Better Late Than Never for Hacks 4

The tagline for season four of Hacks is “better late than never” — which is aptly ironic for NZ fans.

It launched early this month on Max in the US and given the first three seasons streamed on TVNZ+, it seemed it would be only a matter of weeks before Kiwis could binge S4 here.

However, following concerns by reader Clint, TVNZ has confirmed it’s no longer licensing the showbiz comedy about an odd-couple comedienne and her much younger writer — which is surprising given its accolades and awards.

“At this stage, TVNZ will not be acquiring the fourth season of Hacks,” a spokeswoman said. “It’s a fantastic series, but unfortunately not enough Kiwis felt the same.”

Even more surprising is where it will pop up next.

You might think it would be a natural for Sky’s Max service but the snag is NBCUniversal distributes Hacks in this market, not WBD (the home of HBO and Max in the US).

“Hacks is not a Max title in our territory, so it will not be available on Max/HBO,” a Sky spokeswoman said.

Initially it looked as if Hacks had become another local streaming casualty like Lawmen: Bass Reeves, The Agency and Dexter: Original Sin (none of which has been picked up here), Das Boot (which TVNZ dumped after only one season) and Gomorrah (only one season of which has streamed on Neon).

But it turns out Hacks has been acquired by WBD NZ for ThreeNow and/or Three/Eden. That’s the good news. The bad?

“Hacks is not currently on our radar to programme at this stage. We’ll keep you posted if that changes.”

As frustrating as it is not to have an ETA for the latest acclaimed season, at least Hacks does have a new NZ platform and until it does surface, fans can refresh themselves with S3 on TVNZ+.