Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder may be TV’s sharpest, and most odd, couple but according to co-creator and star Paul W Downs, things are surprisingly a little lighter this time around.
It’s a curious place for Hacks to land. Since it arrived in 2021, all sharp edges and sharper punchlines, the show has been a critical darling: a deceptively glossy comedy about two women; one a legacy act, the other a cancelled writer — forced into orbit around each other. It took a familiar odd-couple setup and made it feel new again, balancing brutal one-liners with something far more tender underneath. The numbers followed: near-perfect reviews, a shelf of awards, and a cast propelled into another league entirely.
