While I've repeatedly named Apple TV+ as my favourite streaming service on the market right now, something I stand by, it's followed in a close second place by Now. The streamer makes it super easy to access Sky services in the UK, and it's helped me find a show that I'm genuinely inhaling right now – HBO's Hacks.
Unlike most HBO shows, it's actually being fully distributed by Sky in the UK, meaning there's no HBO logo as the show starts, which is a little odd. Still, whether you're a Sky Max subscriber, or a Now Entertainment Pass user like me, you literally have to get this comedy on your radar: it's brilliant.
The show centres around the twin careers of young up-and-coming writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) and a world-famous comic, Deborah Vance (Jean Smart). Ava's down on her luck after some ill-advised tweets, and finds herself short of options, but manages to secure a job helping Deborah trawl through her archives for new ideas.
Ava's part of the new generation that knows their rights and expects a lot more from the world they work in, while Deborah has been through the ringer and suppressed some hugely problematic treatment during her early years. That lays the foundations for some fascinating back-and-forths about her career and whether she's locked into just performing the same old routines over and over.
The show's first season, which I watched in the course of just a week, is set mostly in Las Vegas, where Deborah has a residency (both at a casino and in the mansion her career has earned her). That's a surprisingly welcome change of pace, compared to most high-budget US productions, which tend to gravitate towards LA or New York.
Really, though, the main reason I've fallen in love with the show is its script, which is whip-smart and so quick that you sometimes barely catch a joke as it flies past. It has some great characters to get to know, and enough emotional maturity to hit you with some surprisingly meaningful moments, too.
I've got three more seasons to get through, after a fourth one arrived this year, and I can't wait – this is a real feather in Sky's cap here in the UK, and yet another in the long series of hits for HBO in the US.
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