Hacks returns for its fifth and final season on April 9 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max, with weekly episodes running through the May 28 series finale. [1] Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder reprise their roles as Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels in what the show's creators, Jen Statsky, Lucia Aniello, and Paul W. Downs, have described as a season built around a "shocking" conclusion. [2]

Smart, characteristically, is her own toughest critic. In a press conference this week, she told reporters the finale is "not remotely" what she imagined for Deborah. [3] She did not elaborate. The show has earned that kind of confidence -- four seasons of Emmy-winning comedy about a veteran Las Vegas comedian and her young writer, built on a relationship that is equal parts mentorship, rivalry, and mutual dependence.

The Season 4 finale left Deborah at a crossroads, her career trajectory uncertain and her relationship with Ava frayed. Season 5's logline: "In the aftermath of a seismic shift, Deborah and Ava must navigate the fallout of their choices." [2] Specifics remain under wraps.

Hacks has been one of the quietest great shows of the streaming era -- never a water-cooler sensation, always an Emmy magnet. Its final season arrives in an April already crowded with finales, premieres, and revivals. It does not need the noise. It has Jean Smart.

-- CAMILLE BEAUMONT, Los Angeles