What happens when you finally reach a goal you’ve had for decades? In season 4 of “Hacks,” out April 10 on Max, that’s what Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) confronts. At the end of season 3, she finally won her own late night show to host, although it came at the cost of her bond with creative partner Ava (Hannah Einbinder), whom she betrays by first offering her a head writer gig before retracting it in a panic. Ava’s subsequent blackmailing of Deborah to regain the job left them locked together professionally but more at odds personally than they’ve ever been.
Giving people what they want can be a curse dramatically; it’s why TV shows are often gun shy about finally uniting will they/won’t they couples. Will that resolution suck all the tension out of the show?
“Hacks,” of course, gave itself a nice big fight to work through at the end of the last season to fend off any concerns about lack of dramatic tension. And it doesn’t cut corners on how protracted and vicious this particular conflict is for Ava and Deborah to work through. The show finds a funny new thread by saddling them with a frazzled HR rep (played to a T by Michaela Watkins) who’s required to monitor their behavior.
But the writers are also clearly aware that a late night show isn’t what it was when Deborah first pursued this dream. The existing late night hosts are quite entrenched in their particular segments of that ecosystem, leaving Deborah to fight for good guests, and in the streaming era, it’s a struggle to get people to tune in to traditional programming. Plus, network exec Winnie (Helen Hunt) keeps pestering her to come up with a spinoff to the tune of James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” to boost the show’s prospects.
“Hacks” remains strongest when it delves into the prickly bond between Ava and Deborah, even if it’s starting to feel like the writers are trying to find reasons to keep the two apart. The central thesis that two such different (and deeply flawed) people could come together and find a profound connection in the creative process remains a fascinating one to watch, bolstered as it is by Jean Smart’s hall of fame-level work as Deborah (Einbinder is good too, but it’s necessarily a less showy role).
Where it struggles is in building compelling narratives around them, and the season loses some momentum as it resolves its conflicts. Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins), the CEO of Deborah’s company, and DJ (Kaitlin Olson), her daughter, both have limited arcs this season, while Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla’s (Megan Stalter) efforts to build up their talent firm are funny but less juicy than the Ava/Deborah plotline. In a bid to boost Deborah’s ratings, they hire an influencer from Canada by the name of Dance Mom, whose aw shucks bumpkinism is swiftly debased by her time in LA. Mass. native Julianne Nicholson gives an all-out performance in the role, but the subplot doesn’t exactly sizzle; it intersects minimally with the main plot, and the joke wears thin, despite Nicholson’s best efforts.
Four seasons in, the central dynamic in “Hacks” remains eminently watchable — it’s heartening to watch a show that cares this much about what it means to make good art, and we’re reaching “would watch Jean Smart read a stereo manual” levels with her performance. If it can’t quite hit the highs of its earliest seasons, there’s still something to be said for a show that has such a strong engine built into it.
HACKS
Starring Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Paul W. Downs, Megan Stalter. Out April 10 on Max.
Lisa Weidenfeld can be reached at lisa.weidenfeld@globe.com. Follow her on X @LisaWeidenfeld and Instagram @lisaweidenfeld.