"Hacks" is ending this month. That sentence should feel more alarming than it does, given that the show has quietly become one of the best things on television — the kind of series that gets the critical respect it deserves without ever quite becoming the cultural juggernaut it probably should have been. Jean Smart playing Deborah Vance, aging comedy legend refusing to be put out to pasture, is one of the great performances on streaming right now. The final season landing in April is both a gift and a problem.
The gift is that it's here. The problem is that it's ending.
What made "Hacks" work from the beginning was its refusal to be simple about any of its characters. Deborah Vance could have been an obstacle — the old-school star standing in the way of young Ava's career. Ava could have been the relatable millennial avatar the audience roots for unconditionally. Instead, both of them are difficult and complicated and frequently wrong in ways that feel true. The generational tension isn't resolved into easy lessons. It just is.
Jean Smart has been doing extraordinary work for years — anyone who watched "Watchmen" or "Mare of Easttown" knew what she was capable of — but "Hacks" handed her a role that fits like it was custom-cut for her abilities. The comedy timing, the sudden shifts into genuine pathos, the way Deborah Vance holds her body when she thinks no one is watching — it's the kind of performance that defines a career chapter.
Hannah Einbinder has also grown into the role of Ava in ways that sneak up on you. She was good in season one. She's genuinely great now, carrying scenes that depend entirely on whether you believe this person would do this inexplicable, self-destructive thing. You believe it.
The show has never been a comfortable watch in the way prestige TV sometimes lets you coast — it's funny, frequently hilarious, but it keeps asking you to sit with discomfort rather than dissolve it with a punchline. The final season reportedly pushes that further. A lot to resolve. Let's hope they earn the ending.
If you haven't watched this show and you have HBO, go fix that before the finale spoilers start flying. You've got a few weeks.