Jean Smart’s career has been humming along for decades and raging pretty hard for the past 10 or so years. Her magnificently inappropriate Laurie Blake was one of many Watchmen highlights, and that role led to two other HBO projects that gave us two of 2021’s greatest curmudgeons. That would include Mare of Easttown‘s boozy Helen and the ascorbic a-hole known as Deborah Vance on Hacks. Alongside Hannah Einbinder as Ava, Jean remains unstoppable with the second season taking the show on the road to continue the most enjoyable hate-love affair currently on TV.
Fortunately, Season 3 will be on the way soon, and it’s time to rundown what we know so far. Rev those chainsaws, baby.
Plot
The show pairs Smart as a 70-ish year-old comedian clinging to clout (and a Las Vegas residency) with Einbinder, a 20-something writer who recently tanked her own reputation, essentially cancelling herself. Ava takes a job writing and fine-tuning jokes that will restore Deborah’s relevance with the younger crowd. And they do not get along at all, mainly because Ava is kind of a screwup, and Deborah hates almost everyone. The dynamic works professionally, but personally, they go even further off the rails when Ava trashes her boss, and those quotes go public.
Season 2 revolves around Deborah dragging Ava through various levels of purgatory and a lawsuit (for violating the existing NDA) as the two embark across the U.S. on tour. The season finale, however, shows some begrudging respect between the two women, although Deborah cuts Ava loose. Will this breakup stick?
Surely, that cannot last for long in the third season, and HBO/Max has kept much under wraps as far as plot goes. The Hacks creators and showrunners (Jen Statsky, Lucia Aniello, and Paul W. Downs), however, did go on record with Entertainment Weekly to reveal that Deborah was “legitimately suing Ava.” Although they wouldn’t let it slip whether the pair are going to work together again, we can assume that they will at least be split up at the start of the next season. From there, they will surely realize that they need each other, from what Aniello revealed:
“We’ve always talked about that the relationship between Deborah and Ava is this kind of dark mentorship, that the relationship is extremely complicated and twisted in some ways. It’s beautiful in some ways and loving, but it’s also twisted. And so for us at the very end, this lawsuit being the thing Ava’s looking forward to as a way to see Deborah, and then that being so sad to her when it goes away was a kind of perfect encapsulation of how complicated and twisted and bittersweet, this relationship has turned.”
Additionally, Jean Smart (while at this year’s Globes ceremony) spoke about what comes next for Deborah Vance, and that would be romance. Presumably, she will drop the chainsaw for that part of the show.
Cast
Jean Smart returns as Deborah Vance, who is still apparently not comfortable with the fact that she and Ava, portrayed by Hannah Einbinder, make each other better comics. This series needs more of Carl Clemons-Hopkins as Marcus, and Megan Stalter continues to be a supporting favorite as Kayla.
Release Date
The Hollywood turmoil of 2023 obviously slowed down production, and Jean Smart also took a necessary breather for a heart procedure. Following her recovery, Spring 2024 is the official release window for this next season. That tidbit came courtesy of an Instagram announcement: “Steppin’ on out. Hacks returns this spring on Max.”
Trailer
C’mon, there’s no trailer yet? HBO did provide a tiny bit of footage after the 1:10 mark below.