Farewell to Laughter: Hacks Season 5 Delivers a Memorable Series Finale

For perhaps the first time across her decades-long career, Deborah Vance is struggling to perform. Coming into season five, a non-compete clause has prevented the seasoned comic from making jokes in public. The first episode even ends with the words “Free Deborah!” written across the sky as fans begin to rally behind her. But for Jean Smart, who’s won four Emmys playing Deborah in four consecutive seasons, she’s as effortless in the role as ever.

Following an odd finale which took some big swings it couldn’t quite land, the fifth and final season of Hacks resets the status quo, as it does every season. This time around, Vance and her long-suffering bestie Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) are fighting for the comeback of all comebacks, which might just nab Jean her fifth Emmy and Hannah’s second for their comic swan song together. (That is, unless Lisa Kudrow’s The Comeback beats them at their own game).

That Hacks continues to excel, five years in, is practically unheard of in today’s tumultuous TV landscape. Just surviving for five seasons deserves some kind of award, let alone thriving in the way Hacks has. That’s not to say it hasn’t stumbled occasionally, and the same is sometimes true of season five. But even so, very few shows are this damn strong across the board.

Zingers about dating Saddam Hussein or comparing an ex’s wedding to a colonoscopy – “It’s a pain in the ass every five years but I’m passed out for most of it” – feel just as effortless as they should from a seasoned pro like Deborah. Ongoing jokes about Ava’s “inhuman strength” – she high-fives “like the Hulk” – also speak to the more subtle threads of humour woven throughout that shine best on a rewatch.