[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 2, Episodes 1-8 of Hacks.]
Hacks may be all about the jokes, but the HBO Max comedy wouldn’t be the same without its curated list of music to bring memorable scenes together.
Whether it’s the use of Elton John‘s “The Bitch Is Back” to convey Deborah’s (Jean Smart) bold choice to sue Ava (Hannah Einbinder) for breaking her NDA or the bittersweet bite to Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger” in the season’s final moments, music supervisor Matt Biffa is responsible for sewing all of these moments together with the scripted footage.
“I always start is to think about the characters really,” Biffa says of his process. “I just try and read and reread what scripts I have access to and get those characters in my head and try and work out who they are.” And there was more than enough for him to work with when it came to Season 2 of Hacks which is just one of the many hits on which Biffa serves as a music supervisor as his other credits include Sex Education, Heartstopper, Fate: The Winx Saga, and I May Destroy You among others.
(Credit: Karen Ballard/HBO Max)
“Some stuff will come to me quite easily and other times, you just have to go through your library and then something will jump out at you,” Biffa tells TV Insider of his music selection process. “With Hacks, you start thinking about Deborah in particular. You start thinking about the life that she’s had and where she might have been in the ’80s and the kind of things she did socially.”
Along with looking into his own music collection, Biffa collaborates with showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky to try and find the right sounds. “It’s really fun working with them,” he remarks. On some occasions, Biffa references the scripts as a way of leading him into a strong music moment. Recalling an episode from Season 1, Biffa says he remembers saying “We should just use ‘Better Days’ by Graham Nash, because Deborah had been talking about having a crush on him earlier on and all that kind of stuff, and it was literally a five-minute process.”
But Biffa shares, “there are quite a few cues, particularly in Ava’s world, where that is pure Jen, Paul, and Lucia. Moon King, Goth Babe, Chromatics. The more contemporary LA stuff is mostly them actually, which I really like, because you are always trying to learn.” With those extra artists on his radar, Biffa’s bottomless library of music grows.
(Credit: HBO Max)
There wasn’t much growth needed to find Deborah’s live performance song for Season 2’s fourth installment, “The Captain’s Wife,” in which the comedian boards a lesbian cruise to entertain the guests. During one laid back evening aboard the ship, Deborah joins one of the women on stage to sing Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”
“I reckon there were probably about 10 songs in my initial playlist that I sent and that was one of them,” Biffa remembers. “And then, of course, I’m in the UK and they’re in the States,” he points out, noting that he couldn’t be there in person for Smart’s musical number. Even if Biffa couldn’t witness the performance for himself, he does acknowledge the actress’s efforts to deliver a showstopping scene. “There was a vocal coach. She worked with Jean. Jean worked really hard, I know, to get her vocals good. And you’ll notice that’s her singing live. She’s not lip-syncing. So she did a great job,” he commends.
When it comes to music playing over scenes, it isn’t lost on Biffa that despite the season’s touring arc, deep down, Deborah’s a Vegas girl. With tunes like “The Bitch Is Back,” and Cher’s “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves,” that showy element of the city still plays a role.
(Credit: HBO Max)
“Probably the only reason to use these songs is to make sure that they resonate with her. Sometimes you just get lucky,” Biffa says. “I think ‘The Bitch is Back’ was actually one of Paul’s ideas and it just sounds super Deborah.” The song plays over the closing scene of the second episode in which Jimmy (Downs) calls Ava to tell her Deborah’s suing.
Another tune that Biffa particularly loved this season was the use of Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good,” which was used to convey uncertainty in Ava and Deborah’s working relationship. It plays at a point “where Ava really doesn’t know if Deborah knows about the email or not. And it’s just like that delicious kind of torture that she’s going through.”
But his favorite song of the season goes to “I Got the Music in Me” by Kiki Dee, which plays over a montage of Deborah’s standup shows on tour after she finally gets her comedy groove back in the sixth installment, “The Click.” Biffa says, “I always loved that song ever since I was a kid. There are so many little rhythmic things that you can do with that song, I knew that in the context of a montage and with great editing if you really sync the picture to those head points it could work amazingly well. And it’s really super rousing.”
(Credit: Karen Ballard/HBO Max)
Between those showier tunes and Ava’s LA sound, the big question is, who does Season 2’s finale tune, Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger,” apply to more? Deborah or Ava? “Interestingly, I think it covers both of them because I there is a cheeky wink from Deborah. And Deborah is all about a cheeky wink… And then lyrically, I suppose it speaks to Ava’s state of mind, that she’s pining for Deborah a little bit. And in many ways, it’s like the end of a really tempestuous love affair, isn’t it?”
The song itself plays over a phone call Ava has with Jimmy where he reveals that Deborah has dropped her lawsuit against the writer, effectively cutting off communication. Earlier in the episode, Deborah had relieved Ava of her writing duties, hoping her protege would move on to new job opportunities.
As that last tie is cut, Ava looks into her TV screen where Deborah’s selling something during one of her QVC segments, winking to the camera and by doing so, effectively winking to Ava. “Jen, Paul, and Lucia. That was their idea,” Biffa credits. Instead, he initially wanted to make things sadder with a different song, saying it was the showrunners who convinced him otherwise. “They were like, ‘Yeah, but you don’t want it to be too down.’” And thus the decision to use “Goodbye Stranger” was born.
“I started to go through stuff and I realized very quickly that there wasn’t really anything that had that kind of little sparkle,” Biffa shares. It was the perfect balance of sad and promising as Ava and Deborah head into this next chapter of their lives, and thankfully we’ll get to see and hear more from them when Hacks officially returns for a third season after HBO Max’s recent renewal. Revisit Seasons 1 and 2 to hear Biffa’s music selections and stay tuned for more from Hacks as Season 3 gets underway.
Hacks, Seasons 1-2, Streaming now, HBO Max
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