MAY 12 • 2022 | 57

HACKS COMES BACK,
NOSH WITH A PURPOSE,
GARFIELD GETS
RELIGIOUS, AGAIN
The acclaimed HBO Max
comedy series Hacks pre-
mieres its second, 10-epi-
sode season on May 12. Two
episodes will be shown on
the 12th, and two episodes
will be shown each following
week. Hacks is well-writ-
ten, well-acted, funny and
touching. Here’s a brief first
season recap to encourage
everyone to check it out.
Jean Smart co-stars as
Deborah Vance, an aged
stand-up comedy legend
with a biting sense of humor.
In her heyday, she frequently
appeared on TV and toured
the country, playing night-
clubs. In more recent years,
she did a nightly show at
a major Las Vegas casino.
Her casino show was pretty
much the same night after
night, year-after-year.
Vance hires Ava (Hannah
Einbinder, 26), an unem-
ployed comedy writer, to
write jokes for her. Ava
constantly urges Vance to
update her act. This updat-
ing, Ava says, should include
personal anecdotes about
the difficulties that female
comics dealt with when
Vance was younger and
often still deal with. Vance

resists this advice until the
casino fires her. They want
someone “fresher.”
The firing prompts Vance
to “let go” in her final casino
appearance and use the per-
sonalized material that Ava
wrote for her. A video of that
set goes viral, and Vance is a
hot comic once again.
As the first season con-
cludes, Ava and Vance’s very
prickly relationship has mor-
phed into mutual respect for
each other. But “out there” is
an email that could destroy
their relationship. I won’t
spoil what it is in it for those
who haven’t seen the first
season yet. The email will
come up (again) in the sec-
ond season.
Jean Smart, as Vance,
won an Emmy (lead actress,
comedy) and Einbinder, the
daughter of former SNL
star Laraine Newman, was
Emmy-nominated (supporting
actress, comedy).
The second season trailer
reveals this: Vance decides
to do a national tour of com-
edy clubs and will be accom-
panied by Ava. But before
touring, Vance insists on hir-
ing a really good tour man-
ager. She hires Alice, who
is played by Laurie Metcalf
(Roseanne, The Connors).
As the trailer concludes,
we hear Vance questioning
whether doing a tour is the
right thing.
I liked Einbinder in Hacks,
and I liked her even more
when I saw her on a YouTube
video titled Recipe for
Change: Standing Up to
Antisemitism. She was one
of (about) 30 Jews who gath-
ered around dinner tables in
New York and Los Angeles
to eat and talk.
Dinner guests first dis-
cussed Jewish culture and

identity, and then talked
about antisemitism and how
to deal with it. The guests
included prominent actors,
rabbis and chefs. The pro-
gram was quite good and is
certainly novel. It’s received
900K views since it was
posted last month.
Here’s a list of the most
famous showbiz celeb
guests: Bryan Greenberg,
Rachel Bloom, Idina Menzel,
Josh Peck, Rachel Dratch,
Michael Ian Black, Michael
Zegen and Ilana Glazer.
The six-part Hulu series,
Under the Banner of
Heaven, began streaming on
April 28 with a two-episode
premiere. It’s based on a
true story. In 1984, a young
Mormon mother and her
infant daughter, who lived
near Salt Lake City, were
found stabbed to death. I
won’t spoil it for you — suf-
fice it to say that the murders
involved a tiny sect that had
split off from the mainstream
Church of Latter Day Saints
(the Mormons).
The series, which has got
good reviews, is based on a
true-crime book of the same
name by Jon Krakauer, 68.
He’s the secular son of a
Jewish father and a Unitarian
mother.
Andrew Garfield, 38,
co-stars as a devout

Mormon police detective
who co-heads the murder
investigation. Wyatt Russell,
35, has a big role as Dan
Rafferty, a member of the
sect.
Garfield clearly likes to
take film roles in which he
plays very religious persons
in unusual circumstanc-
es. In 2016, he starred in
Hacksaw Ridge and Silence.
In Hacksaw he played
Desmond Doss, a (real) reli-
gious pacifist who became
a U.S. army WWII medic and
won the Medal of Honor. In
Silence, he played a 16th
century Catholic priest who
was tortured by anti-mis-
sionary Japanese officials. In
2021, he played disgraced
TV evangelist Jim Bakker in
The Eyes of Tammy Bakker.
Garfield is certainly over-
due for an “exotic” Jewish
clergyperson role. I was
thinking about a thriller about
a Los Angeles rabbi who is
also a “mohel to the stars.”
While about to preside over
a bris, he overhears two big
Hollywood machers talking
about illegal activities that
might involve some of his
shul’s biggest givers and
most devout congregants.
(I’ve have heard about L.A.
rabbis/mohels who’ve been
nicknamed “Mohel to the
Stars”).

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

Recipe for Change:
Standing Up to
Antisemitism

YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT

JTA

Hannah
Einbinder

GAGE SKIDMORE

Andrew
Garfield