Sartaj Singh
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder will head back to the Cities of Angels and Sins for more comedic adventures soon! The filming of the fourth season of Max’s comedy-drama series ‘Hacks’ will start in Los Angeles, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada, in September. Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky, who created the show, continue to lead the writers’ room, with Aniello also slated to serve as a director.
The show begins with Deborah Vance, a once-legendary comedian struggling for relevance, being paired up with talented but irreverent comedy writer Ava Daniels, who is facing cancellation due to an insensitive tweet. Despite their stark differences, the two women form an unlikely partnership. Through clashing and bonding over their shared experiences as women in comedy, they slowly begin to influence and inspire each other. Stressful situations and questions about the direction of their careers often see them at odds with one another. However, by the third season, the two have a begrudging respect for each other and develop a friendly dynamic.
In the previous installment, Deborah sees her career rejuvenated with Ava’s help, reaching the top of entertainment once again. She is offered the dream job of being a late-night talk show host, which the two have been working towards. In an unexpected twist, the veteran comedian abandons Ava when she starts her own show, robbing her of the head writer’s position and hiring two others to replace her. Having come so close to her dream, Deborah becomes fearful of losing it all and decides to play it safe with experienced writers. The season ends with Ava blackmailing her mentor and snatching her rightful head writer position back, proving that she has grown and learned far more from Deborah than she expected.
In season 4, we can expect Deborah and Ava to navigate the high-tension environment of creating a late-night talk show, just not in the way they had dreamed. “Really curious to see how she (Deborah) and Ava negotiate this new relationship they have,” Jean Smart, who plays the talk-show host, told Deadline. The cast of ‘Hacks’ will likely remain largely unchanged in the latest season. J. Smith-Cameron as Kathy Vance, Deborah’s sister, will likely have a more prominent role owing to the sister’s evolving drama. The series’ creators also hope to bring Elton John on the show as a guest star. The legendary musician’s songs have been used in ‘Hacks,’ and if he agrees to star in it, it will likely be as a guest on Deborah’s new show.
Both Los Angeles and Las Vegas are also featured in the show’s previous seasons. The City of Angels has earlier hosted the filming of shows and films like Netflix’s ‘That ’90s Show,’ ‘Gilmore Girls,’ ‘Desperate Housewives,’ and Paramount+’s ‘Why Women Kill.’ Sin City, on the other hand, has housed notable productions like ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,’ ‘Anywhere But Here,’ ‘Somewhere,’ and ‘The Guilt Trip.’
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