It\u2019s the ultimate May\/ December romance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the fifth and final season of \u201cHacks,\u201d<\/a> which follows legendary comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart, 74), she has an unexpected whirlwind romance with rock star Nico (Christopher Briney, 28). Their age gap is an eye-popping 46 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI did think, oh god, I hope he isn\u2019t just cringing,\u201d Smart told Deadline,<\/a> referring to \u201cThe Summer I Turned Pretty\u201d actor.<\/p>\n Christopher Briney (pictured at \u201cThe Summer I Turned Pretty\u201d Season 3 launch event on July 16, 2025) romances Jean Smart, who is 46 years older, on \u201cHacks.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n Jean Smart (pictured in \u201cHacks\u201d Season 5) said she hoped Briney wasn\u2019t \u201ccringing.\u201d HBO max<\/p>\n The Emmy-winning actress added, \u201cHe\u2019s thinking, \u2018Oh, I\u2019d really like to be on that show, but oh damn, really?\u2019 But he made me feel very comfortable and we had fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Warning: Spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you\u2019ve watched \u201cHacks\u201d Season 5 episode 3, \u201cNo New Tricks.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In the episode, a publicist tells Deborah that Nico \u2014 a much-younger rock star \u2014 is a \u201chuge fan.\u201d They have a friendly first meeting, and Deborah is later told that he wants to get dinner with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n She assumes it\u2019s \u201ca PR stunt for publicity,\u201d and she happily agrees to it, telling her friends that it\u2019s a \u201cfake date.\u201d <\/p>\n Deborah (played by Smart, pictured in \u201cHacks\u201d Season 5) thinks it\u2019s a \u201cfake date\u201d for PR, at first. HBO max<\/p>\n Nico (played by Briney, pictured in \u201cHacks\u201d Season 5) is a rock star who wines and dines Deobrah. <\/p>\n As he spends an evening wining and dining her, Nico tells her that he got emancipated from his parents when he was 15 after his dad sold his homecoming photos to E! News.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I know what I want, I don\u2019t hesitate,\u201d Nico tells Deborah as he kisses her.\u00a0Deborah initially looks surprised, but she\u2019s into the kiss.\u00a0So, there\u2019s no sex scene, but they do share a steamy smooch.\u00a0<\/p>\n As they leave their date, they\u2019re swarmed by the paparazzi.\u00a0Later, she gushes to Ava (Hannah Einbinder), \u201cWe actually have so much in common, he\u2019s sexy and smart and funny. We made out!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Deborah and Nico (played by Smart and Briney, pictured in \u201cHacks\u201d Season 5) kiss onscreen. HBO max<\/p>\n Briney (pictured in \u201cThe Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2\u201d) plays Nico as publicity shy in \u201cHacks.\u201d John Merrick\/Prime Video<\/p>\n Briney told TV Insider<\/a> that he did have \u201cnerves\u201d about appearing on the show. <\/p>\n \u201c[It\u2019s] one of those shows that wins Emmys, and everybody talks about it, and it\u2019s an industry show. So, I think everybody has their own level of imposter syndrome, but I was like, f\u2013k, I hope I can hang.\u201d<\/p>\n He told the outlet that \u201cthere\u2019s definitely some Harry Styles\u201d in Nico. He also gushed that Smart is \u201clovely\u201d and \u201cshe made time to chat and welcome\u201d him on set. <\/p>\n Unfortunately, Deborah and Nico\u2019s relationship is short lived. It falls apart by the end of the episode, not because of their age gap, but because he\u2019s offended that she called the paparazzi to take photos of them.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel violated,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Deborah defends herself by saying that she called the paparazzi because she thought he only wanted to date her \u201cfor the publicity \u2014 which I totally get!\u201d But, she adds, once she knew that he \u201cgenuinely\u201d liked her, \u201cI realized I felt the same.\u201d <\/p>\n Deobrah (shown in \u201cHacks\u201d Seaon 5) has a falling out with Nico because he\u2019s upset she called the paparazzi. HBO max<\/p>\n Nico (pictured in \u201cHacks\u201d Season 5) doesn\u2019t dump Deborah because of their age gap, but because of her approach to publicity. HBO max<\/p>\n Nico isn\u2019t convinced, and tells her, \u201cI can\u2019t do this,\u201d referring to their relationship. He kicks her out of his car, which is swarmed by photographers, and snarks at her, \u201cmaybe you can get a ride home with your paparazzi friend.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Showrunner Jen Statsky told Deadline that they wanted this plot line to show that, \u201cwomen don\u2019t stop having sex and being sexy at any age.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe also always thought it\u2019d be funny and interesting that [Deborah] would date this international rock star that maybe wasn\u2019t exactly her type and dressed a little bit more like her than other people she dated,\u201d she went on. \u201cAnd so that was just always a story line that excited us.\u201d<\/p>\n Briney (pictured with Lola Tung in \u201cThe Summer I Turned Pretty\u201d) rose to fame in teen roles. Amazon\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n Smart (pictured in \u201cHacks\u201d Season 5) is an industry vet who has won Emmys for every season of \u201cHacks\u201d so far. HBO max<\/p>\n Briney is a rising star, as \u201cHacks\u201d is his second TV role. He rose to fame playing teens, like his starring role on Prime Video\u2019s teen romance show \u201cThe Summer I Turned Pretty.\u201d He plays Conrad, who is in a love triangle <\/a>with Belly (Lola Tung) and his brother Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). The show is getting a follow up movie. <\/a>He was also in the 2024 \u201cMean Girls\u201d movie. <\/p>\n Smart is an industry legend with a long career \u2013 including \u201cDesigning Women,\u201d \u201cFrasier,\u201d and \u201cWatchmen.\u201d She also the reigning champ of the Emmys, as she\u2019s won for all four past seasons of \u201cHacks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The final season of \u201cHacks\u201d airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on HBO Max.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the ultimate May\/ December romance.\u00a0 In the fifth and final season of \u201cHacks,\u201d which follows legendary comedian…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":750624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[62410,171,487,7964,173,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-750623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-comedies","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo-max","tag-sex-and-relationships","tag-tv","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116461590877369809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}