‘Hacks’ Season 2, More Introspective But Just as Funny, Embraces Chaos With a Steady Hand: TV Review
06.05.2022 - 20:33
/ variety.com
Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticIf you’re already a fan of “Hacks,” chances are you’re one of two kinds of viewers. Either you’re in it for the prickly dynamic between Gen Z writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) and legendary stand-up comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), or you try to ignore Ava and instead focus on TV veteran Smart, playing the woman writing Ava’s checks with perfectly acidic disdain.
In the first season of HBO Max’s Emmy-winning series, Ava’s acute sense of entitlement made her a particularly controversial character, even though the show made sure that she never escaped the consequences of her terrible instincts. As “Hacks” illustrated over and over again, Ava learning more from Deborah than she’d ever admit — and Deborah facing the same truth in the reverse — was the entire point.
The second season of “Hacks,” which premieres May 12, once again depends on the push and pull between this odd couple, even as it sands off some of its rougher edges. The premiere finds Ava in a much different (read: extremely humbled) place, bracing for the consequences from the Season 1 finale.
At the end of last season, Ava drunkenly emailed some snotty producers a list of Deborah’s biggest faults, right before her father died. Shaken, grieving, and terrified that she might lose Deborah’s hard-earned trust and respect, Ava spends much of the six episodes screened for critics (out of eight in total) practically groveling at her employer’s feet.
After devoting so much time deriding Deborah’s entire existence in the first season, Ava now wants nothing more than to impress and protect the legend as they go on the road together.For those viewers who never liked Ava, this evolution might come as a welcome surprise. For the rest of us,
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