It’s no secret on this page that I tend to favor movies over TV. I can’t fully explain why but movies just happen to provide me more interest and intrigue at this moment in my life. TV also just really hasn’t been doing it for me this year. I’ve watched a few shows and seasons but barely anything I’ve felt compelled to write about. Hacks is the first show this year I feel like I was actually excited to watch each week. I looked forward to every new episode and made sure to prioritize the experience (no multitasking with the show on in the background). 

I have always found this show to be special and the third season was no exception. In a similar way to shows like The Bear and Succession, Hacks manages to be both incredibly funny but also deeply human and emotional. However, that is where the similarities with those other shows end (for the most part, more on that later). Hacks doesn’t echo the vibes of either of the other shows and tends to be overall lighter, leaning much closer into a traditional comedy. If you haven’t watched Hacks, it follows the professional and personal relationship between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comic, and Ava Daniels, an entitled, outcast 25-year-old comedy writer. Both the comedy and the drama come from their dynamic and differences as they learn more about the entertainment business and world as a whole from each other. 

While this central relationship is at the heart of every moment, the series, and this season in particular, covers a wide range of topics in really intelligent ways. The main storyline of season 3 is Deborah’s pursuit of becoming the host of a late night talk show. This has been her lifelong dream and career goal. Earlier in her life, she was given the opportunity, but had it taken away after messiness in her personal life became a PR disaster. One of the show’s writers/creators posed the question in reference to this story arc, “Is it better to have your dream for one second or never get it at all?” I find that to be a fascinating question to which I personally have no answer. I really don’t know. Tennyson said the often quoted, “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” which is essentially the same. But is it better to have experienced something great and then lost it or to not even know what you’re missing? (What do you guys think? Comment section is open!) Deborah is haunted by her proximity to achieving her goals. She didn’t get close. She had it. And then she lost it. When first exploring these themes, the show takes a rare stylistic venture, showing flashes of young Deborah in the mirror. Deep down, she is still that person. She is still the person who worked so hard and gave everything she had to get to this point in her career and missing out on this opportunity still hurts just as much now as it did then. And she still wants it just as much. The only difference this time is that she’s scared to want it because she knows how painful it will be to open herself up to losing it again. And maybe even worse, if you do get your dream after going after it so single-mindedly for so long, what was the cost of getting there? Was it worth it? Deborah is a character who has been hardened by life experience and often uses humor as a defense mechanism (I mean, she is a comedian), but this storyline really showcases her true vulnerability in brilliant and moving ways.

A phrase that is inescapable these days in the world of entertainment and particularly comedy is “cancel culture”. It seems like the general public (mostly the internet) tries to “cancel” or takedown a celebrity every other day for something they said in the past or said now or did or posted or whatnot. Sometimes rightfully so. Sometimes not. Hacks isn’t necessarily in the business of preaching or pushing agendas. It actually makes jokes of how ridiculous and hypocritical Ava’s far-left, overly PC opinions can be sometimes (the reason she has to work with Deborah in the first place is because she loses her job over an insensitive tweet). However, it would be nearly impossible to create a realistic show about comedy in today’s age without addressing cancel culture. Deborah is in her 70s and has been a working comedian for most of her life. Times change but the internet is forever and, as her notoriety grows, some of her older work surfaces on the online causing outrage and calls for her cancellation. When this happens to a celebrity, they usually respond in one of two ways: either present a blanket apology or double down and get defensive. While I think the apology is always better if you had to choose, neither fully gets to the crux of the issue. Hacks attempts to. Of course not being a perfect person, Deborah initially goes on the defensive, claiming “you never apologize for a joke”. But, eventually, when forced face-to-face with her past mistakes, she takes the secret third option and decides to listen. People don’t need to be punished for their opinions from years ago if those opinions no longer reflect how they feel. People can learn and grow and change their minds over time. Sometimes they need help. Sometimes they don’t understand why their opinions are wrong or outdated. Most people get defensive when others try to explain to them why they are wrong and I think that’s a major reason we have so much division in this country: people are so set in their ways and don’t want to listen to each other or change their minds. And sometimes the public refuses to forgive or accept that a person has changed their mind. But the world is going to continue to change around us and, if we don’t change with it, then we will eventually end up being wrong and outdated. I think Hacks handles this really timely topic so well without shoving it in your face. It’s not enough to apologize and move on and getting defensive solves nothing. You have to make the effort to understand why you were wrong so you can grow as a person and be better in the future. We all make mistakes and no one should be canceled for being human. That doesn’t make you a bad person. One mistake doesn’t define who you are unless you refuse to grow from it.

