No Joy in Hacks

Spoilers for Hacks ahead. Maybe. You've been warned.

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My husband and I both loved the first three seasons of Hacks, which shows on MAX. The show is about an older female comedian Deborah Vance (played by Jean Smart) who takes on a young writer Ava Daniels (played by Hannah Einbinder), and how they work together to make Vance's career improve. Together they create a gateway to stardom.

Season 3 ended with Ava blackmailing Vance in order to get the head writer's job as Vance became the first female late night talk show host.

Season 4 has, in my opinion, been perfectly awful.

Oh, it's well acted, and I see accolades online about it, but I have not found anything funny about it. The hostility between the leads has been beyond the pale and so over the top as to be stomach churningly disgusting.

I do not find hate and bitterness funny. I find it sad.

The trampling of a relationship, even one that may be salvaged by the season's end, is nothing to laugh about. I appreciate a little tension as much as anyone, but not vile hatred.

The boss/underling dynamic is overwrought, and the supporting characters are, generally speaking, not helping anything one bit. I don't care about the agent and his co-agent woman, nor do I care about the HR lady who must keep Deborah and Ava from snapping at one another. I don't know the names of any of the other writers for the make-believe late-night show, nor do I care to know them. There has been no reason for me to care.

There have been good moments, and the acting is superb for what it is, but they have taken away what I liked about the show. I liked the relationship between Deborah and Ava, I liked that there was an older woman making friends with a younger woman, and that they both were trying to learn about each other's worlds. That was what I liked.

I don't like the constant sniping and bitchiness.

The show that just dropped offered a glimmer of hope that the last few episodes may turn things around a bit, but if the next episode isn't an improvement, I don't know that I will finish out the season.