One Great Scene: Deborah & Ava Trusting The Process In “Hacks”
In an extended conversation about a particular NBA team’s mantra and how it applies to being a stand-up comedian, “Hacks” shows everything that makes it so great.
As a longtime basketball fan, the first thought I had when I saw that Episode 3 of the new season of Hacks was titled “Trust The Process” was: “that can’t be a reference to the Philadelphia 76ers, can it?”
The Emmy-winning Hacks, centered on a legendary female stand-up comic (Deborah Vance, played by Jean Smart) who hires an aspiring Gen Z comedy writer (Ava Daniels, played by Hannah Einbinder), is about a lot of things, but perhaps none more so than working in a writing-intensive industry and finding yourself in a creative rut or existential crisis.
In that sense, it was plausible, and even likely, that the title was just a hint that the episode was going to focus in on the creative process. Perhaps Deborah and Ava were going to sit down and really get to work on new material for Deborah. On the other hand, this season kicked off with an episode that featured a UFC fight. Reader: it was a reference to the Sixers. And it was glorious.
