Hacks' Deborah Vance has a lot of wild Christmas traditions, which the show leans into for big laughs. Played by Jean Smart, Deborah is all about loud luxury. Deborah’s mansion in Las Vegas is a shrine to the career she built over decades, and she has made it her perfect place to host her annual Christmas party. In season 3 ofHacks, Deborah’s writer-protégé Ava Daniels gets a firsthand experience of just how much Deborah loves the holiday season. TheHacksmain characterDeborah never does anything halfway, and Christmas is no exception.
Bythe ending ofHacksseason 3, Deborah’s penchant for getting her way is established, and Christmas is no different. Deborah has many annual traditions, including preparing the house in the lead-up to the party. Christmas brings out Deborah’s generous nature, with gifts aplenty for her guests. However,she is still Deborah, so she can never be too nice. Deborah’s assistant works on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, ensuring things run smoothly and everyone adheres to Deborah’s tight schedule. Here is every extravagant tradition Deborah insists on inHacks.
6Elves Hand-Deliver Invitations To Deborah’s Christmas Party
HacksHighlights Her Elf Audition Process
Hacksleans into the silly nature of Deborah’s Christmas celebration by including her elf auditions. Ava is flummoxed when she walks into a room where Deborah is auditioning actors to play elves to hand-deliver her Christmas invitations. This isn’t some basic invitation, either. Ava questions whether it is necessary to have them learn choreography when they are essentially Christmas mail carriers, but Deborah has high standards.If she is going to send out actors, she wants them to be the bestand even offers to pay “pays double SAG rates.”
Deborah’s love of the holidays does not dull her ruthless efficiency. She watches the actors auditioning, whispering to Rose Abdoo’s Josephine, then cuts three hopefuls and calls for the rest to take it from the top. Deborah adds pizzazz to everything she does, soit is very in character for her to send messengers instead of just letters. It is hard to imagine Deborah sending or receiving an e-vite, so having the character fully lean into her love of performance makes sense.
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Hacksshows that Deborah has spent her career curating a particular image, and in controlling the method of delivery she is even able to control how the invitation will be received. It feels like an intimate gesture, but because of the layer of theatricality,it also is a way to maintain distance.
It is a personal invitation literally given through another person, undercutting the more human nature of the invite. It is a blend of sentimentality and showmanship that is innately Deb. The invitation is just the beginning of the way that Deborah puts a new spin on Christmas traditions.
5Multiple Snow Machines Run Outside Deborah’s Las Vegas Mansion
Deborah Demands A White Christmas, Even In Las Vegas
Deborah appreciates the importance of the right aesthetic, so even though she lives in Las Vegas, she would not let that stop her from having a white Christmas. Deborah steps outside her front door, smiling up at the gently falling snowflakes, then the shot pulls back to reveal two noisy snow machines. Deb also whips out a fan, because in Las Vegas, even at Christmastime, it is still pretty hot.
Nothing is too extravagant for a Deborah Vance Christmas party.
As always inHacks, Deborah pays great attention to details, and to create the perfect holiday look, she needs snow. For someone with Deborah’s wealth, the cost is negligible.Nothing is too extravagantfor a Deborah Vance Christmas party. Ava might worry about running the electricity continuously through the day and night or the environmental repercussions of the fake snow, but that is not Deborah’s style.
While Deborah wanted to create the perfect Christmas backdrop, she did not realize it would be the setting for a very emotional conversation with her estranged sister, J. Smith-Cameron’s Kathy.Deborah and Kathy are able to talk about their decades-long feudthat started when Deborah was pursuing a late-night show for the first time.The snowfall and holiday aesthetic definitely adds to a deeply powerful momentthat would not have felt the same in the show’s regular Las Vegas settings, especially since it could not have ended in a snowball fight.
If Anyone Touches It, Deborah Gets Furious
Kathy is surprised, and maybe a little off-put, to see the giant gingerbread replica of Deborah’s mansion on display.Hackshas shown that Deborah is a little vain, which is why she carefully curates how she presents herself to the world on and off-stage. Deborah sees her material possessions as an extension of herself, which she loves and keeps in immaculate condition. Anyone who has known Deborah in the last 30 years would not be surprised to see the gingerbread model mansion.
Deborah seems drawn to a luxury version of children’s Christmas traditions, like the gingerbread house. There is a playfulness and sentimentality in Deborah’s Christmas spirit. As she is showing the house to Kathy, Deborah mentions that the entire thing is edible, yet later when Kathy breaks off a piece to try, Deborah is furious with her. Deborah was keeping up a good show around Kathy and her guests, but Deborah was so stressed about seeing Kathy that she threw up when Kathy arrived. Deborah was looking for an excuse to be angry with Kathy.
