Deborah Vance embodies the difference between a punishing mentor and a flat-out terrible one. If you're lucky, you may never experience either kind. But if you're fortunate — and resilient enough to withstand a rageful outburst or 20 — you may learn priceless lessons from someone as unrelenting as Jean Smart's force of nature.
In the second season of "Hacks," Deborah is especially brutal toward her protégé Ava (Hannah Einbinder) without ever completely violating the accord the two of them have landed upon. Showrunners Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky and Lucia Aniello deserve much of the credit for steering the comedy right on that line between droll and devastating, but none of their efforts would land if Smart and Einbinder weren't such a phenomenal team.
