Courtesy of Greg Gayne/PEACOCK SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains major spoilers for “The Five-Star Weekend,” now streaming on Peacock.
For “The Five-Star Weekend” showrunner Bekah Brunstetter, women’s stories only get richer as they age.
“There’s so much change that happens in your 40s and 50s — and I don’t just mean menopause and perimenopause, which has become what we’re talking about recently,” Brunstetter tells Variety. “Big life changes continue to happen. Some women are still trying to have children. Some women are getting out of their first marriage. Some women are getting their children out of the nest. Some women are just falling in love for the first time. Some women are just where they want to be in their careers for the first time.”
The breadth of those experiences is captured in Peacock’s new series adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s 2023 novel of the same name. The story follows food influencer Hollis Shaw (Jennifer Garner), who, six months after losing her husband, Matthew (Josh Hamilton), in a tragic car accident, organizes a girls’ weekend at her Nantucket home, inviting a friend from each stage of her life.
D’Arcy Carden, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Jennifer Garner and Gemma Chan Courtesy of Seacia Pavao/Peacock Naturally, each woman brings her own baggage — both literally and figuratively — to the picturesque Massachusetts island. Tatum McKenzie (Chloë Sevigny), Hollis’ childhood best friend who owns a local dry cleaning business, is anxiously awaiting the results of her breast biopsy. Hollis’ college roommate turned sports agent, Dru-Ann Jones (Regina Hall), arrives under a cloud of controversy after a viral video caught her seemingly dismissing a client’s mental health struggles. Rounding out the original group is Brooke Kirtley (D’Arcy Carden), a Wellesley “mom friend” navigating a looming separation from her husband (Rob Huebel), a smarmy corporate executive facing a workplace misconduct lawsuit.
And then there is the weekend’s wildcard: Gigi Ling (Gemma Chan), a commercial pilot who struck up an online friendship with Hollis after Matthew’s death. Unbeknownst to Hollis and the rest of the guests, Gigi’s presence isn’t altruistic; she is using the weekend to process her own grief over an affair she had with Matthew. The eventual exposure of this secret forces Hollis finally to confront the painful truth that her marriage wasn’t nearly as perfect as she had led herself to believe.
Witnessing all of this as the weekend unfolds is Hollis’ daughter Caroline (Harlow Jane), who returns to Nantucket to spend time with her mom. She has a secret of her own: Though she was planning to follow in her cardiovascular surgeon father’s footsteps, Caroline is now flunking out of college. “The Five-Star Weekend” also features a couple of notable reunions for Garner; her “The Last Thing He Told Me” co-star Hamilton appears in flashbacks as her late husband, and Timothy Olyphant — her co-lead in 2006’s “Catch & Release” — plays Hollis’ first love, Jack.
Popular on Variety
In the wide-ranging chat below, Brunstetter opens up about the process of adapting Hildebrand’s novel with the help of Garner, the major creative changes that she made to tell a story deeply rooted in female friendship — and her plans to expand the narrative beyond the source material into future seasons.
Related Stories
