The fifth and final season of Hacks, premiering April 9 on HBO, starts with this question: How does aging comedy diva Deborah Vance, who has been fighting to stay at center stage since season one, deal with being out of the spotlight? She retreats to her Vegas mansion and doubles down on the city that helped make her who she is.
“I think we wanted to represent a place where people could be themselves without shame, and that was something Vegas provided Deborah. It’s a really important thing, and it’s something we really explore this season and in the season finale of the show—how important the place was for a woman who was kind of cast aside by the entertainment agency, but is embraced by this city of real survivors,” says co-creator Paul W. Downs, who also plays Deborah’s manager, Jimmy.
In season five, locals will love seeing their city represented on screen—Orleans Arena, Caesars Palace, Fontainebleau, the Silver Stamp and the surrounding desert all help the story unfold. The Weekly sat down with Downs to talk about Vegas not only as a setting, but as a main character.
What steps did you and co-writers Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky take to make sure you did Las Vegas justice and didn’t just fall into overdone stereotypes?
From the jump, we wanted to show Vegas in a way that was a little bit different than how people see it in shows and movies, where it’s like people go to a party and then they leave. It was about people that live there. And while Deborah Vance lives somewhere like the enclave—she lives a very rarefied experience in Las Vegas—it’s also about the casino dealers and back of house. …We really wanted to show what the city was like, the lifeblood of the city and the people that work in hospitality. To portray that accurately, we spent a lot of time there. It almost feels like a second home for us.
I love the portrayal of the hospitality industry, when we see Deborah and Ava in the back hallways of the casinos with the bellhops, dealers and showgirls. We also have characters like casino owner Marty, and Marcus who in season five enters into that business.
A lot of dealers we met, we learned, go from casino to casino to find a place that maybe has better benefits, better pay or feels like a better fit. It’s a career-long path for them. Another thing, I think, that we try to reflect is the fact that there are fewer and fewer independently owned boutique casinos. So many of them are corporate-owned. So, it’s kind of wish fulfillment. It’s aspirational, it’s almost like what we wish for Las Vegas is what Deborah and Marcus set out to do, which is to open their own for visitors and locals alike to come and drink and gamble, and make some memories.
You seem to have really done your homework in terms of what would resonate with Vegas locals—using the Silver Stamp as a setting, for example.
Smart (left) and Hannah Einbinder in Hacks.
That is such a great bar. We were so happy to shoot there. Their beer menu is crazy. One place we always wanted to shoot, and we did in season four, was Bonanza [Gift Shop]. Deborah’s there late at night shopping for trinkets and a little drink. The city is even more rich and layered than what I think you get from the Strip angle, and we wanted to bring all that character into the show. It mirrors what we try and do with the ensemble of the show. We try and make them multidimensional and give them full stories, full lives. I think using the city to reflect that was really a great gift Vegas gave us.
The show premiered in 2021, and five award-laden seasons later, it’s wrapping up. What are your closing remarks for fans of the show who are sad to see it conclude?
In Deborah Vance style, we didn’t want to run the light. We wanted to leave you laughing and go out with a bang. So I hope you find it satisfying and unexpected, but full circle. I hope it … holds up so that you can rewatch it and come back to it whenever you want and spend some time with these Vegas characters.
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