We Are Lady Parts & Hacks: More Ladies, More Laughs

Heading into this weekend, do you find yourself pining for more lady comedies? Do you want to see a bunch of women getting up to a bunch of hilarity as they attempt to smash the patriarchy? Well, you're in luck because I have not one, but two recommendations of excellent female-centric comedies that recently debuted on HBO Max and Peacock. Apparently as we get more streaming services, we get more ladies behind and in front of the camera to tell us their wacky tales.

Hacks: This is a story of two funny women from different generations who team up to write jokes and trade barbs about their own brands of feminism. The splendid Jean Smart plays Deborah Vance, a famed comedienne who has been doing a stand-up show in Vegas for years but needs help refreshing her material. Enter Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), a 25-year-old comedy writer who tweeted some terrible things and can't get a job anywhere in LA, so is forced to go to Vegas to see what Deborah wants. While Ava has zero interest in the job, she manages to capture Deborah's interest, despite a disastrous job interview, and then, the two are off to the races.

This show is at its best when it's focusing on the relationship between these women and when it's focusing on Deborah. There are a lot of clever observations about how Hollywood in general and the stand-up comedy world in particular treats women, and Deborah has been through it all during her decades-long career. She has dealt with the rampant sexism and the #MeToo era, and she has little patience for Ava's brand of confessional humor and need to share everything that is going on in her mind and her body at any given moment. When the show tries to show us how good these ladies are at comedy, it encounters the Studio 60 on Sunset Strip problem - it's really hard to write a show about comedians and make your audience believe that their comedy is actually funny. That's why 30 Rock was so much more successful - that was about a comedy show that wasn't actually good. Similarly, Hacks makes it clear why Deborah's material has gotten stale and needs updating, but the suggestion that Ava's "entitled millennial" shtick is novel and entertaining does not come off so well. 

And yet, the show makes for compelling viewing. Some of the storylines are inane, and some are deeply heartfelt, and there are some deep character studies into the psyches of these two women that underscore why they gravitate to each other. Jean Smart is at the top of her game on this show, so if nothing else, you need to watch it just so you can get on the Smart bandwagon and start demanding she be in more things. The first season consists of ten half-hour episodes so you can breeze right through it to get your comedy fill. Or, follow the HBO model and dole it out to yourself two episodes at a time over five weeks, to really keep that high going.

We Are Lady Parts: This is a British show, in collaboration with Channel 4, so it's not going to be your typical American fare. What it IS going to be, is some amazingness about a group of British-Muslim women in a punk band where they sing banging anthems like "Voldemort Under My Headscarf" and "Bashir with the Good Beard." Directed and written by Nida Manzoor, the first season is six episodes of distilled brilliance, tackling all manner of major social issues with wit, charm, and verve, whilst being hysterical and a mindblowingly good time. The episodes are only 25 minutes long so you can easily go through this entire show in an afternoon, but once you're done, you might just need to watch them all again.

The show follows five women (played by Anjana Vasan, Sarah Kameela Impey, Juliette Motamed, Faith Omole, and Lucie Shorthouse), who are all Muslim, but therein the similarities end. The greatest contribution this show probably makes to mainstream pop culture is that it showcases how there is no such thing as a Muslim woman. These characters are not a monolith - they are all individual people with their own distinct personalities, backgrounds, and approaches to their faith. Some of them cover their hair, other don't; one wears a niqab, while another is covered in tattoos and wears ripped jeans. They are all from different cultural backgrounds too, so you get to see the differences between an African Muslim, versus a South Asian one, versus an Arab one. But what does bind all these women together? Their strident feminism and love for punk rock. These ladies are jamming out in this band and fully embracing their joy, and while they have a lot of shit to deal with in their daily lives, when they get together for a performance, they leave it all on the mat.

I loved Ramy's portrayal of Muslims in America, but wished I could get more insights into what life was like for the women on that show (the standalone episodes that did focus on his mom and sister were truly excellent but left me wanting more). Well now my prayers have been answered. We Are Lady Parts is an ode to Muslims, an ode to women, and a chance for a segment of society that is highly misunderstood to get the chance to shine in the spotlight. And putting aside the subject matter for a second, it's just a brilliant TV show, period. It's visually inventive, with some bonkers soliloquies and animations to heighten the silliness when characters are at their peak level of social embarrassment. And the music is funny, raw, and genuinely entertaining. So watch this show. You will be delighted, and you will also learn something. What could be better?