In the pilot of Hacks, after celebrating her 2,500th show, the protagonist Deborah Vance is a seasoned comedian who is kicked out from her years-long Vegas residency. 

Spoiler alert: At the end of season four, after she achieves her dream of being the first woman to host late night TV, she must decide to either fire her head writer (and best friend) Ava Daniels, or the executives will fire Deborah from her own show. When she decides to stand up for Ava, Deborah not only has her show taken away; the contracts prevent her from performing for the next year and a half. 

After a mild depression, Deborah decides she needs a new goal to aim for. At first, she hopes to find immortality by achieving an EGOT; she already has won a couple of awards, she just needs to clinch the other two. But of course, as she hacks her way into a surefire Grammy—appearing on a famous artist’s song in the Latin category—she and Ava realize it feels empty.

The drive to be remembered is understandable; it’s core to Deborah’s character. Exploiting technicalities and finding loopholes is, too, until it comes to her craft. The EGOT didn’t matter because it wasn’t related to Deborah’s craft, comedy. She’d just be another name on a list. 

Or, could she find a new goal, more tied into the world of comedy? Something that might even eclipse hosting your own late night TV show? In that perspective, she would be a contributor to her community. That contribution was the point; as a byproduct, her name would appear on a list that actually matters to her. But that’s just the icing on top.

What entails is the start of an adventure. Hacks has been the best show on TV since its debut, and will remain so, and only Ted Lasso comes close.