Deborah and Ava have to keep fighting not just for the audience’s sake, but because bickering is what brings out the best in both of them. Both women are feisty, determined, and intractable. Ava decides the only way to defeat Deborah’s ego is to play her own game when she blackmails Deborah over an affair with the network executive. That season 3 cliffhanger results in some of the most intense tug-of-wars of the series so far at the dawn of the fourth season.Â
Deborah’s childish forms of payback aim low and always deliver shock and laughs. One prank even sees Deborah sending Ava’s underwear to a network colleague’s desk in hopes it will get Ava in trouble with human resources. The irony of Deborah framing Ava for an HR blunder when she’s currently being held hostage by her own sexual misdoings with higher ups is a great example of the writing that keeps Hacks atop the sitcom game as one of the series that understands its characters on a deeper level while also poking fun at the inner workings of the Hollywood machine they’re apart of.Â
Deborah and Ava’s situation may be the main one that keeps this show humming at a high level, but the increased screen time for both Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter) is a welcomed sight. Any time the high intensity of the Deborah and Ava feud starts to become a little too overwhelming, Jimmy and Kayla serve as the calmer frenemy alternative. Jimmy and Kayla are trying to get their management business off the ground that they decided to start together at the end of the third season. The growing pains between the two are a lot more respectful than between Deborah and Ava. In many ways, this duo symbolizes where Deborah and Ava could and should eventually arrive at by the end of the show. Two mismatched personalities that bicker, but they still love each other.Â
The last scene of the second episode exquisitely sets up the more heartfelt half of the Deborah and Ava dynamic that we root for. They call a truce after they’re warned that the show is in danger of failing before even getting off the ground. Rooted in their common goal of conquering comedy again, Deborah shows up at Ava’s doorstep ready to work in good faith and promising that no more sabotage will occur. This is where it feels like the season is really about to begin.Â
These episodes are akin to first biting into a Sour Patch Kid on a nice spring afternoon after school. The bitterness of Deborah and Ava hit the taste buds with shocking intensity. Now the sweetness of the pairing will round out the drama and remind us why Hacks’ two equally compelling tones make it one of the best dramedies of the decade so far.
