I thought I liked the show at first, saying a buncha THINGS about it HERE, but as more time passes, the worse I think Hacks is.Yet another "comedy" that seems to go out of its way to NOT be funny, which is maddening. But the whole setup is implausible:
Jean Smart is a comedy legend that needs some help freshening up her act
Enter the 20-something "comedian" to help her write "jokes" while constantly being THIS CLOSE! to being fire constantly
20-something spends a lot of time blathering on about comedy principles and not "selling out", all while taking a cushy gig to follow an old woman around the country for what I'm assuming is a fat paycheck.
20-something "comedian" spends most of the time offending Jean Smart and yet somehow not only keeps her job but becomes elevated in Smart's world every episode.
All of this without being a proven comedian; this isn't like "Eddie Murphy can be an asshole because he's comedy gold", it's more like "young girl isn't funny at all yet a living comedy legend for some reason deems her indispensable to her own comedy despite the young girl being neither funny, nor nice, nor helpful in any way". And yet we're supposed to I guess presume that this combination somehow clicks for pure comedy greatness, which it does not. We're supposed to love the show because of National Treasure Jean Smart and an implicit desire to want to believe there's comedy magic there, even if we don't see it ourselves at any point.
For the first time since the show began I'm finally seeing some people question hey wait a minute, is this show actually good or do we just think it's good because it's "Elite Emmy TV" bullshit?
It’s thrilling for me to be given the platform to share my long-held opinion that, yes, Hacks is bad. My relationship to this show is like my relationship with cilantro: Many people I know and respect keep saying they love its flavor, but it tastes like soap to me. I love Jean Smart. I like the concept of a show about the compromises you make working as a comedian. But Hacks doesn’t have the deftness or critical perspective to pull its setup into something compelling. Most of the dialogue is clunky, and the characterization is rote. Deborah feels like an outside-in replication of Joan Rivers that misses her core. Ava might as well be a collection of quirks described in a Shouts & Murmurs piece about the youth.
This is definitely going on my "watched the entire first season but have no desire to watch the second season" list.
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