Jean Smart’s dueling curmudgeons won my TV heart in 2021. It was a difficult choice to pick one over the other, but her cocktail-swilling grandma in Mare of Easttown ruled to a slightly lesser degree than her cranky comedian in Hacks. This turned out to be one of the standout shows in a breakout year for HBO Max, and Deborah made me cackle on several occasions. She was frankly crazy in the best of ways, and Hannah Einbinder’s Ava was her perfect compliment as they foiled and bonded with each other.
If only there wasn’t that errant sent-email out there, right? That seemingly little thing turned out to be a pivotal point, and in the Season 2 trailer, it’s evident that Ava’s anxiety is running high while waiting for that ticking time bomb to explode. Also, she’s now on tour with Deborah, which could make the cold shoulder even more uncomfortable than being back in Vegas. And we’ve got Jean Smart wielding a chainsaw. The trailer-edit of that moment is, well, fantastic.
I don’t even care about the context of this chainsaw. No matter what’s going here, it’s Emmy time. Here’s the season logline:
The dark mentorship between legendary Las Vegas comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her young, entitled writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) continues to evolve as the two travel across the country workshopping Deborah’s new stand-up act.
Hacks returns to HBO Max on May 12. Look at this masterful key art.
