The following Hacks season four review contains some spoilers for the first two episodes of the season.
After watching the first two episodes of Hacks season four, I texted my friend to say it felt like watching more Yellowjackets.
I was joking, but I also sort of wasn’t. The first two episodes of Hacks season four have brutal power games, manipulation, extortion, coyotes both real and dreamed, and women trying to destroy each other. Doesn’t it sound not entirely unlike Yellowjackets? Hacks is of course a comedy, but it has always been heavy on the drama, too. And there’s a subtle horror to it, too. The horror of struggling to find success in a broken industry, of trying to balance creative fulfillment with the expectations placed upon you by others, and the horror, of course, of Deborah and Ava’s entire dynamic. They’re two women who sometimes bring out the best in each other, other times the worst. Yellowjackets is horror with touches of humor; Hacks is humor with touches of horror. Both are about women playing brutal power games, and when it comes to Hacks, things are heating up more and more for those games in season four.
Season four positions Deborah and Ava in their biggest battle yet, Ava having ended last season by taking a page right out of Deborah’s book. The season premiere picks up immediately following that huge power move that closed out season three. She’s committed to blackmailing Deborah for having slept with Bob Lipka. And Deborah’s now committed to trying to get Ava fired. They spend the first two episodes threatening each other and arguing but also pulling “pranks” on each other that become increasingly unhinged. It’s affecting everyone around them — the rest of the writers room, Jimmy, etc. — but they don’t care. They have one-track minds right now. Deborah wants to prove herself as a late-night host and still thinks Ava isn’t right for the job, and Ava wants to not just prove herself to Deborah but beat Deborah at her own game.
There’s already a lot to love about season four off the bat. Some highlights: Robby Hoffman joins the cast as Kayla and Jimmy’s assistant; Helen Hunt’s queer pickleball monster Winnie Landell seems to be an even bigger player this season; Ava wears what I can only describe as the most bisexual dirtbag outfit I’ve ever seen (prompting Deborah to say she isn’t funny enough to dress like Adam Sandler); there are recurring disruptions by coyotes, mischievous and cunning creatures rife with symbolism relevant to this show and the characters’ transitional states.
But the standout parts of this start to the season all come back to Deborah/Ava and their determination to destroy one another, even if means self-sabotaging in the process. (I feel like we can see so much of Hacks co-creators Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul W. Downs’ previous shared DNA from working on Broad City inherited here. That show similarly centered around two women and their specific dynamic to each other but also made the bit characters who orbit around them compelling and hilarious in their own little ways.)
Even more alluring than the humor in these episodes is the horror. In the premiere — “Big, Brave Girl,” words Deborah actually throws at Ava, which could be interpreted as chilling or as hot — Deborah and Ava end up at the same Hollywood party at Bob Lipka’s house. Deborah comes out of a porta potty to see Ava talking to Bob’s wife, a direct threat from Ava. She could bring the whole thing crashing down by telling this woman about Bob and Deborah’s brief affair. Deborah pulls Ava away, hard. Clutching Ava’s arm in her clenched hand, to other drunk people at the party, they probably just look like they’re taking a friendly stroll together. But after Deborah tells her to go home, Ava looks at her arm and sees deep nail marks from Deborah embedded there. It’s not the first time Deborah has physically abused her. Ava’s clearly done with it. She marches back to Deborah and demands she stop trying to get her fired, demands to be told she has won. She gets what she wants, but of course that isn’t the end of things.
Next, in “Cover Girls,” Deborah and Ava are summoned to Winnie’s sprawling fortress of a home after seen publicly arguing outside a comedy venue. Winnie reminds them both they’re public figures now. The network doesn’t want mess; it had been prepared to cancel the late-night show altogether but instead took a huge swing with Deborah. She says they need to make a hit show by the end of the year. Ava’s bemused. What does making a hit even mean? How is it even possible in the current state of the industry? In the back of my mind, I can’t help but think this is exactly what Deborah was trying to protect you from, which is somehow both giving Deborah too much credit and also getting to the truth of something.
But the moment I want to zero in on comes after the dinner, when Deborah pulls Ava into a hug. Ava smiles, seems genuinely comforted. Then Deborah whispers in her ear: “smile, we’re on camera.” Ava’s face falls as she looks up and sees Winnie’s security camera aimed at them. Deborah’s hug wasn’t for comfort and reassurance; it was for optics. It’s nearly as brutal as those nail marks on Ava’s arm.
These two intense, visceral scenes from each episode reinforce the range Hacks has and the complexity of its central relationship. I was previously concerned with how Hacks might continue to up the ante, so to speak. At this point, Deborah and Ava are just in a constant back-and-forth of fighting and saving each other. But the cyclical nature of their dynamic is far from boring. I don’t need the ante upped, because watching them repeat the same patterns over and over again feels so real, while still maintaining compelling enough stakes for a serialized TV show. Those nail marks are a physical reminder of the stakes, that hug a reminder of the artifice of the world in which they operate. The truth is, I could watch these two do the same shit to each other over and over. Hacks injects enough specificity in the subplots and their surroundings to keep the game feeling fresh.
