How Hacks reunited its odd-couple besties for a knockout third season
As a comedy about the pain that comes with needing to make people laugh, Hacks had a fitting finale for its second season.
Having toured across America, working on honest material and their co-dependent friendship, veteran Las Vegas comic Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and twentysomething writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) came to the end of the road. To help Ava discover herself, Deborah fired her friend and severed their relationship. It was note-perfect television.
Paul W. Downs played Deborah Vance’s sweetheart manager Jimmy in Hacks, and co-created the series with Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky.Credit: Octavia Klein
There was one small issue, however. The creators of the show, Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky, had to come back and make a third season of their hit comedy.
“We did write ourselves into a corner. We knew we wanted to get them back together relatively early in this season, but we didn’t know exactly how,” Downs says. “We also knew the main thrust of this season, but in terms of the actual reunion and what brings them back together, that’s what we talked about the most. We created a puzzle for ourselves.”
Streaming on Stan, with weekly episodes landing every Friday, Hacks is a rare comedy that became both funnier and more emotionally authentic as it has unfolded. Deborah and Ava, the odd couple as spiritual besties, have not only found a hilarious kinship, but also the means to acknowledge deeply difficult questions about themselves. Their insults are loving, their affirmation wrenching.
“I feel lucky to be making it because there are [fewer] comedies being made now than even when we had our first season. To be able to make a comedy from an original idea feels very lucky,” Downs says.
“We created a puzzle for ourselves”, says Paul W. Downs of reuniting Ava (Hannah Einbinder, left) and Deborah (Jean Smart) for season 3 of Hacks.Credit: Stan
“But the feeling hasn’t really changed because every year we want to raise the bar. We have the same nervous anticipation and excitement around the rest of the world finally seeing it.”
Downs and Aniello – a husband and wife team – and Statsky forged their creative bond on the anarchic comedy Broad City. While that show ran for five seasons, its madcap scenarios tended to reset at the end of every episode. With Hacks, they’re also aiming for five seasons, but have to structure the show so that it works as a cohesive whole. From the show’s debut in 2021, the writers have known how the final scene will play, but they have to get there in the right way.
While Hacks reveals genuine insight into the Las Vegas economy and has great fun sending up the entertainment industry – with Downs co-starring as Deborah and Ava’s sweethearted manager, Jimmy LuSaque – the show’s core is the back and forth between its two leads. Keeping them apart almost feels like a deprivation, but that’s where the new season starts.
“The first episode is different than any other we’ve done in structure. The first act is all Deborah. The second act is all Ava. The third act is when they meet,” Downs says. “There was discussion around whether we should intercut the scenes, as we did in the pilot, but we wanted to give some space to each character and have a different storytelling than we’ve done before.
“We did talk about whether they should have more time apart, but since the show is really about their love language and the friction they have when they’re together, we didn’t want to delay it too long. The promise of the show is their dynamic.”
When the creators are plotting a season or writing an episode together (both Aniello and Downs separately direct them as well), they often fall into character as Deborah or Ava when they test prospective lines. Downs believes that of the three, he does the best version of Smart’s flinty, focused Deborah – “that’s not a brag,” he adds, “rather an admission of guilt” – but deep down they’re all just revelling in their fandom.
“Our north star is that we feel like the audience. The way we think is: what’s funny in this situation? And their dynamic is obviously very funny when they’re together,” Downs says. “But as fans of these actors, it’s like we want them to come to set excited to shoot. Often times it’s just them having a tender moment together or butting heads. That’s the richness we’ve come to enjoy whether writing, shooting, or just watching.”
Coming after scene-stealing roles in Fargo, Watchmen, and Mare of Easttown, Hacks has capped a terrific career renaissance for Smart, who was starring in Designing Women back in the late 1980s.
Paul W. Downs and Megan Stalter in a scene from Hacks.
While she’s won multiple Emmys for her deeply felt portrayal of Deborah, off-screen the 72-year-old has dealt with the death of her actor husband, Richard Gilliland, during production of the first season, then surgery for a heart condition in February. It all adds to the sense of responsibility the creators feel for her.
“Having this immense talent in Jean Smart means you’ve got to put it to good use,” Downs says. “It’s one of the reasons we do feel so much pressure to raise the bar each season and make it fun not just for us and the audience, but also make it fun for her. We want her to get a script and say, ‘I can’t wait to shoot this’. Often time she does, and that’s a good barometer for us. And that’s not just a comedy scene, it can be something heartfelt or more vulnerable.
“She has the most pure and beautiful laugh, so when you make Jean laugh it just feels so good. We’re comedians, so we’re addicted to making people laugh, but Jean has such a good, rich laugh. We’re like, ‘That is the best!’ There’s an authenticity to her laugh, it’s not fake. I feel like you can fake a tear much more than a laugh.”
Hacks streams on Stan.
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