The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning comedy series returns for a fourth season this week. It's about two women — a successful comic/TV personality in her 70s, and her 20-something comedy writer — and the generational clashes that ensue. We're revisiting interviews with stars Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, and Paul W. Downs who co-created the series and plays their manager. Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews Warfare, a movie about U.S. Navy SEALs.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm TV critic David Bean Cooley. Hacks, the very funny TV series about an older Vegas-style stand-up comic and the generational differences between her and her younger comedy writer, returned to HBO Max last night for its fourth season.
Today, we feature our interviews with Jean Smart, who stars as Deborah Vance, the older comic, with Hannah Einbinder, who plays her young comedy writer, Ava, and with Paul W. Downs, who co-created, co-writes, and co-stars as their talent manager, Jimmy. As the new season begins, Debra and Ava are embarking on new jobs.
Debra as the first female host of a big three network late night show, and Ava as her head writer. It's a job she got by defying Debra, which changes their dynamic dramatically. Debra makes that clear on day one when she walks unannounced into Ava's new office.
Well, aren't you a big, brave girl?
I guess I am. It's for the best.
We'll see. That's what's happening now on Hacks. But let's go back to the beginning and start with Jean Smart, who spoke with Terry Gross when the show premiered on Max in 2021. Smart's comedic timing was obvious in the 1980s sitcom Designing Women and again in the early 2000s when she won two Emmys for her guest starring role on Frasier.
More recently, she's played some pretty tough women in the TV series Fargo and Legion and in the HBO crime drama Mayor of Easttown. When Hacks begins, the career of Deborah Vance is in decline. In an attempt to save her career, Jimmy pairs her with a young woman comedy writer, Ava, whom he also manages.
Neither wants to meet with the other, but they do, and Ava reluctantly flies to Vegas to meet with Deborah. At one of their first meetings, Deborah tells Ava the jokes she's written for her aren't funny. Then Deborah asks if Ava is a lesbian. Ava responds that Debra is her employer, which makes it inappropriate for her to ask.
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