Page 7 - MidWeek - June 16, 2021

Over the last several years, actress Jean Smart has been ev-
relevance. In show business, the two are one in the same.
her jokes. Dour millennial Ava (played by Hannah Einbinder) enters Vance’s palatial world, and the two immediately de- spise what the other represents.
It’s the baseline. You have to be so much more than good. And even if you’re great and lucky, you still have to work re- ally hard. And even that is not enough. You have to scratch and claw, and it never ends. And it doesn’t get better. It just gets harder. So don’t complain to me that I’ m making your life hard. You don’t even know what that means.”
comedies a number of episodes to get their legs under them. I remember early Seinfeld not being nearly as great as it be- came later on. I’d say the same about most of my favorites of all-time: Veep and Frasier (a show in which, coincidental- ly, Smart won two guest star prime-time Emmys). It takes time to build comedic chem- istry. It takes increasing confi- dence. So far, just in this first season alone, the episodes get better and better.
erywhere. The former Design- ing Women star has played supporting roles in Fargo, Legion, Watchmen and Mare of Easttown. It’s rare to see an actor, or anyone in any occupa- tion really, experience a career renaissance in their 60s. Smart is pulling it off in admirable fashion.
This half-hour comedy puts Smart’s talents on full display. The character is irreverent. Unapologetic. Obsessive. And Smart’s comedic timing in playing Vance is perfect. It’s tough to make an obscenely rich and famous person a sym- pathetic character, but Smart does so with skill. When Vance is in danger of losing Vegas show dates, there’s only one way she knows how to deal with turmoil: fight. It’s how she got to where she got, and it’s how she’s managed to maintain it. Vance reluctantly agrees to hire a young writer to punch up
Hacks is high-level gener- ational conflict comedy. Ava looks at Vance and sees a di- nosaur telling the same old lame jokes. Vance looks at Ava and sees everything wrong with young people nowadays. Initially, it’s really hard not to take Vance’s side. In a terrific scene in the second episode, Vance and the self-pitying Ava find themselves stuck togeth- er in the middle of the desert. Vance tells her that in this busi- ness: “Good is the minimum.
Jean Smart stars in HBO Max’s Hacks. PHOTO COURTESY RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/AP
In her latest role, she plays a legendary stand-up comedian in HBO Max’s Hacks. A sort of fictionalized version of Joan Rivers, Smart’s Deborah Vance is a workaholic who’s fighting to maintain her popularity and
That beautifully sums up what it takes to be highest lev- el at anything. Vance goes on to leave Ava to deal with a flat tire while she flies off in a heli- copter. It’s such a great scene.
My biggest takeaway is, wow, good for Smart. At 69, she’s killing it at an age when most people are retiring. See- ing an artist do some of her
best work far into her career is aspirational. Because as Vance says, it doesn’t get better. It just gets harder.
Rotten
A Smart Choice For ‘Hacks’
PAPAYAS
BY CHRIS MCKINNEY
The series is not perfect, nor should it be. It often takes
Hacks is available on HBO- Max.
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