Okay, now getting off my soapbox, in a much smaller plotline this season, I also loved the way the show addressed the idea of fandom. This also feels particularly relevant in today’s culture but is relevant to me personally as a self-described “fangirl”. Deborah’s COO and close friend and advisor, Marcus, has a conversation with a Deborah super-fan named Reggie after Marcus grows frustrated with feeling like Deborah has left him behind in her newfound fame. Giving full credit to the writing team here for this impeccably written scene, I’m including the exact dialogue.

Marcus: I’m just pissed off. She owes us so much, and she’s letting everyone down… again.

Reggie: Well, this is what happens. You can’t stop being a fan now that she’s got more of them. We loved her before anybody else did. And she loved us before anybody else did. That’s not nothing. We just have to share her now.

Marcus: Doesn’t that make you mad?

Reggie: No. It just means we were right all along. Nobody’s ever gonna know Deborah like we do. She’s a survivor. Like us.

Marcus: Well, she’s always looking out for herself, so yeah.

Reggie: You know, first time I saw her she was performing at a bowling alley. It was right after the divorce, but she was so funny about it and I was howling. She was at rock bottom but somehow it felt like she was on top of the world. She made me feel like I could be on top. Like I could laugh at all of the sad things that were happening to me too.

This conversation says so much about the experience of being a fan. And a particular part of fandom that has been on my mind a lot recently surrounding an artist some of you may know, Chappell Roan. Yes, I am that annoying person who will jump at the chance to tell anyone who will listen that I was a fan of Chappell way before she blew up. And now that she is finally getting the recognition she deserves, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I am personally happy for her success (I feel like a proud mom!) and feel validated that I was on to something early on. But on the other, I feel like Marcus in this scene. The bigger she gets (she is really exploding at an exponential rate right now), the less she feels like she belongs to me and the more I feel like I have to share her with the rest of the world. Never passing up an opportunity to talk about Taylor Swift on this blog, I always say that Taylor Swift is my favorite artist and, unfortunately, she just happens to be millions of other people’s favorite artist too. I wasn’t her first fan, not even close. But I was definitely on this train before many of the millions who are on it today. Does that mean I deserve more from Taylor? Does that mean I’m better than any other fan? I think a lot of fans would like to think so. Fandom has become so competitive with who was here first, who knows more, who cares more – essentially, who is the bigger fan? But why does it matter? Can’t we all just be fans and bond over our shared interests instead of constantly trying to prove we deserve to be here in the first place? 

Fandoms have become increasingly complicated and Swifties in particular are a thorny bunch. I’ll be the first to admit we get a bad rap. For a long time, I didn’t even want to associate myself with the rest of the fandom for that reason. I argued there was a difference between being a fan and being a Swiftie, which there is. But I reached a point where I had to admit I was more than just a fan. I think the stereotype is mostly undeserved, society writing off young girls’ and women’s interests as stupid or crazy, but there definitely are some dark corners. Mostly a sense of ownership and defensiveness over a human being none of us really know. A parasocial relationship that forms between fan and celebrity. This scene from Hacks shows the negatives of that relationship in feeling like, as fans, we are owed something from the object of our obsession (spoiler alert: we aren’t). The relationship is of course mutually beneficial at its core where the stars give us content and we give them admiration and fame. Oh, and money. But just because some fans go above and beyond in their devotion doesn’t mean they are owed anything extra. Or anything at all for that matter. This unspoken contract can be terminated at any time. Stars are humans too and have to put their own needs (and then the needs of a bunch of other people) before their fans. But the scene also highlights the positives of these parasocial relationships. When we feel like these stars really see us and know us, when they show that they have the same feelings and problems that we do, well that connection is why we are fans in the first place. So yeah, the experience of being a fan changes over time as we change as people, the celebrity changes, and the fandom changes. We are all fans in different ways. I know that was a bit of a tangent and not totally relevant to the main plot of the show but I had just never seen this topic addressed so clearly and poignantly but also with such a positive spin on a scenario many fans fear, when someone or something that feels so personal to you doesn’t belong to just you anymore. 

