In “Hacks”, Deborah obtains his dream work. But late at night is in trouble

I will never hesitate to declare that the most important program in the modern television era, and one of the best in all its history, is “The Larry Sanders Show”, “ The HBO series of the 1990s of Garry Shandling on a neurotic talk show host, his support staff and his guests – real world celebrities playing versions of themselves, a new idea – which came and came out of his life. He brought a new depth and possibilities to the comedy of the situation and paved the way for shows that operated at the intersection of fiction and reality.

“One thing that Garry said that it had a big impact on me,” said Judd Apatow, who wrote, produced and directed on “Sanders”, Once told me“Was that the show concerned people who loved each other, but business embarrassed.” According to ShandlingSpeaking in 2010, the real subject of the show was “the human qualities that brought us where we are now in the world: the dependence on having more and wanting more and to speak more. We were examining the successful labels – is it a success to be on television every day, to be famous, have a pay check? And you see what is missing is love and the heart. ”

Something of the same thing is requested in the current, fourth season of the Max series “Hacks.” The venerable Stand-Up actress Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) finally won her dream job, organizing her own end-of-evening network talk show, after a pilot canceled years before tabloid rumors that Deborah had burned her husband's house. Young modern comedy writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Intherd)), with whom it was locked in a generational, almost family, mutually beneficial, mutually frustrating, co-dependent relationship, since the series made its debut in 2021, made its way in the position of chief writer, launching the company on a sea of ​​tension. (The network has allocated a full -time HR chaperon to Deborah and Ava.)

In the context of the series, the hiring of Deborah as the first feminine at the end of the evening is historic – Joan Rivers, who presided “The Late Show” from Fox from 1986 to 1988, does not exist in this universe; “The Faye Emerson Show” (CBS, 1949-1951), ni Cynthia Garrett (the first African-American woman at the end of the evening), who welcomed “later” from NBC from 2000 to 2001.

“This network has never hired a woman since 11:30 am,” says Deborah. “Or anyone as old as I am. Or, let's be honest, a blond. It would be easier to be elected president. ” Despite Chelsea Handler cable emissions, Samantha Bee, Sarah Silverman and Busy Phillips or Taylor Tomlinson, working for CBS on “After midnight” Until her contract is exhausted in June and returned to stand -up – her choice, with the show canceled in her wake – it was and remains significantly true. It didn't matter that these women were younger than Deborah, or, some, like blondes. The long -term end of evening hosts are now and have always been, guys.

But even if Deborah's dream comes true, in the real world, the end of the night is troubled. Notes decrease. “I do not know if there will be late evening television shows on television in 10 years,” said Jimmy Kimmel last summer on the Podcast “Politckin” of Governor Gavin Newsom. “Maybe there will be one, but there will not be many.” (Kimmel made an appearance in camée in the most recent episode of “Hacks”, confronted with anger with Deborah after trying to poach Kristen Bell as a guest: “Everyone knows that when she has a new project, she does my program first – I got full guard when Conan died.”) As a choice of Helen Hunt, the management of the network “Between The franchise. His hiring, based on massive success in season 3, represents a kind of game “Hail Deborah”.

Like almost everything in our confusing century, post-time television has been reshaped and saved by internet. Television late at night, which had to be watched in the past, well, late at night – there was a kind of circadian component – was atomized in clips to look at when you wish. And the competition has not become fierce: never in human history, there have been so many people to speak to so many other people for public consumption, entertainment or education, on podcasts and panels and personal appearances. All the big Big or Baby Stars do not appear in front of Jimmy Fallon or Kimmel or Stephen Colbert or even at 12:30 pm with Seth Meyers, whose “end of the evening” is the last talk show standing in this time slot – “After Midnight” is a television game in which the actors rifted pop culture and social media – will present themselves on YouTube. But many, in situations where they are allowed to stretch, to go deeply, to become idiots or to eat hot wings while trying to answer questions.

In this space in time, broadcasts “Everybody's Live With John Mulaney”, a sort of suite of “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in”, which took place for six weeks last year as part of the Netflix is ​​a joke festivalAnd is now two thirds of the path through its 12 -week race. The episodes are presented on Wednesdays, broadcast live at 10 p.m. on the east coast and 7 p.m. to the west (Mulaney announces the time and temperature at Los Angeles at the start of each), so it is not technically a late evening show. Nor is it a kind of competition with the network at the end of the evening, Living, as it does, on Netflix Time.

Leanne Morgan, David Letterman and John Mulaney in an episode of Mars of “Everybody's Live With John Mulaney” on Netflix.

(Adam Rose / Netflix)

But it is built like one, more or less, with a monologue, jokes with an acolyte Richard Kind – in full effect of Richard – brief filmed sketches, interviews and a musical guest. Each episode presents a theme in the form of a question – “Should I lend money to people?”; “What is the best way to dismiss someone?”; “Can major surgery be fun?” – discussed by a panel of Hotley celebrities and a relevant expert. (The guests have included David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Tina Fey, Quinta Brunson, Bill Hader, Joan Baez, Fred Armisen, John Waters and Ayo Edebiri, none of them promoting a project.) There are also phone calls, perhaps to strengthen the vivification of the series; But these segments were not particularly successful – or rather, they were particularly unsuccessful. The appellants often seem confused; There is dead air, and Mulaney, which does not hold the tightest of resettlement, will end a summary conversation by asking for what type of car they drive.

Mulaney is one of the funniest working bands who work and a big guest of talk show. The best parts of the show, where he seems most present, under control and comfortable, is when his monologues avoid jokes for stories; He is hilarious to talk about a botched reservation for Bos Thugs-N-HarmonieOr a trip to the doctor, or teach his son for urination. “Everybody's Live” can be a bit vague; Weekly themes rarely develop in something important, conversations can be unbalanced and, despite professional production values, there is something … a public access cable on this subject.

It is not exactly in the disadvantage of the show. His relaxation is attractive, if you don't wait more than pleasant time. In any case, his departure is already planned. The fate of the late evening of Deborah Vance – which, in the extracts shown, becomes well – is known only of its showrunners, according to, of course, ironically, to know if Max renews the “hacks”. (It seems a safe bet.)

The arguments of this series on art compared to the “sales soap” are not raised for the program to expresses an opinion – “hacks” itself is a popular entertainment, serious about its characters, or most of them, but for laughter – but because they are banners for the war and Deborah has been putting in the start. It is only in their truce periods, when their different ambitions joint, that things are advancing. The two need their show to thrive; They are insecure, if people of opinion, who want to approve and ultimately improve, although they will only admit occasionally. We want their program to live because we are invested in their relationship, although the real possibility of a fifth season of “hacks” – apparently designed with a five -seizure arc – means that, for their close future, it will be a jumped night at the end of the evening.