#apparently these are just gonna keep getting longer sorrrrryyyyy

[sapphicscholar]

Hacks 2.05 and 2.06 Thoughts

Okay I’m just gonna keep doing these posts because it gives me a chance to get my own feelings down for future fic writing and also to have a nice way to process the highs and lows. So, as always, below the cut…

Overall, I was much happier with these two episodes than I was with 4, and they brought back some of the elements I’ve been missing or seeing less of in the show recently. I was really pleasantly surprised and had a blast watching them! Thoughts ordered just by how they showed up in my recollections with two more critical points at the end, and I know I’m skipping stuff, but there was a lot jammed into these episodes!

1. Okay so I’ve been feeling pretty meh on how they’re telling and not showing us about the comedy and Deborah’s bombing (I feel like it undercuts the emotional toll I think we’re supposed to know it’s taking on Deborah), but also, I’ve been really wary of having them give us a bunch of stand up at the expense of the other plots and character development (tbh I often don’t love seeing actors do a weird approximation of what they think stand up looks like, even if I adore Jean and think she’s fabulously talented and may well have pulled it off with aplomb). BUT I really enjoyed watching the evolution of that one specific punchline through these two episodes. It was a good way both to give credence to the fact that Ava and Deborah have begun really working together again on the writing (without filming endless scenes of the workshopping) and to actually show us that the act needs work but that it’s slowly but surely improving. The work is so central to Ava and Deborah’s relationship (and what I love about them) and has long been the key to the intimacy they find with each other, so I’m hopeful at these glimpses of its return!

2. I appreciated the small nod to Ava’s ongoing grief in discussion of the movie about the kid who lives in the mall as a metaphor for losing a parent, and I really love that we see Deborah encouraging Ava to keep up her own writing. I think there’s a reason so many of us writing for the fandom include lines like that in our fics—it feels true to S1 and to a Deborah who recognizes that Ava is good and can’t/won’t be working for her forever (a form of care that’s subtle enough to feel in character while still meaning so much)

3. No thoughts. Head empty. Deborah and Ava in the pool. I’m looking like a respectfully appreciative lesbian because dammit ep. 4 erased queer female desire, so I’m at least gonna give it to them in their viewership. But in all seriousness I really love the way Ava and Deborah are both vulnerable in different ways in this pool scene. It’s them at their best—this moment where they can almost both forget about the email and the lawsuit and just feel the temporary unburdening that comes with seeing and being seen by one another.

4. The game of celebrity in episode 5 was a fun episode opener and a nice way to give us a glimpse of the depth of Deborah and Marcus’s history, showing just how much they’ve been through together. Also, goddam, I’d be hammered if I 1) still drank, and 2) was taking a shot for every time Deborah casually touched Ava

5. Ava and Marcus at the state fair! I love a good state fair (which is perhaps one of the most seemingly OOC things I could say, but state fairs and boardwalks? Yes. Fuck yes.), and I had fun with this arc! The Ava & Marcus content was beyond my hopes – the oh-so common queer experience of being mistaken for a couple being enshrined forever in a caricature? And then having that caricature be the thing to make Deborah smile genuinely after getting upstaged by a birthing cow? So good.

The mommy line? I’m… Well, let’s be honest I’d have preferred a “daddy” a la @fictorium’s fic but ya know, we’ll spell it mommi, and at least Kayla Kumari will love it

6. Deborah and the dude: phew 🔥🔥. Look, I’m whatever on Casper boy, but Deborah deserves good sex, and if she got it from him, good for her! (And, given that I did the same in my own fic in terms of Deborah finding and sleeping with a guy who’s got no idea who she is, I get what could have drawn her to him.) Also, she looks hot as hell tangled in his sheets, and I have the UTMOST faith in our marvelously talented fandom giffers to make excellent Ava/Deborah sets with them (because let’s be honest, she looks a hell of a lot happier there than she did in the season 1 scene with Marty, and they still managed to make magic with them)

7. Idk, Nina was there? Of course she’s in a MLM. I hope Ava got something out of their interactions that she needed. I’m glad Ava was able to talk about her dad with someone. I just can’t bring myself to care about Nina (a personal failing, probably due to my horrible mother-in-law, but ya know, it is what it is)

Okay a few things where I’m hoping for more or better before the season is through: 1. There are a few times where it feels like the show is grabbing low-hanging fruit with the gimmicky laughs, and I miss some of that razor-sharp precision of season 1 (though I prefer them here than in ep 4; at least I was having fun this go around instead of cringing). For instance, stuff with Kiki is starting to feel a little like later-season Kramer arcs in Seinfeld (Kiki’s a fan fave and gets brought in just to say something a little outlandish for laughs like popcorn purse or to do something ~cool~ like showing up on a motorcycle), and it’s fine in moderation (though Poppy Liu is so talented that I wish they were getting something with a little more weight to it), but with only 8 half-hour episodes I’m more apt to be critical of what’s getting cut to fit those scenes in (though again, way more of a critique of 4 than of 5 and 6, since 4 seems poised to be a bottle episode without much weight in the narrative arc vs. 5 and 6)

2. Leading to the big one: I am really disappointed about the lack of in-universe consequences for episode 4’s meltdown (and for Ava’s real lapse in sobriety if that’s something that they want us to take seriously, which I think they do given that she’s not drinking in 6 even with her mother there). I get that we see something kind of like an individual-level reckoning (lite) for Deborah in episode 6, building off the season of bombings and the interactions with Susan in episode 5. Deborah realizes that she isn’t just the person who’s been trampled on, but she’s also been the one trampling on others to get to where she is, and her act can’t only be about what’s been done to her, but also has to be her taking ownership of the harm she’s done. But the thing is…that’s just such a perfect place for there to have been even the briefest moment of realization or acknowledgment (from Deborah OR Ava) that it’s a pattern she’s still stuck in at times. We do see Deborah making clear on stage what her “feminism” looks like, and that does give the slightest nod back to ep 4, but it wasn’t enough for what I personally wanted. I didn’t really expect them to give us large-scale social media or crowd-level ramifications, but given Ava’s ongoing willingness to step in with attempts at “good progressive politics” (e.g., the line here about how Deborah shouldn’t be proud of having descended from colonizers), I don’t buy that she’s unwilling to say anything to Deborah just because of a pending lawsuit (especially not when Deborah just bought her a whole new wardrobe and taught her to float and even talked about the email’s contents without being even a little bitter about it, which, anyway those are other, longer thoughts). Basically, if they want me to buy a totally cowed Ava (which I don’t think they do want me to buy!), they can’t keep giving her the little one-off lines of chastisement and show her rekindling the relationship with Deborah. The brash Ava they built up with such delightfully messy nuance in season 1 is an Ava who talks back even when it’s a bad idea (perhaps especially then), and even an Ava who’s grown into something a little more circumspect still feels like she has a backbone, especially when it comes to Deborah (she’s never treated Deborah like one of the cool kids whose approval she desperately wants, you know?). I’m waiting til we see how this season ends before I talk more about the arc of Ava and Deborah’s relationship, though. I feel like we could be headed somewhere good!

But anyway, yeah, even with these critiques, I’m still much more pleased with episodes 5 and 6! There’s a lot I genuinely love here – honestly, I only take the time to be disappointed in a show and critique it when it’s good enough to be something I love, ya know? Anyway, til next week! And as always, love hearing everyone’s thoughts in the tag or if anyone wants to chat!