Cory Stillman
Hacks co-creator Paul W. Downs is not only one of the funniest men in television, but also one of the most thoughtful. It is evident in each and every episode of the HBO Max series, which Downs created alongside Jen Statsky his wife Lucia Aniello. Since its inception, Hacks has concerned itself with issues of contemporary politics and generational divides, but the show’s fourth season, which sees the show fully relocate to Los Angeles, CA after Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) has finally landed her dream gig as the first woman in late night TV, directs its attention towards the several existential crises facing the entertainment industry today.
Downs is well-positioned to speak on such crises, starring as Deborah’s agent Jimmy, whose desperate attempts to keep his agency afloat throughout season four see him enlisting the talents of a content creator known simply as “Dance Mom” (Julianne Nicholson), and making calls to the office of Governor Gavin Newsom in order to save a struggling industry.
“Whether you’re in entertainment or not, you recognize the changes in our country and what it means to be living in late-stage capitalism and how hard that is,” says Downs.
While Hacks has been shot in Los Angeles since the beginning, its more recent embrace of the city as its proper setting has afforded Downs a lot of fun in representing the city he calls home onscreen.
“We wanted to highlight a lot of places that are near and dear to us,” says Downs.
One such place is The Americana in Glendale, which Kayla (Megan Stalter) affectionately – and to be fair, accurately – refers to as an “outdoor mall” when pitching it to Ava (Hannah Einbinder) as her unorthodox new home.
“It seems kind of like a dream to live at The Americana,” says Downs. “And also it was weirdly apropos to have Ava kind of live in a Cheesecake Factory, since that’s a callback to what she says to Deborah in the pilot.”
Season four brings several moments such as that one full circle, ultimately reflecting on Downs’ experience creating television alongside fellow showrunners Statsky and Aniello.
“The season was a meditation on not only what it means to make television, but also we were thinking a lot about the ways in which the industry has been changing,” says Downs. “Episode 9 ‘A Slippery Slope’ is literally about the slippery slope of what has happened to the entertainment industry with the disruptions of big tech.”
One might imagine how those conversations are personal for a creator like Downs, whose show has thrived in a legacy media environment like HBO Max, even as the streamer has overcome its own identity crises in this age of tech and entertainment convergence.
Check out my full conversation with Downs below, where we discuss all this and more, even highlighting a few of Downs personal favorite shooting locations in Los Angeles.
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