via Nathan DeFiesta
The Success of Hacks and the Persistence of the Hollywood Workplace Sitcom
Hacks, the half-hour sitcom on Max, primarily focuses on the love-hate dynamic between veteran comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her burgeoning writer/employee Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder). The new season follows Deborah and Ava’s fraught relationship as the two prepare for Vance’s late-night debut. It’s a new direction for the show, yet the backdrop of this season feels like familiar territory. Hacks has essentially become a workplace sitcom, complete with HR meetings, office nemeses, and a temperamental boss.
For some audiences, this may feel fresh since it’s a workplace sitcom set in Hollywood, but for those who know better, this is not the first Emmy-winning comedy series to offer an inside look at the trials and tribulations of working in Hollywood and even late-night in particular. HBO’s groundbreaking 90s hit The Larry Sanders Show centered on a fictional talk-show host, while NBC’s 30 Rock followed Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) through various shenanigans inspired by Fey’s real-life experiences as the head writer for Saturday Night Life. Even the main B plot on Hacks, which follows the parallel relationship between Deborah and Ava’s manager (Paul W. Downs) and his assistant-turned-partner (Megan Stalter), calls to mind the industry insider jokes of HBO’s Entourage (but without the toxic bro humor).
This is not to say that Hacks does not have anything new to offer. In fact, what sets Hacks apart from some of these other Hollywood-set social satires is its treatment of the intergenerational conflict between its two lead characters and their differing approaches to both comedy and the business side of the entertainment industry. At the same time, the writers of Hacks have struck a good balance between the industry-specific jokes that only a Hollywood-obsessed audience can appreciate and the universal accessibility of a toxic mentor-mentee relationship. That relatability factor makes Hacks watchable for those who could care less about the institutional problems in Hollywood.
Why The Studio is Resonating with the Industry
Seth Rogen’s new Apple TV+ series The Studio is a bigger challenge for a non-Hollywood audience. This show is catered to the industry insider in just about every way. The jokes mostly land if you’re the type of person who remembers the details of former Sony executive Amy Pascal’s email leaks. The visual aesthetic is cinematically ambitious but perhaps only impressive for the audience member who appreciates a long one-take sequence.
If you identify as that kind of audience member, then this is 100% the show for you. If you don’t, you might not be able to gain that much satisfaction from following the weekly hijinks of Rogen’s character, who strives to be a “filmmaker-friendly studio head” despite that phrase being a total contradiction of terms. Regardless of how The Studio resonates with general audiences, the industry seems to love it. The reviews are glowing, the celebrity cameos yield headlines in the trades with the release of every episode, and the show is already considered a strong Emmy contender.
One has to wonder which of the aforementioned extremes explains the industry’s warm reception of The Studio: Hollywood’s self-obsession or its self-deprecating sense of humor? Once again, both are at play here. The Studio may be far more cynical and niche than Hacks, but both of these programs seek to explain and comment on the current state of the entertainment industry and the collective frustrations people have with it. In both shows, the portrait of network and studio executives speaks to a cynicism around what the industry has become, yet the wants and needs of the central characters speak to the enduring hope of the promise of Hollywood.
What’s fascinating about Hacks and The Studio is that while they both feel so contemporary and fresh, their social critiques—the conflict between art and commerce, the price of fame and success, and the tension between the old and the new—aren’t exactly revelatory. They are, in fact, hallmarks of the Hollywood social satire. Each generation seems to get new versions of this type of show, engaging with these recurring themes through the context of the current cultural climate. The application of these themes may look different, but the concepts themselves remain the same.
Based on the reception of these shows, there is no sign that Hollywood will tire itself of, well, itself. After all, we’re talking about a wholly consuming industry full of potential conflict and juicy drama. Sure, sometimes the creatives behind these shows might act like the world revolves around this one industry. Alternatively, sometimes these artists are on a righteous social mission to unearth the many problems within this institution. Regardless of whether or not they are coming from a place of narcissist self-obsession or profound self-awareness, film and television writers are going to write what they know. Therefore, it’s only natural that Hollywood would be preoccupied with itself. That’s why these shows have always existed and have practically become their own subgenre on television. And just like any other classic television subgenre from the medical drama to the legal procedural, the Hollywood social satire always seems to be ripe for reinvention and reinterpretation, even if the themes are the exact same.
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