“I feel like the Beverly Hills Chihuahua!” Dance Mom exclaims as she takes in all the beautiful people wearing makeup in the daytime. This is only her second time in the States, with the first being a trip to the Heinz (as in Ketchup) History Center in Pittsburgh as a child. It takes some convincing but Dance Mom agrees to try out for Deborah’s show. She’s then invited on to perform that same day after Deborah and lead writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) alienate the studio audience with an argument. Thankfully, Dance Mom’s wholesome routine wins the audience back and she becomes a mainstay for the show, counterbalancing Deborah’s caustic sense of humor with a cheerful smile.
Two episodes later Dance Mom is living in Adam Levine’s 12-bedroom mansion; has blown through $1 million in 48 hours on cars, clothes, and whippets; and has lost a crucial Old Navy brand ambassadorship. Oh, and she doesn’t have any kids by the way.
The rapid rise and fall of Dance Mom represents the kind of fun a long-running comedy can have when it’s firing on all cylinders. Through three (very heavily-awarded and acclaimed) seasons, Hacks has its most important dynamic down pat. The creative push and pull between platonic soulmates Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels give Hacks all the energy it needs to drive multiple seasons of comedic storytelling. With the time it has left over for B-plots and C-plots, the show can afford to get experimental.
While a less confident series might have spread the dancing Albertan’s degeneracy across a whole season, Hacks maximizes its impact with a two-episode whip cut. One day Dance Mom is respectfully declining sparkling water (“Not for me, too spicy”), the next day she’s yeeting a spent “Astro Gas” canister while yelling “Steve Nash!,” which is obviously the Canadian version of “Kobe!”*
*It must be pointed out that someone on the Hacks writing staff really knows ball.
Of course, the saga of Dance Mom wouldn’t hit quite as hard without the right performance. Thanks to Julianne Nicholson, series showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky have found exactly that. Even before Hacks gave her the opportunity to lounge around Adam Levine’s place, Nicholson has been having a hell of a year. Hulu subscribers may recognize her Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond, the creative lynchpin of sci-fi/thriller Paradise. Before that, the Massachusetts-born actress won an Emmy for playing beleaguered mother Lori Ross in Mare of Easttown.
