Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder celebrate their Hacks community at the premiere of fifth and final season

You can mock me for this admission, because I deserve it: I came to Hacks late, like didn’t start watching until mid-way through when season three was airing. And even then it took me a while to start season two after I finished season one. See? A dumbass, please take all the shots you want. Once I hit play on season two, though, I was fully evangelised. Hacks is so f-cking good, so f-cking funny, I love the show, I love Deborah and Ava, I love Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, and I am both excited and sad but more excited than sad that the first episode of the fifth and final season drops tonight on HBO Max and Crave in Canada.

Jean, Hannah, and the cast and crew were at the premiere last night, celebrating what they’ve achieved together – not just Emmys and all kinds of other awards but the community they built while telling the story of two women from different generations figuring out how to bring out the best work in each other. Hacks is a series about friendship, absolutely, but it’s also a workplace comedy, a gift to the Show Your Work junkies out there. Which is why, at least for me, I wasn’t trying to speed through the hard parts of their relationship, when Deborah and Ava were at their lowest points, not vibing at all (not just an episode here and there but entire seasons!) because that often is the work – they say Gen Z and Alpha are afraid of conflict and struggle, and there is certainly value to eliminating specific kinds of struggle, but it’s impossible to guarantee smooth passage, not on television and definitely not in life. This is the foundation of resilience, and you can’t build those muscles if you’re not confronting challenge. More often than not, Hacks has adhered to the writing principle of giving viewers what they need instead of prioritising what they want. Which, by the way, is why they’re ending it after five seasons. Paul W Downs says as much in Variety’s new Hacks cover story published yesterday.

As we knew from the ending of season four, the final season picks up with Deborah and Ava working towards a comeback, after TMZ erroneously (haha) reported Deborah’s death. They leave Singapore and return to the States – the suggestion here is that the two are in complete solidarity, and they’ve earned it. The characters have earned it, the writers have earned it, and the show has earned it. I enjoy the game Hannah likes to play, ranking the five seasons. She says that, “I’m a 5-3-1-4-2 girl.” Haven’t seen 5 yet, but her order for the four seasons, 3-1-4-2, is how I would do it too… so I’m optimistic that I might also align with her once I’ve watched the series finale.

But before then… comedy, hijinks, twists, turns, inevitably some sadness… and also sex. Christopher Briney from The Summer I Turned Pretty joined the cast as Deborah’s younger lover. This is not a spoiler, it’s been widely reported.

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I don’t see any shots yet of Chris at the premiere but, really, for those of us who are Hacks stans, even the ones who showed up late, the core is here, big smiles and maybe a few tears.