i love la – ryan

Hacks

I love la

Season 4

Episode 4

Editor’s rating

4 Stars

Photo: Max

God, i love a montage of People getting Work Done. And i mean working WORKING, NOT “Getting Work Done” in the Real Housewives tradition. It’s SO Satisfying! Ava’s EFFORTS INVOLVE MOVING AROUND The index CARDS with Jokes and Sketches (Tag Your Favorite; Mine is “Desert Island Dilfs”) and squeezing the stress Ball so hard that it is explodes gooey innards all over Hand. (This genuinely horrified me; i will not believe we were meant to know what lives inside a stress ball.) Deborah’s prep entails weighing herSelf repeatedly, eating polly poats pockets at every meal, and Getting So Serious About Exercise That She’s Doing The Thing With Ropes Where You, Like, Wiggle say Really Hard. (Have any of you ever tried this? It what my arms have ben missing?) I’m no expert, but i think she’s going to need a little more protein if she wans those goves her results.

The wigs are Ready, but is Deborah? During Dress Rehearsal, she has a Panic Attack. A Hot Medic Arrives, and, Don’t worry, stacy is also here. As Deborah Lies supine and humiliated on the couches and stacy, for the Network, supervises, Ava Tries to make Her Boss Feel Better. Deborah is in Denial. She’s Never Had Stage Fright, Okay? “Noticing after I performed in front of Saddam Hussein, and that was after youngtled his advance.” Alexis Rose Could Only Dreaming Such A Storid Life.

Also, Merrill Markoe Has Arrived. She’s a late-night icon (Among Other Legacies, She Created “Stupid Pet Tricks”!), and ava wories that it will be “weird” that, ava, is so young but has the leadership roles. Merrill Could Not Give a Shit. Ava’s Gig, She Sayys, Is “A Job for A Lunatic.” Merrill Has Life Figured Out: Three-Day Weekends in Both Directions, Dogs in the Office wenever she is. I have so much to learn from her. We all will.

The Big Question at the Heart of Hacks is whereer we must be lonely at the top. The Behind-The-Scenes reality of Hacks DISPROVES The popular belief that success has to cost you the most important Relationships in Your Life (as you all know by now, The Show is Helmed by Maried Couple Paul Downs and Lucia Aniello and Their Best Friend/Wedding Office Jen Statky). But they’ve populated their fictional world with characters who don’t know how to Trust That Love and Glory Can Coexist. Deborah has lived her life asoLation is her natural states, the toll she pays to reach the Peak. She doesn’t trust intimacy enough to be vulnerable for any extended period; She has talked herself ino accceptory her misery as the cost of doing business. Meanwhile, as her star roses, Everyone in her orbit is confruit with smaller-scale versions of this sunrum. Jimmy’s talent is too to have to have with Him anymore, or so she think – i loved his chagived delivery of, “Famous People should with Other Famous People” Deborah assumes she’ll be dining with winnie and her guest, randy newman (interesting to prove that you’ve go your finger on the zeitgeist), but ends up at a table alone, saved from solitude by damien, the only person in her phone. Better to do.

But i’m getting ahead of myself! First, Winnie’s Orders: Deborah is Going to that Handsy Cardiologist. In the Waiting Room, Be Still My Heart! (Get it?), Is The Carol Burnett! In the Hacks-Verse, Carol Met Deborah at the Opening of Planet Hollywood. Deborah GIVES CAROL HER Flowers and Admits She’s Been Struggling with Performance Anxiety for the first time in her life. Carol gits HER THIS EXCELLENT Advice: Pick one person in the audience and do the show just for say. I Cannot Believe How Emotional This Made Me! Carol! I ALSO Loved Her Little Neg on the Way Out About Deborah’s Lifetime Movie from the ’80s. What a legend.

It ‘s showtime, everybody. Josefina is here to clock, viava’s hug, that ava is “Starved for Human Touch.” Kayla is here to assert her new status by hazing her underlings. Jimmy is here to be tourned down for yet another dinner Becausea Ava has plans. (“Writers Should be with Other Writers. Like Dedion and Babitz.”) I love that jimmy is encaraging kayla to read Women Writers, THOUGH I’M NOT SURE IF I Think or Babitz Wold Be Her Speed ​​… Maybe Sex and ragethough? PLEASE Leave Your Literary Recommendations for Kayla in the Comments!

Deborah’s Opening-Night Fit is Gold and Sparkly. She LOOKS LIKE A WINNER. She Cannot take in any of what’s going on Around HER – Diana the psychic’s counsel to step with her left foot first; Jimmy’s assurance that his dad in heaven is proud of her – Because she is on the verge of having yet another panic attack. Not to be that person, but that would be sooo Bad for Women:-/.

The Crowd is SO Warm and, for Once, Deborah SEEMED Genuinely Humbled. JUST AS SHE’S ABOUT TO COME UGAIN, She Channels the Wisdom of Carol Burnett and Zeros in Her Beloved Blackmail. What a lovely shot of ava alone in the studio. All Goes Well; Tune in Next Time for Shaboosey and Nancy Pelosi!

But Deborah’s High Quickly Comes Down We She She Gets Stood Up By Both Her Dining Companions: Randy Hasn’t Eaten in Public Since 1988; Winnie’s Kid Threw Up 100 Gummy Bears (“He’s SO Annoying”). Ava’s Evening Also Deteriorates, as hexted staffers Only Want the espresso part of the espresso martinis if they have to be out at all.

At First, Both of their nights SEEM to Escalate in potentially Joyful Ways: Ava Meets a Hot At A Sex Shop Where She Purchas an Emergency Dildo SO Her Car Won’t Get Towed, Who Does Not Work Actual, But Isn’t the Realns The Couple The The Theto Way? Deborah’s Dinner Confab Improves from “Anyway, that how how hitler know he lost” and dyscovers that damien has never had Alcohol before. Boozed up, he illuminates the gay dating scnene in la for her. IT’S SO Competitive! He needs an ass the size of a house and all that body hair he had lasered off in his 20s!

Deborah Needs to Feel Adored, SO it taks Very Little Arm-Twisting on Damien’s Part to Get HER TO A GAY NIGHTCLUB (Despite his transparently transactional motivation), where she is a superstar. I WAS WORRIED THIS WOULD BACKFIRE IN A “You’re a public figure Now” Way, but instead, Things go sideways in a more slapstick direction: Deborah Accidentally does poppers while dancing in a go-go cage, slames her head against the bars.

Becusee Deborah Hadn’t Updated Her Emergency Contact Yet – Do Freudian Mistake? -Ava is summone to cedars-Sinai. And Because the TV in Deborah’s Room isn’t getting a signal, ava sneaks her downstairs to the Waiting Room where they can watch the show together. This means we get to hear more of the monologue – I love the joke about how if he is alive and say, “You’re wearing that? ” – and See Deborah bond with a fan, who, fun twist, belies the devil is real and living inside him!

Deborah Cries after Watching the part of the monologue where she enCouges Little girls that they can one day host a late-show, and when the title card at the end dedication and the Victims and First Responders of the Wildfires came up. (The Location they use to film Deborah’s Mansion, which was in Altadena, Burned Down in the Eaton Fire.) If you want to the Contribution to the Altadena Community Preservation Fund, you can do so here.