Hacks Peacocks in Its Season 3 Premiere, As It Should

Let’s get one thing straight: The Hacks Season 2 finale, “The One, the Only,” was never designed to be the end of Deborah and Ava’s story. To be sure, these are perilous times for even critically acclaimed shows, so series creators and writers Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky may very well have been thinking that the second season finale would be the last episode of their show.

But when Deborah (Jean Smart) fired Ava (Hannah Einbinder), freeing the up-and-coming writer from her shadow, it merely represented the end of a chapter in what’s quickly become one of TV’s most compelling relationships ever. A successful comedy special wasn’t the mountain Ava referred to in “Retired”; despite its success, it was still more of a hill, albeit rockier (or maybe just steeper) than the one Deborah climbed to become the toast of Las Vegas. In a rare selfless move, Deborah not only recognized that Ava still had to find her own mountain to scale, but that helping with her latest comeback was probably not it.

This shift in their dynamic hardly signaled the end, though. There would have been so much to mine from a season with parallel, occasionally intersecting storylines — how would Ava and Deborah fare without each other? What would they discover about themselves when the other was no longer around to regularly bring out the worst and best in them?

You could view the time jump in the Season 3 opener, “Just for Laughs,” as the show wiping the slate clean, or Aniello, Downs, and Statsky backing out of the corner they’d ostensibly painted themselves into. It’s actually a nervy gambit by the creative team, one that acknowledges that yeah, there was a lot of great stuff that could have been explored in the immediate aftermath of Ava and Deborah’s "breakup" (some of us are still hoping the show goes there) — but just wait until you see what’s actually in store.

It’s peacocking, really, which is something that just about everyone does in the premiere; except Ava, who would probably trip if she tried to strut. Deborah walks through what looks like an airplane hangar full of designer dresses, all meticulously cataloged, and plucks out the unfortunate number in the main image above to receive an award at the Just for Laughs festival. Jimmy (Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter) meet her in Montreal while driving a Lamborghini, and make like Ari Gold in a room full of Vinny Chases. As a network executive, Helen Hunt shows off the same great comedic flair she did in the late, great Blindspotting. And Ava sweats through her shirt when she realizes she’s in the same building as Deborah, after nine months of zero communication.

No one is in the same place they were a year ago. Jimmy and Kayla have found some success as a kind of boutique agency for the elder stateswomen of TV and comedy. Ava’s writing for a Last Week Tonight With John Oliver analog, and now living with actress Ruby (Lorenza Izzo), the one that previously got away and is now leading a comic book show. And Deborah’s special has made her so beloved that she can’t walk into a room without being cheered. She doesn’t have to perform her set to crush it at The Bourbon Room. She’s even earned Tom Cruise’s seal of approval (which is in the shape of the Goldbelly coconut cake).

The writers have always been such keen observers of ambition and fame, and not just of the Hollywood variety — they know that there’s as much tension in someone’s descent as in their rise. Maybe even more. And they could easily have kept Ava and Deborah apart for half of the season, focusing on how they’d get back into each other's orbits (or, more acccurately, how Ava would end up back in Deborah's). But that would be a retread of the first half of Season 2, when Ava had to make her way back into Deborah’s good graces, which the latter made as grueling of an experience as possible, naturally.

Instead, Downs, Aniello, and Statsky hit us with the one-two punch of “Just for Laughs” and “Better Late,” with Ava rightly calling out Deborah for icing her out post-firing. Deborah claims a “clean break” was for the best, but she was protecting her own heart as much as Ava’s. It’s a cathartic exchange, but, as is usually the case with these two, they’re holding something back. Even though Ava commits to spending her three-month hiatus helping Deborah finally conquer late night by the end of the second episode, neither one is the type to really let something go.

Still, it’s exhilarating seeing Deborah and Ava back in each other’s lives, and Einbinder and Smart once again showing off their impeccable chemistry. The two women fall so readily into their old rhythms, Ava thrilled by Deborah’s approval and disapproval in equal measure and Deborah only too willing to let her have them, that it’s easy to overlook how lopsided their relationship remains. Ava’s stepped things up — so has Einbinder, who really comes into her own this season — and Deborah’s naturalistic comedy special may have brought her down to earth a bit more. But they’re still not on equal footing. As Ruby notes when Ava tells her she’s spending her hiatus in Las Vegas: “You’re not gonna be working with her. You’re gonna be working for her. You’ll always be working for her!”

The final moments of “Better Late” sprinkle just a bit of cold water on Ava, who looks happy to be back in Las Vegas. Deborah greets her with a big smile, then quickly, albeit softly instructs her to remove her shoes in her home. There’s a flash of recognition on Ava’s face — she’s been here before. She’s returned willingly, enthusiastically, but with the full weight of the last year on her.

Time hasn’t passed in the same way for Deborah. She may be back on top, but is she really willing to make room up there for Ava, or does she want to keep her a step, however infinitesimal it may be, below her? For now, they’re both all in, determined to secure a place in late night for Deborah, who seems to have found her mountain. Fighting to be seen as her equal may be Ava’s.

It’s a relief having Hacks back on our screens, and also a small miracle, after dual strikes and a health crisis. The Max comedy hasn’t lost a step in the two years since Season 2 ended; it’s back with renewed purpose, shrewder commentary, and greater poignancy, plus a gobsmacking quantity of sequins. And we’ll be back next week with a look at Episodes 3 and 4.

Two new episodes of Hacks drop every Thursday on Max until May 30, when the Season 3 finale is released. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Danette Chavez is the Editor-in-Chief of Primetimer and its biggest fan of puns.