Episodic Reactions: Hacks Season Two, Week One
The HBO Max comedy starts its second season overburdened by the end of its first
[While Episodic Medium is committed to the practice of reviewing every episode of the shows it covers, the practical reality is that this is difficult with shows that release multiple episodes at a time, whether in the form of a binge release or the chaotic practice of releasing an impossible to determine number of episodes each week. As such, for some series I’ll be relying on “Episodic Reactions” to offer review-like responses to those series, with the first available to all subscribers and subsequent reactions exclusively for paid subscribers.]
The ending of Hacks’ first season was always my biggest criticism.
I enjoyed the show, and even wrote its blurb for The A.V. Club’s Best of TV list for 2021, but the way the finale pivoted to one of my least favorite TV tropes was a real concern. Ava’s email was the show acting like in order for it to keep moving, there needed to be a high stakes gambit that could destroy her relationship with Deborah, and it seemed to me to be a fundamental misread of the show’s depths. There is enough natural tension both between Ava and Deborah and within Deborah’s attempt at career reinvention to sustain a TV show: why do we also need to introduce the kind of secret that could tear that all apart, turning the show into a pins and needles affair for no particular reason?
So it’s something of a relief that Ava only lasts two episodes before she reveals the truth about the email to Deborah, diffusing the bomb the show introduced. But it’s still frustrating that the show feels Deborah needs to be literally suing Ava to maintain conflict between them, and it strikes me as an over-complication of a story that has plenty of depths to explore without it. The first episodes of Hacks’ second season are occasionally very funny, but they also feel burdened by the excessive plot of the affair, with Deborah’s standup career and the writing process fueling it really seeming like an afterthought.
The premiere, “There Will Be Blood,” works better out of the two episodes because it’s meant to feel a bit overburdened with the aftermath of the previous season, with the email being only one small part of the work being done. Collectively, the episodic is setting the show up to leave Las Vegas, giving Deborah the chance to feel the weight of her departure. The crimson mask Deborah ends up with during the MMA fight was silly, but the fight is a chance for her to see first hand how quickly the tide shifted. Vegas was the one place where she treated like royalty, and yet overnight it’s MC Ludwig getting the cageside interview, another older woman on Marty’s arm, and sweating from having to walk around to the main entrance instead of coming in the back. The bad review from a Vegas paper may not sink her career, but it confirms that what was once her professional and personal safe haven is gone, along with her tour manager (deceased) and her makeup team (Blue Man Group).
But when “Quid Pro Quo” puts Ava and Deborah on the road, the show kind of stops dead to confront the email, and it’s just a less interesting version of the show. It doesn’t help that after the premiere brings the entire cast into the equation, the second outing drops Marcus entirely—he only gets a quick scene writing off his water cop boyfriend in the premiere as it is, and there’s not even an effort to discuss how his story is evolving. Instead, we just get Ava and Deborah dancing around the truth about the email, with Jimmy driving full-long into the inevitable moment where he makes immense sacrifices to suppress the email only to learn Ava told Deborah on her own. And while there’s some fun physical comedy in Ava dodging Deborah’s projectiles, and I did enjoy the way Deborah is all “What, have you never been in litigation before?” there’s so much potential in this story engine that spending so much time diffusing this bomb just didn’t make the connection I know the show is capable of.
Going on the road does mean that the show is likely to become “smaller” to some extent: it’s not a coincidence that the premiere gives Deborah’s daughter a major storyline, and while moving her into Deborah’s house means they can still tell stories there if they want, it does seem like that was meant to be some closure given it will be a while before they return to Vegas. And I get that the show likes when Ava and Deborah are fighting, and creating a situation where Deborah wants to keep working with her while also suing her for breaking an NDA isn’t a terrible story. But I found it hard during the premiere to not mentally erase the email in its entirety, and picturing a show that is just as interesting, and might have been able to fill that space with more organic conflicts and more time on the actual comedy that gets roughly 30 seconds of screen time in which Ava used an iPad as a camera like a Boomer tourist. Obviously, we’re only two episodes into the season, and revealing the email creates space for the show to move beyond it. It’s still deflating, though, to see Hacks trying to get out of its own way instead of being able to stride confidently into its second season, and thus I’m hopeful they’re able to settle into a better gait in the coming weeks.
Stray observations
I tweeted about this, but I really did need to take some deep breaths when I saw the final scene of “There Will Be Blood.” I may not be a physicist, but I am a person who lives by the laws of physics in this universe, and thus I can safely say that the paintball scene is an affront to any and all such laws. Even if we accept that a paintball could travel the distance the show suggests, the idea it would explode into what appear to be 3-foot paint splatters from that distance? I need to go lie down.
And yes, I was also annoyed by the bad visual effects in the “zoom into the car from the landscape” scene that opens the second episode, but their in-car driving plate work is actually pretty good, so I’ll take that as consolation.
It was inevitable that Kayla would end up back on Jimmy’s desk, and I really do find Meg Stalter funny, but I am curious what kind of story they want to tell for Jimmy beyond him just being absolutely miserable in his job. Paul W. Downs is listed as “recurring” on the show’s Wikipedia page, but he is a much more significant anchor in these episodes—will that be changing and he settles back into a smaller presence, or is it a sign of a rebalancing of sorts as the story dictates?
Along similar lines, I don’t know if we’re keeping Martha Kelly’s H.R. czar or Ming-Na Wen’s rival agent, but they were fun cameos, and I wouldn’t be mad even if I do sort of want the story to shift away from the agency and back toward Marcus.
Housekeeper Josefina probably won’t be around as much with Deborah on the road, but Rose Abdoo killed me with the idea that she has a connection at Valspar.
So, I actually can’t commit to weekly coverage of Hacks, since I’m going to be out of the country in its third week. But I will write something next week, and if there’s enough engagement among subscribers I’ll throw up a discussion post for Week 3 to publish while I’m away, and then pop back in for the finale the following week. I’ll publish them as soon as I’ve seen the episodes (which could, like today, mean Thursday), but the emails will go out on Fridays to avoid doubling up with Zack’s Strange New Worlds coverage.
agree that the whole email drama is kind of overwrought and dragging down the story a little, but you gotta admit, that scene at the roadside gas station when Deborah learns that Helen Mirren is attached and she starts chucking tourmaline and screaming, "OF *COURSE* IT'S GOING TO SERIES!!" was funny as hell. (as was her purchase of the reusable cup, a callback to early S1, explaining, "...it offsets my private jet!")
it's not often that we get a narrative centered around a woman of Smart's age, and even less often that the woman in question is someone that people should be afraid of, both materially and physically. to play a character that is so jaded, wise, and confident on the surface, and watching that hardened exterior crumble when she sees Marty publicly flaunting his relationship with an older woman or reading a bad review of her act in the hometown paper, we understand exactly why she built up those walls in the first place. i could watch Jean Smart do this kind of character work every single night for the rest of my life.
I'm in complete agreement. There is so much great story to be mined just from two different generations of comedians working together on the road to develop an act. All this extra drama with the email and the lawsuit is not as appealing to me. I love comedy, love comedians, and love simply seeing process at work, but I don't know that this show -- which could give me all of those things -- is necessarily aiming for that.
That being said, Einbinder, Smart, and Downs are all so good I will likely stick with this for the rest of the season.
P.S. As the unrealistic paintball and weird CG bothered you, I was left to wonder how they stopped at the very recognizable (and about one-hour from Los Angeles) Charlie Brown Farms on a drive from Las Vegas to Flagstaff. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is some sort of a magic car or something?