HACKS cast (Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Hannah Einbinder, Johnny Sibilly, Mark Indelicato, Megan Stalter, and Poppy Liu) photographed for Out Magazine (May 2022)
PRIDE MONTH CELEBRATION WEEK: day 2: tv show
Hacks (2021-) created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky
“I used to only hook up with men, but when I masturbated, I thought about women. So then in college I finally hooked up with this amazing TA, Phoebe. And I realized that I could connect more emotionally with women, which led to deeper sexual experiences. But sometimes I do still need penetrative sex with a dick to come. But I don’t know, maybe I was just conditioned to the porn that was fed to me by the algorithm, you know? So anyway, I’m bi.””
Wait has anyone giffed the microphone photo shoot video of Carl Clemons-Hopkins and Johnny Sibilly yet?? If not, please consider this my request to the universe (or the hacks hive)!
Second season: Hacks (created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, 2022)
The winning second season of this great comedy series is both shorter and expanded. There's more characters, with a few outstanding guest stars (Metcalf, Essman, Harris, Wen), and fewer episodes, due to which some of the recurring and secondary characters (Adams, Olson, Liu, Sibilly) are given less screen time, which, while a pity because almost everyone is greatly written and acted, may actually be beneficial to the overall plot, focusing mostly on Smart and Einbinder. The only weak, while still entertaining, plot is the one starring Downs and Stalter, who, up until the last episode, live on their own, slightly annoying, planet. That their thread eventually coalesces with the central one brings much relief.
CARL: The fact that we’re having these conversations on mainstream entertainment, with nuance, with subtlety, with differing opinions, showing the spectrum of humanity in ways that are understandable, I think is very helpful.
[AVA: Have you ever considered why you like men?
DEBORAH: I don’t understand that question. In my day, there were two options: you liked one or you liked the other. I mean, why do some people like jazz, some people like classical. You just like what you like.]
CARL: I really like that Deborah highlights how there really wasn’t the language and the sensitivity around gender expression and sexuality when she was coming up.
POPPY: Yeah, I think that the scene does a great job of showing what a real life version of that bridge-building between generations can look like.
[AVA: I just think there’s room for more nuance. Like, not every queer person feels like they arrive into existence with an attraction to like a specific kind of person, and that’s okay too.]
JEAN: It’s a great scene because it does look at the whole subject of gender and sexuality. It doesn’t just have to be one or the other.
HANNAH: Right, it’s like that fluidity and also examining specifically like the lines you have around, “when I grew up it was like this.” Getting to see, you know, where someone my age comes from, Jean’s generation, the cultural perception of sexuality.
[MORGAN: To be honest, we think it's a binary and you're just born gay or straight.
AVA: Totally, totally, 100%]
MARK: I'm glad that that was written in, that another queer person has that point of view.
CARL: It's a real opinion.
MARK: You know, because that is a very very real widespread opinion—
POPPY: "Bisexuality is not a thing!"
MARK: —right, within our community.
HANNAH: As a bisexual person, I've dated lesbians who were kind of not really down with the bi element, so you're just like, "Totally, totally, yeah, me neither, right?" I think a lot of bi people will see that and be like oh my god, I totally feel this.
POPPY: I think it's really important for queer conversations to kind of be snuck in to shows such as Hacks that aren't necessarily queercoded. I think it captures a lot of audience who might not be watching TV for the purpose of seeing queer characters. They're watching it for the comedy, for Jean Smart, all of these other reasons, and I do feel like that is a really important population to reach.
PAUL: Hopefully there's an element of celebrating these characters and their orientation, but also not letting their orientation precede them.
LUCIA: The idea of people just existing as themselves and not necessarily having to declare their gender or orientation is just how we see the world and how we go through the world.
JEN: We just wanted to make sure these characters always felt like fully realized people and got to experience the full breadth of emotions.
MARK: I think that that is important representation as well, to not have to lead with one's sexuality, to lead with one's gender identity. That can put you in what some would consider like a victim category.
POPPY: A lot of times queer characters spend the entirety of their character journey unpacking their queerness. It's very a trauma-based narrative, whereas in Hacks the queer characters are just out here like doing their taxes, like, going to the mall.
[AVA: Deborah. Okay, so, these are technically unisex, but I thought you might like them because they are $800.]
CARL: We're living the definition of being queer here and everyone's used to it. And that's the hope of a dream.
MARK: Having these very important conversations about identity and while simultaneously having characters that just exist in their queerness without any conversation is a really great duality to have.