hacks is a show ultimately concerned with the interaction between material circumstances and the making of art. talent management being the b-plot stars of the show so the audience is forced to contend with the gears of the industry and not just the shiny finished product, deborah starting her journey in a place of material comfort but artistic stagnation, and the constant tension surrounding who most controls deborah's legacy - be it male executives, the media in their pockets, deborah's past naiveté, or deborah and her team - all contribute to a pervading sense that artistic expression is a hellish endeavor, at least if you want to do it well and sell a worthwhile product to an audience. there will be unfair constraints and devastating setbacks, and sometimes meeting that pressure head-on forces the best possible art from the artist.
having deborah ready to meet death with grace and certainty throughout the finale serves this theme so well. we've watched her toil again and again to reach new heights of creative expression, watched her set goals and meet them despite those who stood in her way. she'd be leaving the mortal coil personally and artistically fulfilled. there are no more mountains of material circumstances to climb, no more puppets of villainous misogyny to circumvent. may she rest on her laurels in perpetuity.
deborah having a moment where she realizes that, regardless of the bigness of the creation, she's not ready to step away from the creative process subverts our expectation of her ultimate need. being an artist, at its base, is not about control or grandiosity or how long or short of a cultural shadow you cast. art is about seeing other people. it's about seeing yourself.
tinkering with her art suffuses deborah's life with meaning. of course her story ends with her alive! there's no material circumstance in the world - not even the inevitability of an end - that could stand in the way of art being made, experienced, and enriching everyone involved in its process.
kianamaiart
kaledo-art
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
