Hacks
2021 • Comedy, Drama • JioHotstar (HBO Max)
Director: Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky
Cast: Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Paul W. Downs, Megan Stalter
🎯 Verdict
✍️ Full Review
All 5 Seasons · 47 Episodes · Overall Show Rating 4/5 — If she was alive today, Mae West would've been really proud of this show.
If she was alive today, Mae West would’ve been really proud of this show….
Hacks ends on its own terms just like its leads have been characterized. If there is one other sitcom next to Silicon Valley that ended in the last 5 years or so that I’m going to miss, Hacks would be the one that didn’t have a coffee house, or a bar or a comic book store or a police precinct where the various plots revolve around the same few characters. What started as this generational gap comedy drama that doesn’t shy away from commenting about the contentious woke politics comes full circle in the final season which is not exactly gunning to outperform its fourth installment let alone the peak season of the show which was the very first one. Since the first season, Hacks has always been known to stand firm when it comes to its baddie duo locking horns against each other, arguing about whose principles are better and doing the right thing instead of the easy practical one. In fact, a case can be made that starting each season, whenever Debra and Ava were at each other’s throats, the show was at its strongest compared to the seasons where it goes down from an amicable relationship towards a chaotic one.
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder’s chemistry will be remembered throughout the history of sitcoms and comedy dramas. They both brought emotional gravitas as well as next level hilarity seesawing with their funny banters while reflecting upon the much needed sensitivity that is required in the real-time socio-cultural shift when boomers have been having problems seeing eye to eye with the millennials and the Gen-Z. Hacks tries to find middle ground, suggesting the oldies and rookies to kiss and make-up but it leans hard into the contemporary woke as a means of progression coating it with empathy and solidarity among various groups highlighting intersectionality rather than underlining it as a defeat of conservative norms. Experience from the Boomers and an antithesis to the old stereotypical understanding that says old people are set in their ways, so on compassionate grounds leave ’em alone and give ’em a free pass till their clocks run out while activism, personal identity entangled with the political, collectivism and welfare of the community from the Gen-Z. I mean parents and grandparents eventually do roll over and accept the tantrums, am I right? What will remain etched into my brain when it comes to this one is how it navigated the comedy bits enmeshed with the current politics with its unfiltered tongue while it never hesitated to speak its mind with some heartfelt all-round character development.