Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the Season 4 finale of Hacks
HBO has aired many scary and stressful shows over the years. Everything fromThe Last of Us,Lovecraft Country, andTrue Bloodhave kept us on the edge of our seats and our hearts racing. EvenGame of Thronesmade us experience many violent events (who can forget the Red Wedding?). But there’sone HBO showthat has comedianConan O’Brienbreaking out into cold sweats, and the name of that show might actually surprise you. Turns out there’s nothing that has given O’Brien more post-traumatic stress flashbacks than the comedy,Hacks.
Season 4 of ‘Hacks’ Is Set in the World of Late-Night TV
Up until the most recent season ofHacks,the series had followed comedy legend Deborah Vance (Emmy winnerJean Smart) as she worked with a young writer named Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), primarily on crafting new stand-up material. Although the two bicker like an old married couple, they have each played on one another’s strengths in order to revitalize Deborah’s career. Through countless days working out new material on the road to fighting tooth and nail to get recognized in Hollywood,Deborah is finally given the chance to host her own late-night talk showin Season 4. Deborah is the first woman to hold this mantle, and she and Ava (as her designated head writer) decide to do whatever it takes to make it the best talk show ever. With this next stage in Deborah’s career, theHackswriters have created a whole new world for the characters to play in. And it seems they’ve absolutely nailed depicting how things go downin the late-night TV world.
This Season of ‘Hacks’ Is Giving Conan O’Brien Flashbacks
O’Brien has been a star in the talk show world for decades. He hosted his own show,Late Night with Conan O’Brien,from 1993 to 2009 andThe Tonight Show with Conan O’Brienfrom 2009 to 2010, both on NBC. He then moved to cable with his talk show,Conan,which ran from 2010 to 2021.Let’s just say when it comes to how the world of late-night operates, O’Brien knows a thing or two. In 2018, O’Brien moved into the podcasting game withConan O’Brien Needs a Friend, in which he interviews various comedians and actors about their experiences in show business.In a recent episode, O’Brien interviewsPaul W. Downs,the co-creator, co-showrunner, and star ofHacks. Downs plays Jimmy in the series, andhas earned three Emmysfor his behind-the-scenes work.
Deborah Just Hit a Whole New Low on ‘Hacks’
“It’s not my fault your messy love life is funnier than the material you write.”
During the podcast,O’Brien admits that this season ofHackshas been giving him some serious flashbacks to his own time hosting a late-night show, just like Deborah. First, he cites the endless efforts to help boost the show’s ratings as being extremely realistic. Deborah and Ava are required to attend countless meetings that focus on how to increase ratings (everything from focus groups to attempts to go viral on social media). As creatives, thispart of the late-night processis frustrating and never-ending. Even once a series is at the top of the ratings, the focus shifts to how to stay there. O’Brien also points to a partin Episode 3, when the talk show is putting together its team of writers. The writers are all shooting out joke options, and everyone’s laughing, until one writer shouts out a line that’s completely unfunny. Deborah refers to this writer as a “riff-killer,” andO’Brien notes that this is exactly how the writing process goes in real life. Sadly, there is typically one person who ends up killing the mood and the flow of the joke writing, grinding things to a halt before a reset can happen.
‘Hacks’ Paints a Realistic Picture of Late-Night TV
Even thoughHacksis a fictional comedy, O’Brien points out that the writing is incredibly true-to-life. During the interview with Downs,O’Brien also notes that the plot in Episode 5 could totally have been pulled from real life. In the episode, Deborah tries to landKristen Bellas a guest for her talk show. This ends in a confrontation with an angryJimmy Kimmel, who chastises Deborah for trying to poach his guest. O’Brien laughingly admits that this happened all the time with guests duringhis reign as a talk show host. In a sort of meta moment, O’Brien actually makes an appearance in this scene, although it’s an indirect one. Kimmel jokes that everyone knows he gets specific guests “after Conan died.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to O’Brien being out of the game, and Downs confesses this was actually an improvised line from Kimmel. O’Brien is definitely in on the joke though, and admits how funny the line is.
Even though the jokes are hilarious,O’Brien suggests all of these authentic aspects of late-night do hit home for him, saying to Downs, “I’m kind of reliving it a little bit through your show, but you guys are doing a very good job of hitting a bunch of the nerves, which means you’re getting it right.” That’s because the environment is a super stressful one. Late-night talk shows are typically on every weeknight, and they require a huge amount of work. There are monologues to be written,sketches or bits that need to be draftedfor the host and guests, and aspects that need to be rehearsed before the show is taped. Doing this week after week can get monotonous and deplete the entire team’s energy levels. Even when a show is killing it in the ratings, the pressure remains,because the show needs to stay on top. That also requires an immense amount of time doing promotions and crafting social media buzz to get people to tune in. It’s no wonder that O’Brien doesn’t want to be reminded of this time in his life when he’s sitting down to watch a show (and a comedy at that).
The finale ofHackshas just aired, and Deborah has decided to quit her dream job as a talk show host. She would havebeen required to fire Ava, and Deborah did the selfless thing (for once) and resigned instead. At the end of Episode 9, she learns that she’s trapped in a non-compete contract that demands that she not perform (or basically work in any way) for the next 18 months. She jets off to Singapore with Ava in the finale to perform with a translator (a loophole in the contract), but after a fake obituary pops up online that includes the statement that she “killed” late-night TV, Deborah will need to resurrect her career and her reputation again inSeason 5. At this point, there’s no telling where her career path will take her, but O’Brien is probably hoping she’ll steer clear of late-night, so he can watch the show in peace.
Explores a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.
