Hacker Cinema
Hacks
2021 · TV series · 5 seasons
Created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky
Explore a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.
1 positive4 neutralfrom 5 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
I have very little sympathy for “You couldn’t write X today” arguments. Here, X is The Wire.
There is a spiritual successor to The Wire: 2022’s miniseries We Own This City. Same complicated representation of Baltimore. Same complicated representation of American policing. Good critical reception, but less widely-known than a legendary show that ran for six years and sixty episodes.
The substantive difference between the two is that 2020’s-era HBO doesn’t make long-running serials like The Wire and The Sopranos anymore (Hacks is the notable exception).
That’s not a political change forced on them by unnamed leftists. That’s a change in business model.
Comparing software development to carrying heavy things at a construction site feels like a real stretch to me.
'If you work in construction, you need to lift and carry a series of heavy objects in order to be effective. But lifting heavy objects puts long-term wear on your back and joints, making you less effective over time. Construction workers don’t say that being a good construction worker means not lifting heavy objects. They say “too bad, that’s the job”.'
On another note, for sure software developers are saying things like "this is the part of the job that I like" or "if you aren't doing the work, you won't be good at the work." But other people are saying this, too. I just saw an episode of "Hacks" ("QuickScribbl") where the writers say pretty much this exact thing when confronted with AI tooling designed to "make their job easier". Is writing comedy also like lifting heavy objects at a construction site?
These shows are artistic creations. When it's clear that the painting is unfinished, and the artist's vision and intent incomplete, why bother? Not every show is like this, many say what they have to say in a single episode (many sitcoms, police procedurals) or season (e.g., Hacks, Watchmen, The Wire). But there are a lot of shows that are just unfinished works-in-progress without the end of their story.
I think this is an experience almost everyone has. It's certainly a plot point on a million TV shows. (Most recently for me, the first episode of Hacks where the assistant is sent back into the store for 17 cents change.) You get a weird request to pay for your own coffee, whatever, you send them the $6, and then you move on to not talking to them again.
The TV show "Hacks" captures this syndrome quite well.