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