‘Hacks’ Tackles Climate Change, ‘Cancel Culture’ and More — Is It TV’s Most Socially Conscious Series? 

In today’s politically touchy country, “woke” has become just another four-letter divisive reference to people who are attentive to important societal issues. But if that’s the case, it can be argued that “Hacks” is TV’s most socially conscious, dare we say, “woke,” series on air.

The Jean Smart-lead Max comedy has broached topics like sexuality, mortality, aging, bullying, and on and on, usually subtly and reasonably within the structure of the show, not hitting viewers over the head with opinions. One story that went a little deeper in Season 3 dealt with Ava and Deborah talking about climate change, a topic the series’ creators thought was too important not to confront.

“Sometimes the biggest challenge to writing ‘Hacks’ is compartmentalizing the fact that the world is literally on fire,” Lucia Aniello tells Variety. “Our country, we’re burning in many different ways. Sometimes it’s hard to ignore that, especially now that Paul and I have a kid, and so now I’m starting to think a lot more about the planet and how we’re leaving it,” she adds, referring to her husband, Paul W. Downs, who she shares co-creator, co-showrunner, writer and director credits with. (He also stars on the comedy as Deborah and Ava’s manager, Jimmy).

“Climate scientists try to make people pay attention to what’s going on, so it does feel like commenting on the world around us,” she continues. “The idea of being able to use our show to just help somebody who potentially would have a crystallized POV on it and see them and really have them hear somebody saying, ‘Here is a huge issue’ and [potentially] change their behavior as a result felt really important to us.”

Then there are others, young and old, who believe the climate change conversation is just an overreaction. To them, Aniello says, “But for people who feel like they just don’t want to hear about climate change and they’re just climate change deniers, I wouldn’t say, ‘Deborah is 100% that.’ But somebody who’s also like that, to actually hear the truth feels like hopefully a little bit of a blueprint for other people. I don’t even want to call it a fantasy by any means, but it’s something that we’re hoping — in any way — we can show a character can open their ears and hearts to the situation. That would be amazing. So for our show to be able to have a character do that is, let’s call it, I don’t know, ‘hopeful.’”

They, along with fellow co-creator and co-showrunner Jen Statsky, don’t necessarily go into each episode knowing they want to say something enlightening or thought-provoking, but it was an essential goal when they initially pitched the show.

“A lot of my favorite comedians are political, whether it’s George Carlin or someone like Deborah Vance, so we’re also able to use her power as a standup comedian to speak about certain issues,” Downs says.

“I really was baked into the pitch when we pitched the show. We said it was exciting to us to be able to do a show like this and explore different issues — political, cultural issues — through the lens of two very different women,” Downs says. “So it was really something that we set out to do, because it feels like, especially in a comedy, you have such a gift that in doing something that is hopefully funny, first you’re able to also unpack and examine things in a way that’s unifying and illuminating.”

Also baked into the premise of the show is that it’s dealing with intergenerational conflict —two characters who would have different perspectives on really important topics. Statsky jumps in: “That allows us to make sure that we’re coming from a character first standpoint, which I think helps things never feel like shoehorned in, because you’re like, ‘Right, this feels organic to what Ava would be thinking about; Yeah, this feels organic to an opinion Deborah would have that Ava would bristle at.’”

There is a history of comedy being able to speak to culture. “I don’t want to say influence culture; be a part of culture,” Aniello says. “When you are making a comedy, your baseline is relating to people. That’s how a joke works, because we’re all laughing at it because we all know that that is true. … It’s just part of the DNA of the show.”

“When you are laughing and relaxed, you are naturally in a state where you’re, I think, more able to take in information that maybe contradicts your preconceived notions and ideas about things,” Statsky adds. “And so I think comedy is this incredibly important tool to getting people to intake new ideas and new information and hopefully get to a new place and a new way of thinking.”

With “cancel culture” alive so prevalently in the standup world these days, and with Deborah’s style of caustic humor her calling card, it was only a matter of time before she was pulled into that gravity swirling around her this past season when old footage was blasted on social media of her making racist and ableist jokes. But what was different about the way the story was told is how she handled it. In a university townhall, she encouraged the conversation and says she was listening. It was a good teaching moment of how we can get through anything if we all just listen to each other.

“Deborah was at that place where she’d be able to hear what Ava had to say and then, in turn, able to hear what those students had to say,” Statsky explains. “Season 1 Deborah couldn’t receive that the way that Season 3 Deborah could. In a much more satisfying way, we got to have the dialogue speak to what is our truth about how comedians should always be speaking truth to power and not punching down. And yes, it is a comedian’s job to make jokes, but also, I think, a lot of comedians want the privilege of having the platform without any of the responsibility.”

Throughout Season 3, Deborah had many of those moments where her growth and evolution, her becoming more socially conscious became all too apparent. But is the showrunner trio at all concerned about criticism that Deborah and the show have become “too woke”?

“Because Deborah has the points of view that she has, some of them have evolved and some of them haven’t; some of them are fixed and that point of view oftentimes is an eyeroll at wokeism,” Downs answers. “I think sometimes people really relate to the show and really tap into the things that Deborah says. I think we side with both characters and so we’re not like, ‘You gotta be woke!’ And we’re also not like, ‘Don’t be woke!’ We don’t do either. We let them both play it out.”