Hacks, or, The Sparing Application of Wile E. Coyote
About halfway through “Mrs. Table,” this week’s episode of Hacks, sixth of 10 of one of the best shows on TV, I started trying to put my finger on what wasn’t working for me.
Then it hit me; or rather, Ava hit the traffic arm, after ignoring the windmill arms of the security guard.
This came a day after Ava had gotten a clownish faceful of makeup to play it not-at-all-cool with her ex and then crash out with the couple she’s dating, and directly following two full minutes of Ava yelling about her life, hurling a $72 fish at the window, and a smash cut to her in her car yelling GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
All this in an episode where Deborah has to save her corgi from literally being eaten by a coyote makes the Loony Tunes parallels inevitable.
This episode also brought back Deborah’s daughter DJ (Kaitlin Olson, master of both yelling diatribes and Loony-Tunes-esque physical comedy), doing exaggerated callisthenics in an attempt to induce her overdue birth. [My mom sat on the railroad tracks, and then finally the washing machine, in ultimately futile attempts to get me with the program already.]
The reason Ava going full cartoon doesn’t work isn’t Hannah Einbender, who delivers on all of the individual ‘bits’ above and then some, including barreling into hapless interns and failing to casually lean against a wall-mounted sign (which reminds me of, among other things, Sydney falling through the wall in The Beef office).
But as the manic events start stacking up, the direction takes Ava too far over the top. Despite this season’s bear urine runner and Deborah’s intrusive dreams, Hacks is a more grounded show than Always Sunny, and Ava is a main character whose arc has made her [slightly] more self aware.
When secondary or guest characters such as Kayla or DJ are absurd to the point of surrealism, or perform Bugs Bunny physical comedy stunts, it’s easily accepted as getting their point across. When Ava or Deborah have moments of Looney Toonism like trying to scramble up an escalator, it’s grand.
But a whole episode with Ava not just spiraling, but doing it like she’s an animated rabbit on coke, undercuts some of the character work, and makes it harder to sell a genuine reconciliation scene at the end of the episode.
Though of course, Einbender and Smart nail it, it’s helped by the emotions staying grounded in not just the characters, but their typical realm of comedy and physicality.
Directing is a constant balancing act, and often you’re filming scenes days or weeks apart, so assessing how they’re going to stack up isn’t always easy. But, sometimes, less is more, and more of a great thing isn’t the best thing.