It’s been almost a year since the darkly hilarious duo of Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) stormed into our lives in Season 1 of Hacks. The two comedians, decades apart in age and with different perspectives on just about everything, formed a strange bond: at times supportive, at most others extremely antagonistic. Now, with Season 2 swiftly approaching, we get to see how that bond holds up.
Season 2 of Hacks picks up where Season 1 left off: Deborah and Ava are going on tour to workshop new, more personal material. Meanwhile, Ava is trying to cover up a scorching, revealing e-mail she sent to writers who were hoping to use Deborah’s life as material for an upcoming TV show. If Deborah finds out, who knows what hell she’ll unleash?
There are a lot of plates for showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky to juggle, including expanded stories involving Deborah’s CEO Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins), Deborah and Ava’s agent Jimmy (Downs), and Jimmy’s assistant Kayla (Megan Stalter). While Hacks Season 2 struggles a bit to keep those plates in the air at first, it’s still as cutting and engaging as ever, building steam throughout.
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder continue to kill it
Credit: Karen Ballard / HBO Max
Smart and Einbinder’s onscreen dynamic was unquestionably the highlight of Season 1, and it’s no surprise that it remains compelling in Season 2. By the end of Hacks’ first season, Deborah and Ava figured out that they can work well together. Now the root of their conflict shifts, focusing more on the threat of Deborah discovering Ava’s betrayal.
It’s not quite as powerful as the clash of personalities that made Hacks‘ first season such fun, but Aniello, Downs, and Statsky continue to mine Deborah and Ava’s differences — and similarities — for gold. Some things haven’t changed: Deborah still roasts Ava’s fashion and hands, while Ava takes every chance she gets to grandstand in the name of social causes. However, these moments now feel less hostile and more like good-natured ribbing.
Don’t get me wrong: There’s still plenty of animosity (that e-mail isn’t going away anytime soon), and the power dynamic between the two is still very clear. In one brutal scene, Deborah compliments another stand-up comedian on all the things she usually disparages Ava for right in front of her, using the comic as a pawn in their disputes. It’s a reminder of how petty and selfish these characters can be — and I love it.
Through all their highs and lows, Deborah and Ava (and Smart and Einbinder) remain an unbeatable TV pair.
Smart won an Emmy for her performance as Deborah in Season 1, and she may very well earn another. She’s viciously funny, disguising Deborah’s vulnerability under a hardened exterior of barbed retorts. This season is all about Deborah rebuilding herself: She’s left Las Vegas, which she thought of as her town, and she’s trying new material. These changes destabilize Deborah in a way that couldn’t have happened had she stayed in Vegas. Hacks Season 2 peels back the layers of her character and her past, resulting in some fascinating revelations about her relationships with her daughter, other female comedians, and the men in her life.
The shift from Vegas to the road destabilizes Ava as well, especially since she’s dealing with the recent death of her father. Her grief gives Einbinder a chance to showcase her dramatic acting chops — and she nails it. Unsurprisingly, she nails everything else as well, including her frantic scramble to deal with the e-mail and her dilemma over whether to just come clean to Deborah. She and Smart go toe-to-toe at all times, whether they’re digging through trash or having a frank discussion about sexuality. Through all their highs and lows, Deborah and Ava (and Smart and Einbinder) remain an unbeatable TV pair.
Hacks doesn’t quite know what to do with its side characters yet
Credit: Courtesy of HBO Max
The only problem with having main characters this strong and with such a magnificent rapport is that it highlights which side characters are less developed and have less to do. In Season 1, characters in Deborah and Ava’s orbits were so completely defined by their relationships to Hacks’ leads that they fizzled out by themselves. Even the storyline about Marcus’s relationship with Wilson (Johnny Sibilly) revolved around Marcus’s inability to separate himself from his job working for Deborah.
In Season 2, with Deborah and Ava leaving Vegas, side characters who may have been underutilized previously get more of a chance to come into their own. Unfortunately, these side storylines, such as Marcus’s recovery from his breakup, or Jimmy and Kayla’s hijinks, are rarely as dynamic as the main plot, and they end up feeling disjointed from the rest of the series. Jimmy and Kayla in particular, as hilarious as they are, sometimes feel like they’re in an entirely different show. Meanwhile, Deborah’s daughter DJ (Kaitlin Olson) and blackjack dealer Kiki (Poppy Liu) are basically out of the picture for most of the season. Even new recurring characters like Deborah’s tour manager Weed, played by Laurie Metcalf, feel less like supporting characters and more like one-note gags.
Luckily, this problem begins to subside as the season continues. Kayla gets more development beyond “world’s worst assistant,” and Hacks falls into its rhythm again once more of its cast reunites. However, it’s important that non-Deborah and Ava characters be able to stand on their own, and Hacks doesn’t quite appear to be at that point yet.
Hacks Season 2 may start slow, but it’s building to something great
Leaving Las Vegas and further expanding on side characters’ plotlines aren’t Hacks Season 2’s only deviations from Season 1. Perhaps the biggest difference is that Deborah’s act is no longer crushing it. Her new material leaves people unsatisfied and confused, but her frustration at continuing to bomb fuels her to keep trying.
Deborah’s failure to gain momentum on her tour means the first few episodes may move a bit more slowly than you’d expect. But don’t doubt for a minute that Hacks has lost its magic. The jokes still land, and Deborah and Ava’s interactions are consistently golden. The six episodes sent out for screening get better as they go, including a cruise ship episode that takes Deborah’s ego to staggering heights and a trip to a state fair that turns into a reckoning for everyone. I can’t wait for whatever the final two episodes of Season 2 have in store, and I’ll gladly hitch a ride with Deborah and Ava wherever they’re going next.
The first two episodes of Hacks Season 2 hit HBO Max May 12, with two new episodes releasing weekly.
