Fans of “Hacks,” the Emmy-winning, Max smash hit starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, had to exercise patience for the show’s third season. The series, which premiered in 2021, was renewed for a third season in 2022, yet a series of delays (health issues, Hollywood strikes) kept pushing back the new season. Yet it was worth the wait: as new episodes have been rolling out this spring, critics of all nature seem to agree the show is at its best.
“It’s definitely a long time coming,” Einbinder, who plays Ava, says on a recent morning over Zoom. “I love talking about our show. I’m really proud of it and I think it’s the best it’s ever been. I feel really excited to get into all of the discussions around it, because everyone worked so hard.”
“Hacks” follows Ava, a twentysomething comedy writer, and the woman she works for, comedy legend Deborah Vance (played by Smart). The third season picks up a year after the end of the second, and we find Ava and Deborah living and working separately.
“It was exciting for me to see Ava redeeming herself and getting her life back on track in a way that she obviously starts out the show fearing will never be possible,” Einbinder says. “And what was of course the most exciting was how are they going to get back together and what are they pursuing? What’s their new challenge?”
Einbinder, who is the daughter of original “SNL” cast member Laraine Newman and grew up in Los Angeles, says that while Ava’s delivery style is a bit rougher than her own, the two would indeed be friends in real life.
“I love how confrontational Ava is,” Einbinder, 29, says. “I appreciate her total confidence in saying what it is that she is feeling and going toe to toe with Deborah, a person who no one dares to challenge. I also enjoy playing the goofy, dorky, embarrassing side of her when she’s around a woman. It feels like she’s kind of just a total goof, and that’s why women like her, which I appreciate and think is so funny and fun. Some might describe her as chaotic, but I think she’s kind of just free, and I appreciate getting to explore all the relationships in her life with all of these people who she challenges or pushes their buttons or pisses them off or connects with. It’s really a fun and heartwarming experience to be her and connect to these other characters through her.”
In addition to “Hacks,” Einbinder is also debuting her first special, “Everything Must Go,” which will be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 11 and will be available on Max. She credits “Hacks” with allowing her the opportunity.
“It has made everything that I have done and will do creatively possible, single-handedly. It’s changed my life in such a massive way,” she says, noting especially the relationships she has built with the show’s creators, Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky.
“There’s no deeper connection than that between people who laugh together in the way that we do, so that feels so life changing to me,” she says.
The hourlong special is not something she was consciously working toward while doing stand-up, but she started to realize themes were developing in her acts and that she might have something worth putting together.
“It is the cumulative result of my entire career as a stand-up comedian,” she explains. “When I started out as a stand-up, I was not working toward an hour [special] — I just was trying to find interesting angles on the medium itself. It started to take shape and I started to, as a result of ‘Hacks’ and my exposure in that way, I started to be able to tour, and it started to come together into this longer form thing. In a way I’ve been working on it forever, but it is the first thing that I will ever release that I’m the author of, so I’m very excited.”
She describes the themes as “very wide ranging,” noting that while it is autobiographical, she also touches on “climate change, ecology, life, death, politics, some stories from my youth, menstruation, hypnotism, drugs.”
“It’s really the micro and the macro,” she adds. “It’s my life, and life generally.”
