Hacks season 2 is a reminder that TV comedies should be meaner

polygon.com:

Some comedies are better off being mean. Hacks, the HBO Max series about aging comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her unlikely partnership with Ava (Hannah Einbinder), her reluctant millennial joke writer, is a prime example of this; a comedy about two women who strongly dislike each other yet are forced by circumstance to work together. This resulted in a steady stream of jokes: Deborah would effortlessly roast Ava, and Ava would sputter and flail while trying to update Deborah’s outdated feminism in vain. In locking horns, the pair would individually ponder ideas of progress, and how their culture has continued to fail women in much the same ways Deborah was familiar with, in spite of Ava’s wider feminist lexicon. This tension made Hacks compelling, and it’s always in danger of collapsing for a very simple and understandable reason: It all falls apart if the two leads start to like each other too much.

“Meanness” in this context is a source of tension, which all comedies need to survive. Like in season 1, there’s always going to be the generational tension between Ava and Deborah, but that’s the least interesting version of Hacks — the generation gap is extremely well-trod comedy ground, and at its best Hacks attempts to work with more subtle and complex subject matter. From Ava’s perspective, it’s a workplace show about how to work with a boss that hates you and you literally cannot escape. From Deborah’s perspective, it’s about a fight to be taken seriously without caving to the pressure to remain likable at all times. Together, they paint a portrait about what it means to perform femininity via its two white leads.

[Ed. Note: Minor spoilers for season 2 follow]

Season 2 runs their complicated relationship