Kathy breaking the gingerbread house is a loaded metaphor. Deborah considers her a home-wrecker, since her husband left her for Kathy, and now here she is, breaking another home. Deborah’s need to control her image is literally torn apart by Kathy taking a piece of her picture-perfect home. Deborah’s facade is also cracking with her outsized reaction to Kathy’s reasonable thought to eat something she was told is edible.
3Santa Comes Down The Chimney
Deborah Made Sure Santa Showed Up For Her Christmas Party
Many ofthe best TV Christmas episodeshave a Santa, but Deborah finds a way to make a holiday event unique by making it more traditional. During the cocktail hour, Ava’s mother and all the guests are pleasantly surprised whenSanta appears boots-first in the traditional way: through the chimney.Even Ava shakes her head admiringly at Deb’s theatricality.
When Santa says Deborah’s house is his “favorite,” Deborah quips that last year “he stayed so long he skipped South America”. Everyone claps at the holiday whimsy, an interesting detail for Deborah to include as Santa is usually for the children, and Deborah is hosting a Vegas-style classy cocktail party with no children present.
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Deborah’s childlike tendencies peek through in the way she embraces children’s elements of Christmas. Of course, Santa would not show up empty-handed.Deborah’s Santa has his sack full of presents, which he offers to a very eager crowd. The first thing he pulls out is a Dyson hair styler, which Marcus grabs to the protestation of every woman there since Marcus is bald.
ThroughoutHacks, Deborah can be selectively kind and generous to those who she thinks are loyal to her. Deborah loves giving gifts, as long as she is getting the credit as well. Having Santa distribute what Deborah considers stocking stuffers but most would think of as nice gifts is a way for Deborah to give something back to those closest to her with a layer of humor so the moment is not fully saccharine.
2A Formal Portrait Of All The Guests Is Taken
Deborah Needs The Perfect Moment (And Doesn’t Quite Get It)
After Santa arrives, Deborah announces it’s time for the group photo portrait of all the guests at the Christmas party. Deborah jokingly says the picture is done before dinner because that is when “the bloat sets in”.Deborah is a lifelong performer and very image-conscious. Her explanation of the timing of the photo shows that she is vain, but self-aware about it. Even in a casual photo in her own home, Deborah wants to make sure she and everyone look their best.
Ava’s mother asks if there is time for a second photo, a “funny” one, and Deborah’s assistant Damien (played by Mark Indelicato) shuts down the idea, saying they are on a “tight schedule.” Deborah sees every social gathering as a bit of a performance, and of course she runs a tight ship.It does feel beneath Deborah’s dignity to take a silly group photo, so perhaps this was Damien’s way of lightly shutting down Ava’s sweetly clueless mother.
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Deborah is not an inherently open person, but her tradition of having a formal portrait taken suggests she is more sentimental than she lets on. A photo captures a moment in time, but not necessarily the truth. Deborah insists that her daughter, DJ (Kaitlin Olson), sits on her lap, wanting to convey the appearance of a happy family in front of Kathy, but DJ is confused as they have not done that in decades.
1Deborah Has Guests Open Individually Curated Presents
She Wants Immediate Credit For Buying Expensive Gifts
After dinner, Deborah has everyone gather around the tree for the formal opening of presents. Deborah has chosen specific, expensive gifts for everyone invited. It is a generous act, but one for which Deborah wants immediate credit, hence everyone opening the presents one-by-one.It is both a little selfish and a little generous, behavior seen inthe best episodes ofHacks. By making sure everyone is present as gifts are being opened, it ensures Deborah is the center of attention, right where she wants to be.
Deborah’s love of Christmas is beautiful but complicated. She wants to host everyone, but control what happens and when.
Of course, showing love through material possessions can backfire. Deborah gifts DJ a high-end, luxury crib for her soon-to-born daughter. Deborah is pleased she seems like good mother in front of Kathy, but that is undercut when DJ’s husband accidentally reveals that Kathy already bought them a crib. This shows that Deborah does not have the closeness she was projecting with DJ and has not been at her house recently. Deborah becomes very bitter, punching down at Kathy by saying “Filene’s basement has a good return policy.”
Deborah’s love of Christmas is beautiful but complicated.She wants to host everyone, but control what happens and when. Deborah gives gifts that are so generous, but they always seem a little transactional, as everything seems to have a string attached. Deborah can create the aesthetic of a perfect Christmas, but life, especially in a show likeHacks, is always messy.
Hacks
Cast
Hacks, released in 2021, is a dark comedy series that explores the evolving relationship between Deborah Vance, a legendary comedian in Las Vegas, and an ambitious, outcast young writer. The show delves into the complexities of mentorship and creativity in the entertainment industry.
