

She’s as rich as a queen, beloved by her grizzled superfans (she calls them her “Little Debbies”), and yet her unwavering ambition occasionally peeps out between regal meet-and-greets and tired punch lines.
Promotional overkill crossword tv#
In the show’s setup, Deborah is a Joan Rivers–esque TV legend whose career third act includes nightly Vegas shows, lucrative appearances opening pizza restaurants and tech retreats, and a crystal-entombed jewelry line for QVC. The genius of Hacks is how deftly it critiques decades of TV comedy, reminding viewers of what’s missing now (stars of Deborah’s wattage and grace) as much as what’s changed for the better. Read: What HBO’s new crime show gets exactly right If HBO is just repertory theater for her at this point, well, it could be much worse. It is truly the summer of Smart no one can deny what a blessed thing it is to see a late-career actor give and receive such bounty. About 18 months ago, as the snappish FBI agent Laurie Blake on HBO’s Watchmen, Smart managed to bring emotional tenderness to a scene in which she unpacked and gently held a colossal, Yves Klein–blue dildo. Hacks is her long-overdue combustion.Īnd yet, not content with starring in one hit HBO show, Smart is also playing Kate Winslet’s stalwart, needling, Fruit Ninja–addicted mother, Helen, on Mare of Easttown. Not three years ago, Smart was giving interviews about ageism and the dearth of even supporting roles in movies for women her age. When Deborah occasionally laughs on the show-part-cackle, part-snort-the fabric of TV comedy seems to joyfully realign. The role finally has space for Smart to be all that she is: magnetic, riotous, strange, as commanding as a general, as complex as calculus. In promotional posters, she dazzles so brilliantly in gold sequins as the comedian Deborah Vance that you worry for passing motorists caught in the glare.
Promotional overkill crossword series#
At 69, Jean Smart has almost five decades of ancillary and co-lead roles to her name-the rapacious Lana in Frasier, the ditsy helpmeet Charlene in Designing Women-but the new HBO Max series Hacks marks the rare time the actor has anchored a show. As gratifying as it can be to see an actor disappear into a role, there’s something soul-restoring about an underappreciated star finally twinkling their way front and center in the Hollywood firmament.
