What Hacks has to say about the entertainment industry today

The Season 3 finale of HBO Max's Hacks is now streaming and many TV critics are saying that it's the strongest season yet.

The Emmy-winning comedy series follows the relationship between fictional Las Vegas comedian Deborah Vance and her young writer Ava. They're constantly at odds — Deborah's part of the old guard of comedy, whereas Ava is progressive and sometimes painfully woke.

Their relationship evolves over the course of two seasons until finally in the third season, audiences see it blossom into a true friendship.

Today on Commotion, comedian Cassie Cao and entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon discuss why Hacks is one of the best comedies on TV right now.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: I want to talk about the way that they treat accountability in the show, Cassie, because Deborah tries to take some accountability for her past in this particular season. How believable is it, do you think, to see a comedian or any public figure going, "I may have made some mistakes in the past"?

Cassie: I think that it was so great of the show to do an episode on it. I actually wish that they had made a bigger deal of it; I kind of thought that they wrapped up that episode a little too cleanly … but I think it really points to the way that our culture is shifting right now. If you're a public figure of any notoriety level, even just a TikTok micro-influencer, it's not "if" you're going to get called out for doing something that people won't like, it's just "when." And so I think that we're seeing a shift in the culture already where people are now taking PR things like this as an opportunity to grow their brands and themselves, and to create better relationships with their audiences.

However, we still see those mistakes being made all the way up to the really, really big stars. We talk about your Jerry Seinfelds and all those who are out of touch and won't apologize, but even stars that we associate with being really in tune with their audiences, like a Taylor Swift, still won't apologize for their jet emissions and things like that, which they could make go away very easily and turn into a positive spin about caring about the environment or whatever. But people's egos get in the way. So I think it's really good to have that portrayed and seen so plainly for what it is.

Elamin: I love that you made it a little bit about Taylor Swift. That's never going to be a problem on this show. I would say also what Hacks does really well is it has all these really great insights into how the entertainment industry works. There's a scene [where] Ava's agent is giving her ideas of scripts to work on based on what networks are looking for. Cassie, how hard is it right now to sell an original idea?

Cassie: That scene, I think, is the best-written scene in the whole season. It's so heart-crushingly accurate. I can only really speak about this as an artist; I've never been an executive having to be like, "We only want to make shows about Beanie Babies," you know? But I do think there's such a thing where you're an artist and your job is just to create. You can't possibly also be bothered with how the markets are moving and all of that. That's too much responsibility for the artists.

And so you pitch these ideas, but you are never sure, honestly, if people are against your original idea or if your original idea kind of sucks a little bit, you know? So I think that is a fine line to walk and I think executives are watching out for the bottom line of, does it look like something else that has already worked? But of course, we all know in the creative industries, the things that work tend to not look like anything else that have already worked. So we're just constantly in a battle.

Elamin: Kevin, what stood out for you this season in terms of where they wanted to pick their battles of the dysfunction in the creative industry? 

Kevin: What I loved about it is that the call is coming from inside the house. This is a show that in the U.S. airs on HBO, which is a part of Warner Bros., which made Barbie. They're attacking the very system that allows the show to exist, and I find that to be brilliant. I love every time they talk about Deborah's battle to be a woman in late-night, because the way they portray that journey really mirrors the stories that Joan Rivers had told, that Chelsea Handler has told, that anybody who has tried to break into that has told — the absolutists, the fact that even if you're the most qualified, you're still number two or three in line. That part of the storyline in this season, I thought, was brilliant. And again, I love the fact that it's coming from a company that actually does make these decisions. It's attacking the parent that grants these opportunities.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.