Like any great road trip flick, “Hacks” realized in its second season that the best way to force its characters to work out their issues is to shove them into a tiny bus.
With Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) trying to rebuild her stand-up career from the ground up after losing her Vegas residency, the new season, which premiered Thursday on HBO Max, sees her and her team, including writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder), COO Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) and personal assistant Damien (Mark Indelicato) hit the road to perfect a new set.
“The Deborah Vance Machine,” as Indelicato dubbed it, is messy, made up of four big, often clashing personalities, particularly as they deal with the fallout of Ava’s last season rash email to a group of producers with a harsh revealing of Deborah’s greatest faults.
