'Hacks' Season 2 Teaser Promises a Dramatic National Standup Tour for Deborah Vance and Ava

Season 2 of Hacks, consisting of eight episodes, will begin streaming on HBO Max on May 12

Hacks is returning for season 2!

In a teaser released this Friday by HBO Max, fans of the hit show finally got a first look into the sophomore season of the series, which will consist of eight episodes.

In the video, Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder's characters, Deborah Vance and Ava, are seen on cars, boats, stages and dumpsters as they make their way through Vance's national standup tour. As the classic Cass Elliot tune "Make Your Own Kind of Music" plays in the background, the sneak peek promises fans a mix of drama and comedy, much like season 1.

In the first season of the show, Vance, a legendary stand-up comedian, teams up with a young writer Ava to help freshen up her act as they learn to respect each other's differences along the way.

In addition to Smart, 70, and Einbinder, 26, the returning cast includes fellow Emmy acting nominees, Carl Clemons-Hopkins as Deborah's COO Marcus and Jane Adams as Ava's mother Nina.

Christopher Polk/FilmMagic for HBO/HBO Max

Smart, who recently won a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Screen Actors' Guild Award for her role as the legendary comedian, spoke to Vanity Fair last year about her love for the character.

"I love that Deborah is kind of inconsistent or unpredictable. You know, she has very different relationships with all the different people in her life. And it's a testament to the writing that they all seem to make sense," Smart told Vanity Fair.

She added, "She's incredibly generous, she's incredibly cheap, she can be incredibly kind, and incredibly abusive. But it all seems to just make sense. That was fascinating to me, and makes it very fun to play."

In her acceptance speech at the SAG Awards, Smart said her co-stars were "cast in heaven" and also thanked Einbinder, calling her a castmate and "partner in crime."

Justin Bettman

For Einbinder, Hacks was her first-ever role job after her career as a standup comedian. In an interview with PEOPLE last year, Einbinder — who was a first-time nominee at the Golden Globes and the Emmy Awards — talked about that transition.

"It's certainly different," she said of her role in Hacks. "I think the most difficult part about it, in the beginning, was the fact that on set, everything has to be silent because they're obviously recording the sound. So no one can really laugh, and when there's silence, that triggers a reaction in my soul that I'm bombing."

"I'm trying to be a lot more fluid with how I view comedy," she adds. "I don't want there to be any rigidity in my approach."

Season 2 of Hacks will begin streaming on HBO Max on May 12.