Hacks Is Back!

What the cast and showrunners say we can look forward to in season four.

Hacks is back! Every longtime MUTHRFCKR knows full well how hard I stan the series, and the fourth season premieres on HBO/MAX tonight.

Last May, I wrote a little something inspired by the validation it offers, acknowledging how women are conditioned to buy into the capitalist lie that is imposter syndrome.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a press conference about the brand-spanking-new season, and an undeniable repartée among the cast and showrunners permeated the whole experience.

Having already seen a bunch of the upcoming season, trust me when I say writers/showrunners Paul W. Downs (Jimmy), Jen Statsky, and Lucia Ainello don’t ease so much as a toenail off the gas. “We have a magic eight ball, and when we have an idea, we ask, is it good?” Downs cracked to press seated at the event and those (like me) participating via Zoom. “We always knew we wanted Deborah to get her white whale, to get this late-night show. But like with stand-up, we've always said that this is a show about the wig-off moments, the behind-the-curtain moments. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes drama and comedy that happens at a late-night show, so it was fun to explore that and also to write what you know as writers writing a comedy show.”

The wild, intergenerational dynamic between Deborah and Ava comprises the crux of the show. Lucia Aniello adds it was a fun, fresh challenge to be able to explore what the tension between Deborah (Jean Smart) and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) might look like in an office setting. “It just feels fun to put them in that scenario, because that's a scenario the rest of the world knows more than comedians,” she said. “And then, of course, dealing with the fallout of the blackmail.”

“It continually amazes me that they are able to find more and more for us and, and also keep this dynamic going, because I think a lot of the fun for the audience is this relationship, and the fact that they've been able to keep that the way they have,” Jean Smart said. “My biggest fear after the first season was, now that they're kind of