Hacks co-creator Jen Statsky divulged how the acclaimed comedy series brought to life its fanbase’s ultimate “fantasy,” even if the characters themselves are only pretending.
“I think the thing that’s so funny about this episode is so much of Deborah and Ava’s real, true relationship is the fabric on which the ‘lie’ is built on,” Statsky, 40, told Obsessed: The Podcast.
In Season 5, Episode 7 of Hacks, Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder’s characters—Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels— pretend to be in a romantic relationship to procure Vance’s perfect outfit for her Madison Square Garden comeback show from her comedy rival, played by Cherry Jones.
While the comedians’ working relationship frequently crosses over into a personal one, it has never been expressly romantic. Their close bond, however, allows them to easily pretend to be a lesbian couple.
“It’s all the stuff that gets brought up in the fights, whether it’s, ‘I’ve sued you’ or ‘I’ve never hit you’ or Ava talking about how they met,” The Good Place writer and producer continued. “It’s the real stuff that fans of the show have watched and seen for five seasons.”
The show’s three creators—including married writing team, Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello, who both appear in the show—are careful in how much they acknowledge their viewers’ opinions.
“I think for me, there’s just this huge fear that once you start letting that in, does it affect organically what you’d always planned for the show?” Statsky said.
And yet, the trio has been considering their audience’s wishes for the relationship to turn romantic for years.
“It’s not surprising that people see that or want that, actually, because it is a love story,” Downs told the Daily Beast last August. “It’s about a very unique, very complicated relationship between these two women. So I fully get it.”
Aniello added, nodding, “They are in love, they’re literally soulmates, they’re both really hot, why wouldn’t they?”
“Yeah, now we’re talking ourselves into it,” Statsky quipped.
“The truth is, Paul, Lucia, and I have known where the show is going since the beginning,” Statsky said this time around. “We’ve arced out what Ava and Deborah’s relationship is. We know what it is. We are very intentional in that.”
“At the end of the day, if you start writing a show towards people’s expectations or hearing, ‘They want us to do more of this, so we should do more of that,’ it just becomes something else,” the Broad City writer concluded. “It just taints it in a way that I just don’t think anyone actually at the end of the day wants.”
Statsky refrained from indicating how the series would end, even to the series’ leads who didn’t ask to hear their arcs before the season started.
“I never asked them in all these years how the show was gonna end. I wanted to be surprised, but then when I found out, at first I was concerned—and a little taken aback," Smart told Variety before the season aired.
“But the more I thought about it, I thought, ‘OK, I can see that,’” she continued. “And then there’s a twist at the end. But I won’t spoil it.”
When viewers watch the finale, Spatsky hopes it “speaks to what we think the entire point of the show has been about: this very special relationship between creative partners—and honestly friends—and the value of making your friends laugh."
“And I hope people look at the ending and go, ‘This is very Hacks. This is what the tone of the show has been all along,’” she said.
New episodes of Hacks premiere each Thursday on HBO Max. The series finale airs on May 28.
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