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Jean Smart: "Hacks"

 With "Hacks," Jean Smart was consistently better than her material. She made the show seem smarter than it was. I have no objections to her Emmy win. 


I do have objections to the "Hacks" finale. Let's revisit this. DV, having heard she has a more-or-less terminal illness, tells Ava that she will be linking up with Dignitas. It's time to die.

As others have noted, DV makes no mention of her daughter or grandchild. This is implausible, but it's *also* a slap in the face to Kaitlin Olson, who has done beautiful work as "Junior" throughout the series.

Ava first rejects DV's invitation to Europe. She won't participate. Then, she recants. Oh, fine.

A pivotal scene occurs at the Louvre. Ava suggests that the "Mona Lisa" is middlebrow. "I mean, it's prettier than anything *I* could do, but....meh." DV says the painting is the most beguiling image in Europe. Ava immediately responds: "Lady, what BEGUILES me would make your skin crawl." This scene does a few things. It nicely underlines the difference between our two protagonists. It reminds us of Ava's braininess and bravery; she is willing to be an iconoclast, and though her values repel DV, the fact that she *has* values is still an intriguing reality for DV. Finally, the image of Mona Lisa is a subtle reminder that it's a thrill to make art. No one held a knife to Leonardo's throat. No one demanded this particular approach to this painting. It just spilled out of Leonardo's brain. DV knows something about this phenomenon.

At the end, predictably, DV reverses course. She will live. She will make more art. She will be like Salman Rushdie or Hanif Kureishi, turning her sorrow into gold.

It's not the worst concept. It's just trite. It's also reductive; it makes the Dignitas process look very easy. Anyone who has done ten minutes of research knows that it's difficult to work with Dignitas--it's an issue that deserves more than thirty breezy minutes of television. Finally, the possibility of assisted suicide is treated as a straw man; it seems like the "weak" choice in this episode. I think that's mildly insulting to many people who have lived with a terminal illness.

Thumbs down to the ending of "Hacks"--but, like "Breaking Bad," "Hacks" could be imagined as a show that has a final half-season rather than a season. Just stop watching after the Central Park performance. That's what I'd advise.
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