Hacks

Matt Roush Says...

Jean Smart, who we’ve loved since Designing Women, is doing impressive double duty these days: bringing humor to grim drama as Kate Winslet’s mom on HBO’s Mare of Easttown, and now killing it as a past-her-prime Las Vegas stand-up comedian in a promising dramedy that rolls out with two episodes a week through June 10. Smart is the legendary Deborah Vance, who’s fighting to keep her career afloat when her manager yokes her to Ava (Hannah Einbinder), an ostracized young comedy writer hired to punch up Deb’s material. Ava thinks this gig is beneath her, but she’s got a lot to learn. And who’s a better mentor than the fast-with-a-quip Deborah, swanning around her lonely mansion like a cross between Phyllis Diller and Sunset Boulevard’s Norma Desmond. (See the full review.)