Hacks Season 4 Review: Continual Consistency

If I had to describe Hacks as a show in one word, it would be consistent. Its consistency has kept them on air for four seasons and has earned them various Emmy nominations and wins. It’s HBO Max’s longest-running original show, and it also has the most episodes from any show in the entire HBO brand, including cable. That doesn’t even mention the numerous Emmy nominations and wins it has received over the years.

Suffice it to say, Hacks has been incredibly successful in large part due to that consistency. For better or worse, it relies on a formula from season to season, which makes it both more exciting but also hinders it from taking the show to the next level.

Season 3 ends with Deborah (Jean Smart) lying to Ava (Hannah Einbinder), saying that the network isn’t letting Ava get the head writing job for Deb’s late night hosting gig, while in reality, Deb doesn’t want her because she’s scared she’ll lose the job if she makes “the wrong decision”. Ava then blackmails Deb into giving her the job by threatening to leak that the network head, Bob Lipka, had an affair with Deb.

Season 4 picks up from the aftermath of that. The show has always been about the ups and downs of the relationship between Ava and Deb. Season 4 is the same idea delivered in a slightly different way. They’re forced to work with each other on the late-night show while actively feuding. They start messing with each other both in and out of the workplace, causing problems for the entire production.

The thing about these two characters is that they always end up finding their way back to each other, so it was always inevitable that they would reconcile and work together. They’re like magnets that you’re trying to test. You’re checking how far you can put them apart and what their range is, but no matter where you put the magnets, they always attract.

Ava and Deb’s dynamic has always been the heart and soul of the show, so it’s no surprise that it’s easily the best part of Season 4. Jean Smart, in specific is magical. She’s what makes everything run so smoothly. It’s like watching a plane fly – yes there are very cool moving parts to the plane but the real star of the show is the engine: she’s the engine. 

The formula does have its fair share of issues, both in how it portrays their relationship and how the show as a whole goes. Their relationship, much like the structure of each season, usually has a major status quo shift by the end of the season, and the first phase of the successive season portrays that while slowly shifting back to status quo and then by the end of the season it comes back to another major status quo shift. 

This was the case for the first 3 seasons, and Season 4 story-wise does do the same. However, Deb and Ava’s dynamic does forgo the last major status quo shift likely for the better. But story-wise, it feels like a bit premature.

Episode 9 is the major status quo shift of this season, and the issue it has is that it doesn’t quite feel organic. The season doesn’t build up to the shift unlike previous seasons. Instead, it feels contained within the episode, and while what actually happens is executed fine enough, it lacks the punch it could’ve had.

The Morning Show does something very similar but it’s built up to a lot better and packs a better punch because of it. As has always been the case, the middle of Hacks Season 4 is also hit or miss. The episodes that stray from the main dynamic just aren’t nearly as good. They favor more of a comedic approach than the usual mix of dramedy, which doesn’t quite work in its favor. 

That may be a personal thing, since if I’m being honest, I don’t quite find the show all that funny. There are some great moments and I can admit some of the humor is well written but a lot of it just doesn’t quite work for me. That’s why I appreciate when the main storyline is in action. It’s just a better show when there’s more of Ava and Deb together and the focus is on the dramatic aspects that bring out the best and most mischievous in both of them.

Hacks has been insanely consistent for 4 seasons now, and has even been renewed for a 5th. It’s unclear whether that will be the final season or not, but the show, as usual, does set up something very interesting to do the next season because of what it offers for the characters. As long as the show is on air and Jean Smart is firing on all cylinders, Hacks will almost surely keep working as a product.

Hacks was created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky. Season 4 stars Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Megan Stalter, Paul W. Downs, and more. The show airs on HBO Max.

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