Toxic insults, brutal violence… and an unexpected love story – inside the exhilarating climax of the hit sitcom Hacks | television

IT hit vegas strip streaming. Since appearing on our screens in 2021, Hacks has become much loved. This tale about a pair of very different comics who end up working together takes the setting of the classic sitcom, gives it some HBO sheen, and gives us an engagingly watchable central relationship that’s often brilliant — while also showcasing some of television’s most toxic work. With a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 12 Emmy wins, including Outstanding Comedy Series in 2024, it has pushed its cast to the highest levels. He is about to enter his last season ever.

However, there is nothing new at the end of it. “The concept came to us in 20…15?” says Paul W. Downs, who created the show with his wife, Lucia Aniello, and their creative partner, Jane Statsky. They even had the ending in mind at the first meeting in which they pitched the show to HBO in 2019. “We actually fleshed it out completely, including the final episode, which we pitched to most networks.”

Viewers will know Downs as Jimmy. He’s the wide-eyed, plate-spinning agent who initially suggests comedians Deborah and Ava work together, and who constantly finds himself surrounded by ridiculous people in ridiculous situations, sometimes being in the center of them himself. He fights and fights at every turn, yet still manages to stay immaculately dressed, facilitating and encouraging ideas including movie pitches, sitcom ideas, and a career-defining stand-up (the focal point of this season) that move the story forward. Which is probably appropriate given his real-life role on the show.

Hacks’ career first began when Downs and Aniello met as members of the Upright Citizens Brigade, one of the most successful improv groups in the United States, co-founded by Amy Poehler. For years, their time has been spent working on the hit (and overlooked in the UK – it’s on Paramount+) Comedy Central show Broad City – with Aniello in the writers’ room (alongside Statsky), and Downs playing personal trainer Trey. By the time the show ended in 2019, Hacks had incubated the idea for four years. “We had a whole period of time at university to think about the show,” he says.

Since his debut, he has been one of the best things on television. From the beginning he was absolutely full of zingers (“What’s that? Fifty tassels on one couch? Even Liberace thought it was a bit much!” “He actually loved it. He made poppers on that couch in ’85.” “Great. I’m glad Liberace’s ass was nice and loose in your house.”) and it wasn’t long until the couple’s classic quirky comedy, defined by a generational divide, blossomed into something wonderful. Jean Smart is terrific as Deborah Vance, the comedic-next-door to Joan Rivers, while Hannah Einbender’s portrayal of millennial/Gen Z comedy writer Ava Daniels – who finds herself out of work after tweeting a poorly judged joke – has her emerging as a generational talent. Against the garish backdrop of Las Vegas and each damaged, beautifully drawn character ending up in their toxic orbit, both women are forced to start over, questioning everything about themselves. “I think they’re looking for dignity,” Downs says. “And that’s what the show is about, at its core.”

Over the course of four seasons, the characters become closer, the relationships deeper, and the arguments and subsequent payoffs more rewarding. Such unique scenarios included a desert road trip, a bonding session through several weeds, an impromptu stand-up at an AA meeting, and a lesbian cruise. “The story is this kind of dark mentorship between these two women in the comedy, from different generations,” Downs says. “But the magic of the show is their friction.”

However, it wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. Viewers and critics were divided in Season 3 after Ava ended up blackmailing Deborah, and their comedic toxic relationship became corrosive and spiteful, with some fans suggesting the drama was trumping the comedy. There were mind games, litigation, and the breaking of trust between the two. But was making the show darker part of the plan? “Absolutely,” Downs says without hesitation. “There are only so many times you can blow up a relationship and then reset it… Every season we try to turn it upside down.” By the way, this season still won three Emmy Awards.

It also proved strangely prophetic, as Deborah caused a political controversy that ended in her being forced off the air as a late-night talk show host, after she refused to tell a joke about a lead actor associated with the same studio as her show. In the years since it aired, late-night’s real life has begun to unravel, with CBS’s The Late Late Show disappearing altogether, Jimmy Kimmel being put on pause, and Stephen Colbert pulling out next month, ostensibly for financial reasons, but certainly for political reasons. Can Downs see which way the wind is blowing?

“The weird thing is that we had planned a lot of it for a long time, we always knew that the white whale of this character was going to be this late-night show. It’s obviously a target for a lot of comedians, or at least it was, so when we were first conceiving it… late night wasn’t in the state it’s in now. Certainly, when we wrote Season 4 and we pushed for it to cut something and then it refused to be censored, we had no idea it would end up happening. It was just dumb luck.”

The final season is a triumph for the show. It feels lighter and sillier than the previous two seasons, which dealt with the “be careful what you wish for” theme after Deborah’s talk show ended up tearing our two heroes apart. This time, Deborah and Ava’s relationship runs on different lines – there’s affection, mutual respect, and dare I say it… love? “They’ve been through a lot, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. They’re connected in a way they’ve never been before.”

In the final season, Deborah was severely punished for choosing integrity and friendship over bright lights and shiny floors late at night. She fell victim to the non-performance clause, which appears to be inspired by the time NBC banned Conan O’Brien from appearing on television for nine months after he left his late-night show, deftly throwing up every workaround and publicity stunt in the book — from guerrilla parties to a disgusting appearance at a celebrity signing convention. But it all adds up to a more exhilarating feeling for the final outing.

“There is a lot of pressure from the network and from advertisers [on late night]“And we really wanted to stretch that rubber band, so they would feel richer when they got back together,” Downs says. I think it’s made this season feel more fun, because they’re on the same page, have a common goal, and know each other better than ever before. This season sounds delicious — brighter and funnier, but with enough heart and pathos to guide us toward a satisfying ending. The renewed lightness allowed the book to play out a bit, too. “There are a lot of menu ring ideas that we’ve always talked about,” Downs says.

These include anxious dream sequences, meditation on artificial intelligence, and a loop – My highlight from this season – which is a Frasier-level farce: Deborah forces Ava to rely on an initial lesbian-related misunderstanding in order to achieve a ridiculous goal. Without spoilers, Deborah’s “at all costs” attitude toward her return lends her relationship with Ava a new and deeply uncomfortable dimension of intimacy. “As a show about comedy, it seemed like the perfect thing for us to do a classic farce — a slamming-door-and-misunderstanding farce, and do it in a way that was wish-fulfillment for the audiences,” Downs says with a laugh.

Hollywood’s favorite topic is often the same, but Hacks manages to go beyond navel gazing and talk about something more human in nature. “Everyone can relate to, ‘I’ve been insulted, and I want people to hear my side of the story, and understand why they might have gotten it wrong,’” Downs says. “It’s a love story, too — relationships can seem like anything and they’re not always easy, and I hope people can relate to that.”

But at the end of the day, at the end of the show, it is, as Downes declares, a comedy show about comedy, and in its concluding act, Hacks manages to achieve what every great stand-up should achieve. It may wander, it may take you down a dark alley, it may make you question your moral compass, but in the end it sticks the landing. But don’t be sad when you see Deborah take her final bow – as she’ll tell you: “Crying gives you wrinkles.”

Season 5 of Hacks is now available on Sky and now from Friday April 17 In the United Kingdom. It is currently available on HBO Max in the US and on Stan in Australia from Friday, April 10.