“Hacks,” an Only in Vegas Story

Deborah Vance, the main character of HBO Max’s “Hacks,” is the ultimate North of 65 diva. The show’s finale aired Thursday night. I can’t say this enough: Watch the whole series.

Jean Smart, 74, stars as a Las Vegas stand-up comedienne whose act is on cruise-control as she is about to be kicked to the weeknight curb. Except Vance will not go gently into that good night.

Enter Ava Daniels, played by a 31-year-old Hannah Einbinder, an up-and-coming comedy writer drafted to pump some air into Vance’s auto-pilot schtick. The two are not an automatic match. Deborah is a senior. Ava is an adult kid. Deborah is seasoned. Ava is hungry. Deborah is accomplished. Ava is ambitious, in the right way. She doesn’t just want to succeed, she cares about the writing and the jokes. It is their love of the “craft” of comedy that binds the two women.

“They evolved from their original broad-strokes typecasting, as Ava learned to appreciate the old-school craft of joke writing, and Deborah became radicalized,” chief New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik writes.

By the series’ end, Ava finds herself amused that in her crazy, wonderful life, her best friend is in her 70s.

Age be damned. Vance has a sex life worthy of James Bond. And lucky for her many lovers, unlike “Bond girls,” Vance’s flings don’t have to die to advance the plot.

Las Vegas serves as the perfect backdrop for this story — a neon Sin City in the desert with old-timer performers and support staffers who hustle to keep visitors and locals vibrant, pampered, manicured and at the blackjack table.

Ava, who is bisexual — does she use a different term? I either don’t remember or don’t care — hasn’t quite found what she wants in terms of relationships. But there is a great scene when Ava realizes that male sex worker she has bedded is also a magician. Ava is especially appalled because, he’s a bad magician.

Both women are free to play the field. Vance winds up in a series of relationships with exes, Hollywood biggies and younger lovers. Vance will do anything — bury hatchets, apologize to frenemies — to get back to where she once belonged. Actually, she wants to be bigger and better this time. Her determination deserves credit, but also Vance’s success gets a huge assist from — to borrow from Cyrano de Bergerac — her “panache.”

SPOILER ALERT — but important for the North of 65 theme

Vance receives a cancer diagnosis — and we know what that means for the modern cable TV series. It’s not good. During a girls’ trip to Paris, Vance announces that she wants to go to Switzerland to commit assisted suicide.

“Ava is distraught and furious, but she shouldn’t be surprised,” Poniewozik writes. “Deborah has always needed control: It eluded her when she was young, she achieved it through fame and wealth, and she lost it again when her former employer silenced her. Choosing to end her life might be a means of avoiding suffering, but it is also her mortal version of a Madison Square Garden show, a means of stage-managing her swan song.”

Ava sees another way. When Deborah tells her that she wants Ava with her for the final procedure, Ava pushes back. She begs Deborah, tells her that she is a fighter and should give treatment a chance. If it’s too painful, she adds, then can Vance check out.

Having seen Vance prevail so many times after she had been written off, Ava wants Debora to stand up against the odds one more time. There are still great jokes to be written.

Cris ✨@lionesspike

hannah’s performance in this scene will haunt me for the rest of my life. hit me in such a guttural way i will never ever forget how i felt when i watched it #hacks

2:09 AM · May 29, 2026 · 69.1K Views

10 Replies · 333 Reposts · 3.95K Likes

There were great things to be said about television when I was growing up. Think The Dick Van Dyke Show. “Hacks” showed the best of old-school entertainment and modern love and friendship.

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