I feel like this post has been mostly tangents that aren’t primarily reflective of the show at hand. So to bring it back around, I think this is one of the best shows on television. It really has it all and does it all well. The human moments are real. I genuinely cry at Deborah and Ava’s moments of connection and for their triumphs and despairs. The humor is so funny. I love all of the entertainment industry jokes and Kayla (my girl Meg Stalter whose career I’ve been following since she was posting videos on Twitter) is everything. I laugh every time she opens her mouth. But even she has evolved from a two-dimensional side character to a fully-formed major player as the show has gone on and her dynamic with Jimmy is a different side of the coin from the Deborah/Ava relationship. This season also boasted an impressive roster of guest stars including Christina Hendricks, Tony Goldwyn, Helen Hunt, Christopher Lloyd, and, most importantly to me, J. Smith-Cameron, or, as many of you know her, Gerri from Succession. I was so excited to see her on this show because I love her as Gerri so much but it was really strange to see her playing a totally different role on Hacks. Speaking of Succession, the season ends on a very Succession-level dramatic moment. Without giving too much away, there is an explosive fight and then a surprising version of reconciliation. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder’s (Deborah and Ava, respectively) names should have come up paragraphs ago as they are truly the anchors of this show. But their performances in the finale episode are especially stunning. Season 3 has set us up for a really interesting season 4 that I wish I didn’t have to wait to watch. Please do yourself a favor and watch this show.

Spoiler Section: Yes, this entire season was great, but I cannot stop thinking about the finale so I needed to take some time to talk about it. I thought this was going to be another season that ended in a breakup for Deborah and Ava and then they would spend the next season finding their way back to each other again. A fine ending, but we’ve kind of been there, done that. But then when Ava buys the bottle of champagne at the convenience store, I thought she was deciding to bite the bullet and go back to Deborah. The champagne was a peace offering, calling back to their fight, a sign that Deborah didn’t have to drink it alone because she would always have Ava. I was slightly infuriated by this possible ending. Why should Ava have to go crawling back to Deborah after the way Deborah treated her? Would she always have to settle and cave to others’ whims to have any success? But no. The real ending is much more complex. The champagne was not a peace offering. It was for Ava to consume in her own loneliness, the next step in her transformation into the Deborah mold. Ava has become the monster Deborah both intentionally and unintentionally created.

Not just this season, but since the beginning of the series, Deborah has been imparting her wisdom onto Ava. “Be a shark.” “Be selfish.” Ambition over everything. Deborah always put herself and her goals first, doing absolutely whatever it took to get ahead, not caring who she hurt along the way. This was something Ava always disliked about Deborah, but now, with her dream job slipping from her grasp, she puts Deborah’s teachings to use in the ultimate power play. The people you are closest to, the ones who understand you the best, can hurt you the most as we see in the vicious fight between the two women. They have a way of bringing out the worst in each other. I really loved seeing this darker, ruthless side of Ava and so did Deborah, in a way.

I’ve seen this ending compared to the ending of season 2 of Succession when Kendall exposes his father on live television and Logan watches with a smile. He’s not happy about the outcome, but he has newfound respect for his son. Deborah reacts the same way. She’s shocked but also impressed and proud. She might finally view Ava as an equal, a worthy opponent in this new feud. I am so curious to see how this plays out moving into next season. It will definitely be hard to work together because it’s hard rooting for the success of someone you are angry with, but they need each other to be successful for themselves to be successful. They’ve tied themselves and their careers together in that way. That’s where I agree with what Ava said in their fight about how she shouldn’t have gotten the job based on their relationship because Deborah likes her but because their relationship makes the work that much better. I ultimately do think they will end up on friendly terms despite the toxic nature of their relationship just because while the show is realistic, the tone is somehow still optimistic.

This finale completely subverted my expectations and managed to create a fresh take on the show’s usual formula. Their fight broke my heart and then Ava’s turn gave me actual chills. What a high note for an already incredible season.

2024 Count: 14 seasons/specials, 27 movies