Luxury, laughter and seaside escapes might be what first catches your eye in The Five Star Weekend, but beneath the picture-perfect Nantucket backdrop lies a far more relatable story about grief, forgiveness and the friendships that shape us long after we’ve left different chapters of our lives behind.
Based on Elin Hilderbrand‘s bestselling novel, Peacock’s new drama (streaming on Binge and Foxtel On Demand in Australia) follows celebrated food influencer Hollis Shaw (Jennifer Garner), whose seemingly idyllic life is shattered by the sudden loss of her husband. Unable to process her grief, Hollis invites four women from different periods of her life to spend a weekend together at her coastal home. Childhood loyalties, motherhood bonds, college memories and unexpected new friendships collide as old wounds reopen, uncomfortable truths emerge and every woman is forced to confront who she has become.
For Garner, who also serves as executive producer, the series resonated because it places female friendship front and centre in a way television has increasingly embraced over the past decade.
“I think these stories resonate because half of the world is made up of women,” Garner says. “We’ve always needed each other. We’ve existed with and for one another from the very beginning.”
While friendship provides the emotional foundation, it is grief that quietly drives the story forward. Rather than portraying Hollis as someone consumed by loss, Garner was drawn to a woman desperately trying to outrun it.
“Hollis is really trying to push through grief,” she explains. “She’s trying to put it on another shelf and distract herself by making things beautiful instead of feeling what she really needs to feel.”
Of course, grief refuses to stay neatly packed away.
“It’s always there, just under the surface,” Garner says. “Playing someone who’s almost giddy about spending time with her friends while grief is quietly lurking underneath was probably the trickiest part.”
That emotional complexity is something Gemma Chan believes audiences will recognise immediately.
“I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to deal with grief,” she says. “Sometimes distracting yourself is how you survive in the short term. But you also need the people who know you well enough to tell you, ‘You’re not okay. You need to talk about it.'”
Chan admits that mirrors her own instincts.
“I’ve always been someone who puts on a brave face and smiles through things,” she says. “I’m trying to get better at showing vulnerability and asking for help.”
Those imperfections are what drew Chloë Sevigny to the project. Throughout her career she’s gravitated towards complicated women who resist tidy labels, and her character, Tatum, proved no exception.
“I was really drawn to the story first,” she says. “I felt like people could relate to something in one, if not all, of these characters.”
Rather than presenting polished versions of womanhood, The Five Star Weekend embraces flaws, awkwardness and emotional contradictions.
“I wanted to be funny, but also really emotional and grounded,” Sevigny says. “That combination was something new for me.”
D’Arcy Carden believes the show’s biggest strength is how honestly it captures the work required to maintain lifelong friendships.
“It gets harder and harder,” she says. “Friendships take intention. You have to work on them.”
It’s a lesson that extends beyond the screen.
Reading Hilderbrand’s novel and bringing the character of Brooke to life reminded Carden how easily meaningful relationships can fade into the background as careers, families and responsibilities take over.
“It’s so easy for them to slip away because you’re focused on what’s right in front of you.”
For Sevigny, becoming a mother only reinforced that reality.
“Every New Year since my son was born, I’ve said I’m going to prioritise my friendships,” she laughs. “Because you really do have to make time.”
Chan believes lasting friendships also require another ingredient many people overlook.
“You have to give yourself and your friends a bit of grace,” she says. “Even if life has happened and you’ve drifted apart, there’s never a wrong time to pick up the phone and tell someone you’ve missed them.”
Ironically, despite portraying women with decades of shared history, the five central cast members barely knew one another before cameras rolled.
Garner admits she could hardly believe the ensemble she’d assembled.
“I never imagined I’d be lucky enough to work opposite Chloë Sevigny, Gemma Chan, D’Arcy Carden and Regina Hall.”
Yet whatever chemistry audiences see on screen wasn’t manufactured through rehearsals or workshops.
“It was really the five chairs off to the side of the set,” Garner recalls. “Whenever we had a break we’d sit there talking, getting personal straight away.”
Carden agrees that those conversations became the foundation for everything that followed.
“You can’t force that kind of chemistry,” she says. “It was so easy and organic. One of the best experiences of my life.”
That collaborative spirit also extended behind the camera, with women occupying many of the key creative roles throughout production.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better leader,” Chan says of Garner.
Garner is quick to emphasise those appointments weren’t made to satisfy a quota.
“It wasn’t a stunt,” she says. “They were simply the best people for the jobs. They were prepared, creative and unbelievably talented.”
Visually, The Five Star Weekend embraces the same aspirational appeal that has helped shows like The White Lotus captivate audiences. Stunning homes, immaculate fashion and incredible food create a world many viewers would happily escape into.
But Garner believes audiences don’t stay because everything is beautiful. They stay because nobody is.
“We don’t want perfect people,” she says. “None of us are. We’re all kind of a mess.”
Watching these women stumble through betrayal, resentment, forgiveness and self-discovery becomes strangely comforting because their imperfections feel recognisable.
The series asks difficult questions about friendship, family, marriage and the versions of ourselves we present to the world, but it never loses sight of hope.
As Garner sees it, that’s ultimately the point.
“If there’s ever a chance to be reminded to give yourself grace and forgive yourself, there’s never a bad time for that,” she says. “Do the best you can with the next moment you have.”
It’s a fitting message for a series that understands healing rarely comes from having all the answers. Sometimes it begins with inviting the right people to the table, allowing yourself to be seen, and accepting that life’s most meaningful relationships are rarely the perfect ones – they’re simply the ones worth fighting for.
The Five Star Weekend is now available to stream on Binge and Foxtel On Demand in Australia and on Peacock in the United States.
