‘Hacks’ review: Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance sets her sights on a late-night talk show gig in Season 3

There’s real tenderness in a show like “Hacks.” Real cruelty, too, and that’s separate from its insult comedy sensibility. Back for its third and strongest season on Max, the Joan Rivers-esque showbiz veteran Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her semi-obnoxious Gen-Z writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) have a new goal: To land Deborah the job hosting a late-night talk show.

It’s the same quasi-“Tonight Show” gig show that she lost earlier in her career — a crushing letdown that left her bitter and shellshocked for decades ...