‘Hacks’ Is Back With Its Best Season Yet

This Week

Hacks Is Better Than Ever

I offer my sincerest apologies to my neighbors who heard me yell “KISS!” at my TV screen while watching the season premiere of Hacks.

It is basic and lazy to reduce the character dynamic between Deborah (Jean Smart) and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) to sexual tension. And yet I am nothing if not basic and lazy—it’s probably why I’m still single. So it was impossible to ignore that these two actresses have created the most exhilarating dynamic between two characters that I’ve seen on TV in years.

Following its Emmy win for Best Comedy Series, Hacks is now back for Season 4, and is unrelenting. The jokes are vicious. The relationships between its characters are toxic. It’s breathtaking television.

We’re finally in a sweet spot for great television—The White Lotusand The Pitt are excellent, Michelle Williams is giving the best performance of her career in Dying for Sex, and The Last of Us is about to return with a season even better than the last. Hacks belongs in that conversation with them. It is comedy done at the sharpest and smartest level, with some of the most fascinating performances on television. There’s a reason Jean Smart wins every award there is for her work as Deborah, and Hannah Einbinder should be holding trophies next to her after every ceremony.

If you’re like me, you’ve watched the final scene from Season 3 of Hacks once a week since it aired. The fallout from that intense showdown between Deborah and Ava, in which Ava blackmails her way to a head writer job on Deborah’s late-night show, is the starting point of Season 4. Suffice it to say, these characters are not on good terms.

Ava is trying to assert confidence and authority worthy of her new job. Deborah, offended by the blackmail, is trying her best to get Ava fired. Neither is fully succeeding at their mission. This standoff works because of the rich history these actresses have imbued their characters’ relationship with. Both the hurt and the pettiness exudes in every interaction. Watching Ava flail and Deborah feign “I’m better than this” is endlessly fascinating.

Hacks has a deep bench of supporting players, including co-creator Paul W. Downs as Deborah and Ava’s manager—caught in the middle of their feud—Meg Stalter as his assistant, Carl Clemons-Hopkins as Deborah’s chief of staff, and Helen Hunt as the head of the network. The show has perfected its dosage of how much to rely on these supporting scene-stealers. You know them enough to be invested in their own tangential storylines, but the show doesn’t waste time diverting your attention away from the Deborah and Ava of it all.

With two episodes available to watch now, Hacks is giving The Studio a run for the smartest comedy on TV right now. Interestingly, both skewer show business. At a time when we’re desperate for good content to distract us from [glances outside] everything, it’s fun to have TV shows that do that while also lampooning the industry itself. The call is coming from inside the house.

Today’s Top Entertainment News

Who Should Check in to The White Lotus?

The White Lotus finale aired, and everyone has thoughts and questions. Please, tell me more about your quibbles with this season and it being slow. You’re so cool, not liking this thing everyone else is obsessed over. Do you, like, smoke cigarettes and take your coffee black? (I’m so uncool that those are my go-to references for what would be cool.)

The producers and HBO are already thinking about Season 4. Therefore, so are we. This week, beyond suspecting that I should never let my father offer to make my family piña coladas again, the biggest question on my mind has been who should be cast in Season 4.

I’ve spent more time than I care to admit thinking about this cast list. Each person came to me like a deranged, pop-culture-pilled epiphany. I’d be on the subway: Calista Flockhart! Mid bite of the pizza I bought for dinner even though I’m on a diet: Michaela Watkins!! Having a conversation with a friend about who would be good on The White Lotus and they said Allison Williams: Allison Williams!

So, without knowing what the setting or theme of Season 4 will be, here is my random list of who I think would be great on the show:

Calista Flockhart

Taylor Schilling

Justina Machado

Rob Delaney

Molly Gordon

Allison Williams

Alison Tolman

Dan Stevens

Patricia Clarkson

Jack Reynor

Raul Castillo

Susan Kelechi-Watson

Michaela Watkins

Ncuti Gatwa

Laura Benanti

Andrew Barth Feldman

Erika Alexander

Jay Ellis

Catriona Balfe

Constance Wu

Abby Elliott

Manny Jacinto

HBO, I accept Venmo and Paypal, should you need my services as a casting consultant.

Peace Has Been Restored

There is a day in every gay man’s life where one of his elders has to sit him down and tell him the devastating, confusing news: Madonna and Elton John hated each other.

It didn’t make sense! It was so upsetting. The entire Pride Flag rainbow would blur in front of their eyes as they struggled to process the news.

This week, however, progress was made! In separate social media posts, the pop stars declared a truce.

If Madonna and Elton John can find peace, maybe there’s hope for the rest of us.

A Prince Among Men

I hope you’ve been watching The Pitt. It is genuinely the most exciting new drama series I’ve watched in years. The season finale aired this week, so star Noah Wyle, who is also a producer and writer on the show, has been doing his dutiful press. But this tidbit about how he asked people to not be scrolling phones on the set and even started a library to help with that ask is just so charming.

Advertisement

You Have to Be Kidding

Every day “this is like a 30 Rock joke” becomes less of a joke and more of our daily existence.

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

Drop:Meghann Fahy makes everything worth watching. (Now in theaters)

Warfare: The most nerve-rattling war movie in years. (Now in theaters)

G20: Even Viola Davis makes bad movies sometimes. (Now on Prime Video)

Advertisement

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.