Editorial note: Spoilers ahead for season four of “Hacks.”
Last night, HBO Max aired the season four finale of “Hacks,” and the show has never been in better form.
The odd couple comedy starring Jean Smart as Joan Rivers-esque comedian Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder as her woke, bisexual head comedy writer Ava Daniels took on late night this season, with the central theme of the last 10 episodes being Vance’s rise (and fall) as the host of “Late Night.” With each new obstacle this season, whether it being Ava’s blackmail, disagreements on whether to make the show more relatable or more political or studio executive Bob Lipka (Tony Goldwyn) ordering Deborah to fire Ava, the push and pull of Deborah and Ava’s relationship is as acute as it has ever been. Their arguments are more cutting, their resolutions more poignant, the place they hold in each other’s lives more heartfelt and all of it is very, very funny.
So it’s with all the love in my heart for this show that I lodge one tiny complaint: Season four of “Hacks” needed way more Robby Hoffman.
For those who might be unaware, the 35-year-old Jewish comedian joined “Hacks” this season as Randi. Viewers meet her in episode two when Deborah and Ava’s agent Jimmy (Downs) learns that his business partner Kayla (Megan Stalter) has hired Randi as an assistant for their fledgling talent agency, Schaefer & LuSaque — or LuSaque & Schaefer, depending on who you ask. “Last week I was a Hasidic Lubavitch Jew living in Crown Heights, New York,” Randi introduces herself to Jimmy. “Now I’m in L.A., I’m gay and probably an atheist.”
It’s an inspired and informative introduction to the world of “Hacks.” Based on this moment, and from what co-creators Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky and Lucia Aniello have said, it’s clear that Robby Hoffman entered the “Hacks”-iverse to be the ex-Hasidic, gay, brutally honest, slightly off-kilter and hilarious Jew that she is in real-life. This is further cemented by Randi explaining the movie “Speed” to Jimmy, as well as requesting that the agency get a separate sink for her to stay kosher. “Kosher living is just cleaner,” she says when Jimmy questions why she’d need one if she’s no longer Orthodox. “I mean, some of these religious tenets, they were right. I can’t help that.” Later, Randi pops up in the episode again to roast Schaefer & LuSaque’s online presence, cement herself as Kayla and Jimmy’s assistant and vigorously scrape dog excrement off Jimmy’s shoe with a stack of resumes.
And then, in a sort of bait-and-switch, we don’t see Randi again until episode seven. It’s a stark, noticeable and frankly confusing pull away from the character. Sure, I grant that there was no way for the “Hacks” writers to know for certain that Robby Hoffman would be deemed a breakout star of this season. But at the same time, Robby was cast on the show because of her one-of-a-kind delivery and point of view. Of course she was going to get noticed.
Not to mention that Randi had so much comedic and narrative potential at the beginning of the season. “Hacks” could’ve showed the newly queer Randi discovering the Los Angeles gay scene alongside Ava and Deborah. (Maybe if Randi had been at the club in episode four, Deborah wouldn’t have hit her head on the go-go cage due to nonconsensual use of poppers!) “Hacks” should’ve let Randi and Kayla discuss the latter’s non-Jewish bat mitzvah, which was a throwaway joke in season three. At the very least, the show should’ve included Randi in the Dance Mom plot line this season, wherein Jimmy and Kayla try to rein in a very out-of-control TikTok dancer and client played by Julianne Nicholson.
As much as I love “Hacks,” it’s hard not to feel like the show wasted some great Randi opportunities.
Which isn’t to say that Hoffman’s contributions in episodes seven through nine aren’t really fun. In “D’Christening,” she makes a meal out of her singular line, “I got a Mr. Homo on line one.” (“It’s Ms. [Hemeaux], Cece, put her through,” Jimmy corrects her.) The only other insight viewers get all season into Randi’s life in Los Angeles comes in “Witch of the Week” when Jimmy calls her to ask about Kayla’s birthday and Randi picks up from a bus. Within the span of a few seconds, Hoffman gifts us with the lines, “I’m gay, but I’m no lesbian” and “I like to mentally map a city before I drive in it.” And in her penultimate scene of the season in episode nine, viewers also get a tidbit of Randi’s past when she says, hilariously, “As a former hospital administrator, I actually would never joke about a puncture wound.”
From all of this, it’s clear that the “Hacks” writers know how to write extremely punchy and authentic lines for the lovable weirdo Randi. It just remains to be seen if they know what to do with her and, by extension, the lesbian Larry David that is Robby Hoffman. Not that I have all the answers, but as a viewer, I’m desperate to see Randi interact with characters other than Jimmy and Kayla (though I do love their report). I want to see her get in on more of the action of the show, helping Deborah and Ava achieve their goals in Hollywood or perhaps even sowing conflict. Basically, I want for the trajectory of Kayla’s character for Randi: an ancillary character in her first season that became a more developed and central role due to how much the fans responded to her.
As HBO Max just renewed the show for a fifth season, I’m ecstatic that the “Hacks” team has another opportunity to figure it all out.
