Deborah isn\u2019t the only one who\u2019s gone Hollywood. Hacks has frequently strayed from her adopted home of Las Vegas, spending loads of time in Los Angeles with occasional jaunts to Montreal and New York City. But in the third episode of season five, \u201cNo New Tricks,\u201d the series returns to Deborah\u2019s homebase with a vengeance, playfully invoking several Las Vegas clich\u00e9s: hustlers, weddings, magicians, a horny mayor (though that might just be a trope in this version of Sin City). The episode doesn\u2019t add up to much more than the sum of its parts, but it\u2019s so full of silly bits and droll lines that you can\u2019t begrudge writer and co-executive producer Aisha Muharrar giving Jean Smart the opportunity to say things like \u201cI\u2019ve got an ace in my hole\u201d or Hannah Einbinder the chance to muse \u201cI always wondered what Machiavelli would have been like if he\u2019d been warped by boomer misogyny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanda Weinberg just set the date<\/a>, and now Deborah has to find a way to subtly (for her, anyway) rally support for her show at Madison Square Garden on September 11. So, she\u2019s doing the rounds at casinos like The Palmetto, her former home away from home and the site of Marty\u2019s (Christopher McDonald) impending wedding to Victoria (Carole Raphaelle Davis), a fellow gorgeous woman of a certain age. Deborah can\u2019t resist a few digs (\u201cI just can\u2019t picture you young\u201d), but she\u2019s too focused on securing her legacy to wallow in her romantic past. Besides, Marty\u2019s new union seems like a done deal, just like the sale of the Palmetto Group to some venture capitalists, a development that happened offscreen at some point but is already causing waves, leaving Marty anxious to impress the bros and setting Marcus on his next venture: turning the shuttered Paradiso casino into a boutique hotel.\u00a0<\/p>\n I enjoy seeing Marcus throw himself into a project, like when he helped Ava update and rent out her condo, and fixing up a casino sounds much more interesting (and rife for comedy) than his solar-panel gig. I\u2019m even happier to see him folded into the broader story after being mostly on the periphery for seasons three and four. In addition to a sonorous voice, Carl Clemons-Hopkins brings a distinct but complementary energy to the show: an optimism burnished by worldliness. Marcus has been through the wringer with Deborah and Ava, committing to the former and ceding relationship ground to the latter. Here, he has a chance to do what he does best: create order from chaos, and, as if that weren\u2019t enough, restore some classic glamour to the Las Vegas Strip. But first, he has to deal with a lascivious real-estate agent (played by Lucia Aniello, who\u2019s directed here by series co-creator Paul W. Downs) and Deborah\u2019s lack of enthusiasm for his idea. When Marcus pitches the renovation, she advises him to keep his money in an index and wait for a lighter lift. (I think I got the jargon right.)<\/p>\n As someone going through the world\u2019s longest home remodel, steering clear of a huge renovation does strike me as sound advice, but Deborah\u2019s also preoccupied when Marcus approaches her. At the same party where she cracked \u201cThere are so many new terms for eating disorders these days\u201d after Marty mentioned the VC bros\u2019 obsession \u201cwith hitting their macros and biohacking,\u201d Deborah met Nico Hayes (The Summer I Turned Pretty<\/a>\u2018s Christopher Briney), the Palmetto\u2019s latest artist in residency. And though she assumed the subsequent invitation to dinner was a PR move, it turns out Nico would also like to see the ace up Deborah\u2019s\u2026skirt. The night ends with a kiss, followed by some post-gaming with Ava, who was out on a great first date of her own with Eli (Grady Eldridge of The Sex Lives Of College Girls), a sex worker who shows great \u201cwho gets the last mini-cheeseburger at the party\u201d etiquette.\u00a0<\/p>\n We so rarely get to see Ava and Deborah bond over anything aside from work, so there\u2019s a real sweetness to the kitchen scene, where Ava advises Deborah on what to text (no emojis) to secure the next date. Ava\u2019s flash of (fake?) insecurity over Nico\u2019s ability to make Deborah crack up is also very funny and very in character, as is her despair when she learns that Eli only does sex work to pay the bills. His real passion is magic. Deborah\u2019s dalliance with Nico is charming enough, as she finds common ground with another savvy performer then fumbles it because she\u2019s a little too savvy\u2014tipping off a paparazzo who immediately gives away the game. But I found Ava\u2019s fling even more engaging because Muharrar and Downs know the character well enough to present this (before the magician reveal) as a dream scenario for Ava: a chance to live up to her own loudly preached principles, and, through no fault of her own here, fail. There\u2019s your humor and pathos! But the combination of dating storylines, Marty\u2019s wedding fiasco, the callback to Deborah\u2019s May-December hookup in season two, and the Mayor Pezzimenti (Lauren Weedman) drop-in give \u201cNo New Tricks\u201d the feel of a midseason breather rather than the rising action you\u2019d expect from the first third of a season of Hacks, let alone the final season.\u00a0<\/p>\n For all the speediness of the first two episodes, season five has been light on momentum so far. There\u2019s a clear goal on the horizon, as well as obstacles, but \u201cNo New Tricks\u201d primarily acts as a detour, a chance for Deborah to put a button on her story with Marty. After Marty\u2019s left at the altar by his fraudster fianc\u00e9e (and the FBI), Deborah comforts him, which inspires him to propose to her. She laughs off the proposal\u2014which is technically the second one she gets this episode, though she incorrectly assumes what Nico is offering is a showmance\u2014while encouraging Marty to keep his heart open. \u201cWhat a gift to still be taking risks,\u201d she says, as much to herself as to Marty. \u201cCome on, we both got our hearts broken. Aren\u2019t you glad that you\u2019re still putting yourself out there like that?\u201d I suppose there are worse things than sending off Christopher McDonald in style.\u00a0<\/p>\n Deborah rushes back to the altar to propose a new, more equitable partnership to Marcus, who immediately accepts. In the past, trying to commit to more than one business partner hasn\u2019t worked out so well for Deborah, but I don\u2019t think Marcus is being set up as a foil. Despite the fizziness of the episode, it did serve Deborah another lesson in treating people right.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Stray observations\u00a0<\/p>\n