One is less a criticism of Hacks than it is frustration with the heights of its praise. KVA: Yes, there are two separate threads here. The grand heights of this second season (I’m specifically thinking of the balcony scene in the finale) make a lot of the meh worth it. It comes across in the way Hacks fundamentally considers Deborah Vance - it’s always generous in its interpretation and presentation of her, even when the conflict turns comical - and how all its major characters ultimately care about each other. Still, I do share some of your criticisms, and the second season suffered from an overconfidence that made a lot of its first-season weaknesses even worse: clunky dialogue failing to dig into its conceit of an aging female comedian by reconsidering her history, choices, and place in the world the actual stand-up not being that convincing.īut! There’s an essential sweetness to the show that speaks to me and, I think, many others. I liked the first season quite a lot, and I think it’s one of the better things I saw last year. Nicholas Quah: Hacks is not perfect, but it’s certainly not bad. The best compliment I can give Hacks is that it seems like there’s a much sharper show trapped inside of it, screaming, “Let me out.” Many of the supporting roles are filled with stock characters I cannot forgive the sin of casting Laurie Metcalf and then giving her an Aunt Jackie pastiche. I find everything involving Stalter’s character’s obsession with Paul W. Ava might as well be a collection of quirks described in a Shouts & Murmurs piece about the youth. Deborah feels like an outside-in replication of Joan Rivers that misses her core. Most of the dialogue is clunky, and the characterization is rote. But Hacks doesn’t have the deftness or critical perspective to pull its setup into something compelling. I like the concept of a show about the compromises you make working as a comedian. My relationship to this show is like my relationship with cilantro: Many people I know and respect keep saying they love its flavor, but it tastes like soap to me. Jackson McHenry: It’s thrilling for me to be given the platform to share my long-held opinion that, yes, Hacks is bad. It reveals truths about comedy! It speaks to the cuspy zoomer–boomer divide in a way nothing else can! Meg Stalter! … Women! But the end of season two feels like the time to step back from last year’s well-deserved Jean Smart: National Treasure campaign and consider the show with a more critical eye.
SWINSIAN HACKS FULL
Kathryn VanArendonk: We are gathered here today to take up a question that some of us have been whispering to each other quietly for two full seasons now: What, exactly, is quite so earth-shattering about Hacks? The HBOMax series, which just concluded its second season, is often spoken of in glowing, rapturous language.
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