remake
of Lassie no less. Downs and Stalter deserve Emmys as much as their
female co-stars do by this point; Downs for his acting as well as everything
else and Stalter for, well, everything.
Until The Studio debuted
this past season Hacks was the unquestioned frontrunner when it came to
getting great guest actors and such is still the case in Season 4. Helen Hunt
and Tony Goldwyn are brilliant as heads of the network; Dan Bucantisky gets to
do exceptional comic work as one of the new writers in their orbit for late
night. Kaitlin Olson (who never seems to slow down) is returning for yet
another cameo as DJ and I can't wait to see Julianne Nicholson as Dance Mom.
In a world that has become
increasingly dark and chaotic and where the world of entertainment itself is
not immune from those issues (something Hacks itself has always
acknowledged and doubles down on in Season 4) it's important that we have
incredible brilliant comedies to carry us through our lives. The 2020s has had
no shortage of that and that doesn't seem likely to change any time soon. Some of
the unquestioned masterpieces of the decade have been comedies; whether they
are the just completed Somebody Somewhere and Reservation Dogs; the
still going strong Abbott Elementary and Shrinking or such
vibrant newcomers this year as Nobody Wants This, The Studio and St.
Denis Medical.
But Hacks remains a cut
above even among these unquestioned masterpieces. I ranked it the third best
show of 2021 and 2022 and it made it up to number 2 last year. I can't imagine
it finishing lower than either of those spots after a mere three episodes. It
may not be able to dominate this season: such formidable contenders as Shrinking
and Only Murders (also populated with distinguished performers) may
end up beating it for the grand prize this year. I neither know nor care that
much because as Deb Vance herself could tell you, getting to the top takes a
lot of work. Comedy is hard. It's almost criminal how easy everyone as Hacks
makes it look.
My score: 5 stars.
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