Hacks: season 4 of the award-winning US comedy comes to Sky Max

Hacks, the US series starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, is one of the best comedies of recent years and has the Emmy awards to prove it – seven of them, in fact, including last year’s trophy for Best Comedy Series (see, we told you) and an Outstanding Lead Actress award for Smart in each of its three seasons.

And the good news is that there’s even more Hacks on the way! The fourth season begins on Friday 11 April at 9pm on Sky Max HD (CH 110). Read on for a catch-up on the first three seasons and a look ahead to the new episodes of this superlative comedy – plus the reasons we think it’s such an essential show.

Deborah Vance (Smart) is a legendary stand-up comedian playing night after night in Las Vegas, but her material is getting a little stale. Young writer Ava (Einbinder), who’s in hot water after an ill-advised social media post, is paired with her by their shared manager Jimmy (Paul W Downs) to see if they can help resurrect each other’s careers.

While their association leads to professional success, on a personal level it’s volatile, fragile and liable to combust at any moment. Extremely funny in ways both extravagant and subtle, Hacks is a brilliant study of an inter-generational relationship and an eye-opening insight into how comedy works.

It might seem like only a few weeks since the start of season 3. That’s because it was! The previous season found a home on Sky Max in February, and you can watch seasons 1-3 in On Demand > Sky Max now. The new season 4 episodes will be shown weekly. 

Warning: this section contains spoilers, so please skip to the section “Why we love Hacks” below if you’re planning to catch up on Hacks before the new season and don’t want to find out what happened. Last chance...

At the start, it’s a personality clash for the ages. Deborah resents the implications of Ava’s arrival, while Ava is put off by Deborah’s intransigence and high-handed manner, and they swing between low-level resentment and active sabotage of their collaboration. But eventually the two stumble into something like mutual respect, not least because they realise the impact they’re having on each other’s work.

When Deborah’s Vegas residence is terminated, they hit upon a new path: go back to the comedy clubs and work up more personal, confessional material. That’s the main thrust of season 2 and there are plenty of bumps in the road, not least when Deborah sues Ava for violating a non-disclosure agreement, and then upsets hundreds of lesbians on a pleasure cruise. And just as Deborah’s new material proves a winner, Jimmy’s company tries to push him out – so he goes it alone, accompanied by spectacularly unreliable assistant Kayla (Megan Stalter), and both Deborah and Ava loyally stick with him.

Season 3 finds Deborah attempting to make the most of her renewed popularity by getting what she’s always wanted: her own late-night show. With Ava on board, she campaigns relentlessly for a hosting role, in between personal ups and downs like the pregnancy of her daughter DJ (Kaitlin Olson), a difficult reunion with her estranged sister Kathy (J Smith-Cameron), and almost being cancelled after old clips of her offensive jokes go viral.

Deborah has achieved her dream, and she’s about to find out if that’s all it’s cracked up to be – which won’t be made any easier by the underhand way Ava finagled herself into a new position. Can the two repair their relationship? Again? And there’s more emotional turmoil on the horizon, now that Deborah’s long-suffering business manager Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) has been tempted by a new opportunity. Not to mention the impending birth of Deborah’s grandchild.

The beauty of Hacks is that it knows life isn’t written as neatly as it can be on TV. There’s no smooth redemption arc here – people are fickle, relationship dynamics change, and it’s not always clear who’s in the right. The other beauty of Hacks is that it’s constantly, wickedly, screamingly funny, as you’d expect for a show created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky, all key contributors to the terrific 2010s comedy Broad City. Here’s why we’re big fans and why, whether you’re a fan already or it’s new to you, the new season should be on your must-watch list.

Deborah Vance has devoted her life to making people laugh, partly because she loves it and needs it, but partly because it’s brought her the lifestyle she feels she deserves. Laughs not as lucrative as they used to be? Go on a TV shopping channel and sell some branded products! She’s shrewd, witty, outspoken, prickly and capricious, and Jean Smart embodies all these characteristics superbly, always hinting at vulnerability beneath Deborah’s outward strength. And it’s all punctuated with a wicked cackle. 

The awards voters agree, giving her two Golden Globes and three Emmys as Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. Smart, who first found TV success in the sitcom Designing Women, has recently been known for dramatic roles in the likes of Fargo and Mare Of Easttown, but she’s returned to her comedy roots in style with Hacks.

If Deborah is flawed, then Hannah Einbinder’s Ava is chaotic: headstrong, entitled, simultaneously overconfident and unnecessarily self-doubting. She sabotages her relationship with her well-meaning mother (Jane Adams, Sneaky Pete) every time she opens her mouth. But it’s clear she knows comedy, and what Deborah needs – and she sticks to her guns in the face of her boss’s resistance.

And just when you are starting to admire Deborah for her on-stage skill or business acumen, her wildly erratic daughter DJ appears to remind you that while Deborah may have maintained a long and successful career, it came at a cost.   

Employer/employee, mentor/mentee, friends/frenemies, surrogate mother/daughter… There are elements of all these in the interactions between Deborah and Ava, which adds up to the kind of satisfying relationship that makes a TV show compelling. While some comedies might have everyone make up and hug before the end of the episode, that’s not Hacks. It can get pretty awkward as the two push each other in various provocative ways.

Arguably Hacks’ most sympathetic character is manager Jimmy: it’s his genius idea to match Deborah with Ava, but all he gets is grief from Deborah and pressure from his boss, all while being constantly irritated and undermined by his nepo-baby assistant Kayla. We’ve all suffered the horrors of incompetent and annoying colleagues, and Downs exudes an everyman haplessness especially in a superbly written pseudo-romantic scene at the end of season 3, when he realises how important Kayla is to his career.”

The best comedians make it look effortless. Hacks is out to prove that it’s never easy and can sometimes be painful. It’s endlessly interesting to see how the, er, comedy sausage is made – from Deborah and Ava’s wrangling over the direction the stand-up material should take, to Deborah’s household and other revenue streams that keep her in comfort, all overseen by business manager Marcus, who has his own ambitions.

It’s a fast-growing city, a mecca for tourists and the US’s absolute centre for pop culture consumption, from music residencies to UFC and WWE events as well as comedy, but Las Vegas isn’t represented very often on screen (outside casinos). Hacks gives us access to some of the glittering venues where people flock to enjoy themselves, but also takes us into the back corridors, untidy hotel rooms and suburban residences that make up the city.

Season 4 of Hacks starts with a double bill at 9pm on Friday 11 April on Sky Max HD (CH 111) or you can catch up in On Demand > Sky Max, where seasons 1-3 are available to watch now.

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