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Jean Smart: "Hacks"

 "Hacks" succeeds in some ways and not in others.


A big problem is the relentless unfunniness of the "funny" material. We are meant to laugh when Deborah Vance plays a prank on Carrot Top, but the prank is cruel and trite (and the writing has a weird sense of unearned self-regard). It's supposed to be hilarious when a TSA agent mentions a "cuck cage" on a late-night show, but again, there is a kind of laziness in the scene. Additionally, Deborah expresses rage because "Paul Newman cornered the market on salad dressing." This wouldn't make it past the first draft, if it were a joke that was pitched for any particular moment in Seasons One through Ten of "The Simpsons."

The main reason I like the show is this: Jean Smart. I like the "origin story." Smart's Deborah Vance was once meant to ascend to great heights--but her husband left her for her sister, and when the sister's house burned down, Deborah was wrongly accused of arson. I appreciate this mix of randomness and injustice; it makes me think of the misogyny that made its way toward Janet Jackson, after "NippleGate." As Deborah prepares to make an important entrance, in Season Three, she sees the ghost of her twentysomething self in the mirror; we understand that she is trying to settle old scores. This is a nice, wordless moment; it gave me goosebumps. (We all know what it's like to live in the past.)

Another moment I enjoyed: Vance needs to find material for a crucial monologue. Her stories are dated. She begins cursing at Martha Stewart, who "had the opportunity to go to jail.....She went to jail! Those stories are evergreen." This is a persuasive "snapshot" of Vance's intelligence and hunger; it's fun to see the world through her eyes.

Finally, I enjoyed the brief interlude where a stranger asks, "Deborah, did you ever dream you would one day accept this award?" And--without missing a beat, and without any kind of change to her neutral demeanor--Deborah simply, honestly replies: "Yes."

I like an ambitious protagonist (a possible subject for a musical-theater adaptation!)--and I'll keep watching "Hacks."




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