Review: Hacks, "QuikScribbl" and "Montecito" | Season 5, Episodes 6 and 7
Deborah and Ava have their first major argument of the season in an enlightening double bill
Final seasons come with a lot of expectation, with Hacks setting up its overarching goal to secure Deborah’s legacy in the premiere. But since then, the MSG show has been put on the back burner in favor of sitcom-leaning scenarios, such as Deborah and Ava both going on dates, and fulfilling bucket-list set-ups like last week’s Amazing Race backdrop, which co-creator Lucia Aniello has been pitching since Season 1. The writing and performances are so tight that everything comes back to the overall themes, but there's been a lack of friction outside the ongoing legal issues from Deborah’s no-compete clause. Taking a departure from the usual Ava and Deborah schism at the start of the season has been beneficial, but returning to the pair at odds in this week’s double-bill, “QuikScribbl” and “Montecito,” feels like a shot of adrenaline—without requiring a huge falling out—resulting in two of the season’s best episodes.
Ideological differences are at the heart of the first of this week’s episodes, with AI entering the chat. The Diva needs an extra $20 million to get everything Deborah has deemed essential, and there are two avenues to aid this dream. First, secure a big-name comic for a residency that will generate pre-sale bookings; second, find additional outside investors. It is a simple setup that delivers the most from two Hacks pairings. Jimmy and Kayla head to Michigan to complete the first half of this objective, whereas Deborah enlists Ava to help land a tech guy with bags of cash to spare. But the deal comes at a cost: their material will be used by an AI chatbot to make users sound funnier.
Considering the existential threat AI poses to the creative industries, I am almost surprised it took this long for Hacks to head down this path. Unlike The Comeback, which uses AI as the foundation for its exploration of AI as a replacement for screenwriters, Hacks depicts AI use by a wider population. It is a savvy choice, and Graham Sweeney (guest star Alex Moffat) presents QuikScribbl as a tool to make the average wedding speech funnier, likening it to “Photoshop for your voice.” The LLM will be trained using Deborah’s entire archive, and it seems innocuous enough. That is, until Ava starts pulling at the thread, including the company already scraping available material.
