HBO superhero drama limited series Watchmen based on characters from the graphic novel of the same name. Smart plays as Laurie Blake formerly the second Silk Spectre, who has since become an FBI agent and member of the Anti-Vigilante Task Force. Smart starred alongside Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Louis Gossett Jr. Smart's performance was singled out by critics including Eric Deggans of NPR who described her performance as "compelling" and "the always-excellent Jean Smart [playing] a cynical, heroically-damaged middle-aged version of Laurie Juspecyk." The series received critical acclaim winning 11 Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Limited Series. Smart herself was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and received the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance. 2020s: Hacks and continued acclaim In 2021, Smart has appeared in the seven episode HBO crime drama limited series Mare of Easttown set in a small town in Pennsylvania. The series stars Kate Winslet as a grizzled detective with a supporting cast which includes Guy Pearce, Julianne Nicholson, and Evan Peters. Her role as Winslet's mother has earned her critical acclaim with Jackson McHenry of Variety writing, "It’s one of those essential truths of TV, as Watchmen and Legion displayed recently, that if you need a tough-as-nails broad, you hire Jean Smart. Smart has the voice and the timing to play a stern matriarch, and whenever she’s onscreen in Mare of Easttown, she wrenches away the spotlight like she’s grabbing a juice box." She also stars as the lead in the HBO Max dark comedy series Hacks (2021) playing a legendary Las Vegas comedy diva looking to appeal to a younger audience. USA Today declared Smart, at the age of 69, "The Queen of HBO", after appearing in Watchmen, Mare of Easttown and now Hacks. Glen Weldon of NPR praised Smart's performance in his review writing, "I don't know if the role of Deborah Vance was written for Smart, but she certainly makes it seem like it was...Smart's also convincing as a standup, performing Deborah's vaguely hokey routines with a naturalistic flair as if she was born to it." In 2021, Smart co-starred in the romantic comedy film Senior Moment with William Shatner and Christopher Lloyd. In 2022, she played Peg, the grandmother of Kiernan Shipka's character Bea Johnson, in Wildflower. In 2022,