‘Hacks’ Is So Good It Can Even Make Late-Night TV Seem Alive Again

It’s only been a few days since Taylor Tomlinson ended her run as the only woman in late-night TV to host her own show solo. And it wasn’t because After Midnight, the show she had hosted on CBS, wasn’t successful: It had just been renewed for a third season earlier this month. But Tomlinson had been open all along about needing to be convinced to do the show, which she recently said would never be her “thing thing.” So when she decided she didn’t want to go to an office three days a week anymore — and CBS, presumably, didn’t throw enough money at her to make that more appealing than doing stand-up on the road — Tomlinson quit After Midnight, and CBS announced that it wouldn’t replace her. Instead, it would end After Midnight and stop trying to program the 12:30 a.m. time slot entirely. A job that used to represent the culmination of a stand-up comic’s career is now, apparently, very easy to abandon. Can the fourth season of Hacks convince us that it’s something Deborah Vance still wants to do?

The third season of Hacks found Deborah (Jean Smart) at a pivotal moment. Her self-financed special was a huge hit that launched her back into the public consciousness in a way she’d never experienced before. If not for her new relevance, Deborah would surely have never been in the running to guest-host a late-night talk show when the host falls ill — but she is, and she kills. Even so, when the host later announces he’s retiring, the smart money is on Jack Danby (Luke Cook) to replace him: Jack is young, buzzy and a man. But Deborah mounts a shameless campaign to be considered herself, and — despite an 11th-hour PR crisis over resurfaced tasteless gags from Deborah’s act before she started writing with Ava (Hannah Einbinder) — she gets it. Of course Deborah promises Ava the head writer job, but when she starts to feel the full weight of the network’s expectations for the show’s success pressing down on her, Deborah withdraws the offer. But Ava reminds Deborah that she has leverage: (arguably) part of Deborah’s campaigning involved her sleeping with Bob (Tony Goldwyn), the married president of the network’s parent studio, and what do you know, Ava ends up being late-night’s youngest-ever head writer after all!

The new season premieres its first two episodes on Max April 10th, picking up where we left off, and the vibes are bad. Deborah can’t really deny that Ava just did what Deborah herself would have in Ava’s position, but she obviously isn’t happy about it, either. Deborah’s stress about the launch leads her to pile up her bad decisions: rejecting Ava’s material, snapping at the wrong people, pursuing their feud in a variety of very public settings, including around Late Night staffers from the previous regime. Network president Winnie (Helen Hunt) keeps buzzing around asking Deborah what her Carpool Karaoke’s going to be, because the show can’t just be a hit. In the era of media mega-corporations that have to produce constant growth to please shareholders, it must also spin off brand extensions that keep it viable. Even if Deborah and Ava agree to stay out of each other’s way, that’s not really a long-term solution to the core problem that’s their twisted, fond, vicious and now entirely symbiotic relationship.

In our reality, late-night TV was already well into its death throes before Tomlinson decided she’d done it long enough. In September, NBC announced that The Tonight Show would start airing new episodes only four nights a week. This news came just a few months after NBC cut the budget on Late Night With Seth Meyers by firing The 8G band. Jimmy Kimmel has been making noise about leaving Live! for over a year. Trevor Noah’s last episode of The Daily Show aired midway through the Biden administration, and no one’s even bothering to ask who his permanent replacement is going to be anymore. The vibes are bad in real life, too. 

Last season, nothing made it harder for me to suspend my disbelief than that a broadcast network would gamble on handing its late-night franchise to a person in their 70s. Particularly in a post-Noah environment, it seemed unlikely to me that, even fictionally, a major media company would gamble on a host who might dip on the job due to waning stamina or, you know, other natural causes. But I guess now we know anyone — even the youngest host in the genre — could peace out for any reason. As for Deborah getting the job as a woman: her getting it makes a lot more sense to me if I consider that her dream job is located on a glass cliff.

Deborah is, of course, brilliant, quick, sophisticated and funny, and someone who knows how to talk to people. But she’s been self-employed for almost her entire career, and trying to do work she can be proud of within an enormous corporation at this phase of late-stage capitalism is a challenging adjustment. The petty annoyances are hilarious until they pile up high and heavy enough to be painful. (The best proof that Deborah’s really trying is that the grinning bozo who runs the show’s social media — a typical interaction is interrupting a tense conversation to try to shoot a video about Deborah’s favorite makeup products — leaves the season with his head still attached.) 

Is Deborah supposed to be herself, a charismatic comic with a distinctive voice? Is she supposed to appeal to every demographic quadrant by being the person they think they want? Deborah’s Season Three roast prominently featured her daughter DJ (Kaitlin Olson) repeatedly calling her a cunt, to Deborah’s delight; can this woman also win over “moms” with soft-toned cooking segments alongside celebrity chefs? The season is elegantly built to make the audience feel the increasing claustrophobia inherent in the gig, and how it could induce panic for someone in Deborah’s position.

What could make this challenge bearable is sharing it with Ava. Though Ava hasn’t cherished late-night dreams for as long as Deborah has, she does want to advance her career, and Deborah’s very justified fury is an obvious impediment to her fully enjoying this new achievement. Ava and Deborah’s latest clash is ugly, and all the more complicated by their being professionally intertwined with each other like never before. But, as we keep seeing when they try to escape each other into relationships with other people, they can’t quit being one another’s ultimate sounding board, mirror, crutch — insert metaphorical inanimate object here. Ava’s certainly learned pragmatism from Deborah, but has she also taught Deborah principles? Should they lose each other’s number, or stay together forever? Are they in love? Are they beyond it?

As all-consuming as this relationship can be, watching it would be exhausting if the show wasn’t so funny. Ava and Deborah’s agent Jimmy (Paul W. Downs, also a Hacks co-creator) gets to play some hysterics of his own, now running his own agency with his former assistant Kayla (Megan Stalter) and unprepared for the kind of chaos she would add to his life once she gets a taste of power. Being inside a corporation means Deborah and Ava are subject to HR supervision, and while I’m not supposed to say who plays this unfortunate soul, they’re utterly fearless and a perfect addition to the madness. I’m probably safe saying that DJ’s pregnancy doesn’t last forever, and that, as always, Olson makes a meal of her limited screen time. And every new cast member playing a writer on the Late Night writing staff is a gem, appropriately baffled about navigating the moods of their volatile new bosses.

No one listened to me last season, so we still have to deal with a lot less of Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins), CEO of Deborah’s QVC merchandise operation, and a lot more of Kayla. I can see the story value of separating Marcus and Deborah, but I hope it’s not permanent. Last week on Comedy Bang Bang!, Einbinder said the plan for the show was to tell a five-season story, which also helps manage my panic. As usual, the show’s creative team has written itself into a corner with the Season Four finale; and as usual, I’m eager to see how they write themselves out, maybe for the last time.