The RoZone: Hacks Edition

This one goes out to Jean Smart and breathing through both nostrils

Hi, everyone!

Thank you for your patience while I dealt with the world’s gnarliest sinus infection. This month’s RoZone goes out to Z packs and breathing through both nostrils.

I watched a lot of TV while guzzling blue gatorade and gobbling up decongestants, but for this month’s RoZone, I need us to talk about Hacks.

Starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, Hacks follows a young comedian who ends up working for a “washed up” Vegas comedian. For the first season or so, their relationship feels like a particularly contentious ghostwriter/ client. They come from two different generations, Einbinder stars as Ava Daniels, an environmentally-conscious bisexual comic who noticeably cringes when Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance makes an off-color remark.

In season 1, Deborah possesses the shrewd business acumen of Martha Stewart, she has a QVC empire composed of jeggings and progesterone drinks. There are also some call backs to Joan Rivers’ sexist asides. Dolly Parton’s commitment to full glam is there too (Deborah also wears a wig). Deborah was also mercilessly mocked for lighting her late husband’s house on fire after she found out he was sleeping with her sister, so there’s a scourge of public shaming that follows her around. And even though it’s a cheap shot at herself, when the show starts, she leans into the jokes, anything to get a laugh.

But as the show progresses, Deborah and Ava both evolve beyond their early facsimiles of boomer vs. gen Z. Deborah becomes more openminded, ditching the male comics she once revered after becoming fed up with their biphobic jokes. Ava’s confidence as a writer grows. They force each other to grow, not without friction. People on the internet argue about whether they’re lovers or mother and daughter. To me, they’re collaborators in their best and brightest forms. (And some of the best, most complicated women to grace our television screens for decades).

The central conceit of Hacks is that you’re supposed to make stuff with other people. Ava and Deborah push each other constantly and it’s this never-ending battle to one up each other that motivates them to keep writing. This is why I keep telling my friends that Hacks is the best show about writing I’ve ever seen. Finally, TV at large got to see that writing isn’t solitary! You need other people to push you and make you better and this need isn’t detrimental to the “creative process,” it’s the whole point.

This season also featured a fantastic AI takedown episode wherein showrunners rightfully demonstrated that humanity is essential to art making! Then, in the next episode, we got Leslie Bibb asking Jean Smart:

Hacks will go down as one of my favorite TV shows of all time :-).

Here are some other updates about what I’ve been reading & listening to!

In my Airpods:

Speaking of art & collaboration, I’ve been loving the new MUNA album. Of course I’m a MUNA fan, I’m a lesbian who frequently collaborates with their ex! But I have to say, the production on this album is so tight! It’s pristine! “Dancing on the Wall” has the nastiest and best bassline we’ll get all summer! I love the eighties elements with all the synths; the key change in “On Call” feels very Amy Grant/ late nineties pop. This album is exactly what I need for the summer.

On my Night Stand:

One of my hallmarks of a truly great book is when a book makes you reconsider your own biases. Stop me if You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett follows a lesbian clown named Cherry as she tries to get her clowning act off the ground and subsequently falls for a lesbian magician. I wouldn’t say I’m scared of clowns or magicians, but they definitely unsettle me to the point where I thought I wouldn’t want to read a whole book about them and I was wrong. This book is a goddamn delight and has so many insightful things to say about the nature of comedy and building queer spaces outside of major cities. Everything Kristen Arnett writes is hilarious, but what I was drawn to most was her observations about comedy, performance and vulnerability.

Also, in my effort to go analog before bed, I recently purchased a New Yorker subscription. I’ve never subscribed to a print magazine as an adult and it rocks. I love to read an article before I snooze like an old man in a sitcom. Plus, it’s liberating to be able to read something without 5,000 ads popping up every ten seconds.

Updates

I have a couple things in the works that I can’t talk about publicly yet, but here’s your formal reminder that guido summer is upon us once more. If you’re looking for a book to take to the beach, might I suggest Supernormal Stimuli? People have also told me it’s a great plane book!