– They’re naming a street after you.
– I know. Deborah Vance Drive. It’ll probably be a dead end with an abortion clinic on it.

Deborah (Jean Smart) makes fun of her success with Ava (Hannah Einbinder)

It’s funny, disrespectful, surprisingly melancholic, and full of dark humor: it’s HBO‘s comedy show Hacks. Created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky, it premiered in 2021 on HBO Max and immediately garnered plaudits from both critics and audience. With three seasons, the show received many nominations and awards, including seven Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes. Furthermore, it ranked number four in The Guardian‘s 50 Best TV Shows of 2022.

If the show starts as a comedy, though, it soon becomes clear that Hacks is built on the ability to maintain an exact balance. Between comedy and drama, older and younger generations,on-stage and backstage, the show remains halfway between two worlds, using these contrasts as an opportunity for comic timing and tragedy.

It’s hard to be fun

Deborah Vence (Jean Smart) is a legendary stand-up comedian in Las Vegas, with more than two thousand appearances behind her. However, producers reframe her shows in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience. Ava (Hannah Einbinder) is a young screenwriter fighting to obtain new assignments after she wrote a tweet that some people felt was insensitive. They have both seen better days, but if for her part Ava prays for a fair contract, Deborah conversely won’t accept any help. So, when Ava’s agent sends her to Deborah’s villa to refresh her repertory, they don’t get on well with each other. However, they slowly discover they have much more in common than they thought.

Ava sees in Deborah the success she craves; Deborah sees in Ava the young woman full of ambition that she once was. Like the protagonist of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Deborah was talented, and worked really hard to succeed in a mostly male world. Her sacrifices paid her back, though: for many years, she was a real star, living in luxury and to excess. But time passed, and she was suddenly old-fashioned; due to the generational conflict, together with fear, she sees in Ava an enemy, more than an assistant. Only after a while does she observe how hard Ava can work, and her disdain evolves into mutual support. The best of two worlds and ages on the same stage will bring Deborah as well as Ava a new-found success.

What remains behind the curtains

In 2021 Aaron Sorkin with Being the Ricardos shed light on the backstage of television show business, but also on its dark side. Some years before, the Italian show Boris mocked the production system, though bringing to light the most fun aspects of this job. Hacks places itself between those two positions, narrating the behind-the-scene for what it really is, including the most absurd and sad sides. As the comedian lives in the spotlight, while the screenwriter is backstage, so the show also moves between the two worlds. It gives a glance into the stand-up comedy universe and its protagonists, narrating both their public and private lives. As in Ricky Gervais‘ Louie, though, what emerges is far from the sparkles of the stage: Deborah paid dearly for her success.

She sacrificed everything for her career: she has a daughter, but they have a complicated relationship. She has no man in her life (except for some occasional lover), and has lost most of her friends. Without her shows, she has nothing left besides her houses and luxurious (and empty) lifestyle. Ava, on her part, is still fighting obstacles to get into the world of show business. She’s often financially broke, and constantly involved in a fierce competition with other aspiring screenwriters. Moreover, she’s facing the consequences of a sharp tweet that made her a victim of an increasing cancel culture.

As laid bare in Gipi‘s graphic novel Stacy, sometimes one wrong line is more than enough to be excluded. Hacks brings up a heated theme of modern social politics, about the limits of supposedly artistic expression. Where does irony end up becoming offensive?

The triumph of a bitter smile

Being a show built on the perfect balance between opposites, Hacks couldn’t but have a bittersweet season finale. The show confirms the success of the dramedy sub-genre, keeping itself in balance between pure comedy and tragic events. The narration ends on the perfect line between satisfaction and lack of it, in the same way as the lauded show The Kominsky Method. Both stories seem to support the search for happiness, while knowing that the traditional happy ending doesn’t really exist in real life. What exists is a balance between what one would have liked to achieve and what one actually achieved, but above all to see the beauty in this ending and not just to live with regret.

Also, the generational conflict doesn’t find a real solution, but rather a compromise of coexistence. Deborah and her generation’s lifestyle comes across as unintelligible to her younger collaborators, including Ava. In this way it expresses a lack of comprehension which is a hot topic nowadays, coming to the conclusion that a real meeting point will never be find. As the world changes, so people evolve to learn how to inhabit it, and therefore change their minds. The only possible choice remains to accept the differences between young and old people, surrendering to a seemingly impossible solution of the conflict.

This bittersweet finale also mirrors the never-ending human (and artistic) search for an unattainable pleasure. Both Deborah and Ava’s survival is bound to a fragile balance that keeps both their professional and private lives together. Between old and new, between attained and yet still faraway goals, all the while knowing that everything could end due to a single line. And yet, as tightrope walkers, they go on one step after another, keeping the whole show going in a charming, and fragile balance between laughs and tears.