One of the most quietly revolutionary scenes I’ve seen on television this year was tucked away in “New Eyes,” the sixth episode of HBO Max’s new dark comedy
Hacks, which just released on May 27. In the scene, young comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) has been taken to the hospital by her boss Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a legendary Las Vegas comedy diva, after severe abdominal pain caused Ava to abruptly collapse. At the hospital, the doctor tells Ava she’s dehydrated, and dismissively tells her it’ll pass and then Deborah, indignant, raises her voice to demand that the doctor take Ava’s pain more seriously and give her a CT scan. He does. That’s it. That’s the whole scene. It’s a brief moment that encapsulates why