Female Film Critics 24/375
With 32 nominations and 3 Emmys, the second season of Hacks fulfills its promise as a comic examination of female friendship.
The series picks up where it left off – as stand-up comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) recovers from bombing in her final Las Vegas performance, losing her long-time residency at the glitzy Palmetto Casino. “It’s not my town anymore,” she sadly admits, acknowledging the rapidly-shifting entertainment landscape.
The writing in Season 2 is just as sharp as in the mother series. When Ava asks Deborah how many stalkers she actually has, Deborah fires back: “Living?” Ava and Deborah develop into characters who mesh more often than they abrade. They talk sex. One sues and one teaches the other to float. They laugh at each other’s lines. Or not. The subplots introduce strong storylines, including Ava’s burden of her father’s ashes and, at the fair, Deborah’s finding a woman she’d betrayed years before.
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Jean Smart plays Deborah Vance, a legendary stand-up comedienne who is struggling to retain her Las Vegas residency. Much to her dismay, the casino CEO (Christopher McDonald) tells her that she has to work with Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), a 25 year-old Los Angeles TV comedy writer with a very different approach to crafting humor.
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