Screen adaptations of an author’s work can vary widely, depending on the source material and who’s doing the adapting. For instance, “Carrie” ranks among the finest movies of the 20th century, while “Christine” and “Cujo,” also based on Stephen King books, do not.
The lack of obvious creative DNA shared by Peacock’s limited series “The Five Star Weekend” and the 2024 Netflix hit “The Perfect Couple” — both based on novels by Elin Hilderbrand — seems unprecedented, however.
The Nicole Kidman-led “Perfect Couple” offered a few soapy, over-the-top thrills. But it was overly stylized, emotionally remote (with Kidman at her chilliest as a famous novelist) and almost devoid of recognizable humans.
Although similarly set on Nantucket and focused on a well-to-do creative type — Jennifer Garner’s newly widowed food influencer, Hollis Shaw — “Five Star Weekend” creates a chic yet cozy world filled with relatably flawed and likable characters.
The “five stars” are Hollis and four friends (played by Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, D’Arcy Carden and Gemma Chan) she invites at the last minute to her beautifully appointed ocean-view home. Hollis’ husband, Matthew (a pleasant if opaque Josh Hamilton, seen in flashbacks) was killed in an auto accident six months earlier, and Hollis wants to stop subsuming her grief in workaholism.
The friends are not written as the usual wacky satellites to the America’s Sweetheart lead. Each character is well-developed, giving the actors plenty to play, and thus answering the unspoken question of why such distinctive talents would sign up for a beach read-based miniseries.
Show creator Bekah Brunstetter, a playwright and “This is Us” veteran, does wonders with the material she was given. But she’s not a wizard. “Five Star Weekend” still contains crazy contrivances and coincidences, along with a potential local-boy love interest (the forever charming Timothy Olyphant) whom the Hallmark Channel would have rejected as too handsome and perfect to be believed.
Like most other shows focused on characters in their 40s and 50s (looking at you, “Dutton Ranch” and “Your Friends and Neighbors”), “Five Star Weekend” throws in an obligatory subplot focused on a disruptive Gen Z character. But at least Caroline, Hollis’ college-age daughter, is played by a highly capable and expressive actor in Harlow Jane. She makes it clear that Caroline is less naturally rebellious than consumed by grief and frustrated by her mother’s compulsion to put on a good face.
Hollis cannot stop being disciplined simply because she lost her husband. She has planned activities for every moment of her supposedly restorative weekend with pals. Although unfortunate for Hollis and those in her orbit, these personality traits suit Garner beautifully. With her teddy bear eyes and Olympic gymnast posture, Garner excels at playing women who are obviously hurting but too regimented to fall apart. She’s reliably great here.
Hollis’ perfectionism also benefits those of us who want to see quiet luxury on screen. The first episode showcases Hollis’ elaborate preparations for her guests’ arrival on a Friday. She arranges fresh flowers to complement the florals, whites, creams and nautical touches of her furniture and walls that pay tribute to the seaside setting without being too twee.
The show’s production design alleviates the Nancy Meyers-movie ache we have felt since Diane Keaton’s passing (in a nice touch, Brunstetter even has Hollis name-check Keaton). But “Five Star Weekend” is Meyers-plus, in treating us to a kitchen that is not just well designed but oft-used, and to mouthwatering shots of Hollis preparing a fruit galette or shucking fresh oysters to put on ice just before her friends arrive.
Seeking a group representing various stages of her life, Hollis invited big-time sports agent Dru-Ann (Hall), her best friend from college; Tatum (Sevigny), who owns a local dry-cleaning business and grew up on the island with Hollis; Brooke (Carden), Hollis’ mom friend from her other life in the city; and Gigi (Chan), an airline pilot who started as a fan of Hollis’ content before a DM slide led to friendship.
From the moment Hall steps in the door, she relieves Garner of the burden of carrying the show. Putting her “Girls Trip” and “Best Man Holiday” experience to use, Hall establishes Dru-Ann as the glue of the getaway bunch, who all know Hollis but not necessarily each other.
Warm and genuinely curious about others, Dru-Ann is judgmental at times but also quick to be won over. She teases but holds a soft spot for the insecure Brooke, leading to witty, lovely exchanges between Hall and the similarly comically gifted Carden (“The Good Place”).
Hall shows the most chemistry with Garner, the pair imparting the lived-in qualities of long-term, mutually sustained friendship. Dru-Ann would prefer Hollis open up about her loss rather than plan pajama dance parties and make-your-own pizza nights for the weekend. But she does not push Hollis as hard as Tatum, who has a chip on her shoulder as the only blue-collar pal in the bunch and thinks Hollis left her behind.
As Hollis’ two besties, Dru-Ann and Tatum have stoked a certain rivalry over the years. But they immediately agree it was weird for Hollis to invite Gigi, a fan she never met before in person, to her home.
Partly because of her awkward positions within the group, Gigi is the least developed of the friends. But Chan (“Crazy Rich Asians”) endears at those moments when Gigi breaks through her own reserve and wariness and genuinely tries to connect with the others.
Brooke, to whom Carden lends a goofiness mitigated by self-awareness, will experience the biggest arc among the characters. Even tough townie Tatum marvels at the once-timid woman’s adventures.
As the decades-long embodiment of New York City cool, Sevigny seems the unlikeliest fit for this material. But she makes it work by fashioning Tatum as the piece’s spiky antiheroine, then softening those edges through Tatum’s clear desire to fit in, love for Hollis, and enduring passion for Tatum’s high school sweetheart turned longtime husband (a solid David Denman).
The pair have a daughter in her 20s, played with winning naturalism by West Duchovny. She is the daughter of Téa Leoni and David Duchovny, which somehow mathematically qualifies her to be just the right fit as Sevigny’s on-screen child. And the daughter has her own baby, to whom Tatum is rather attached.
Who could have predicted that, of all the actors on this show, Sevigny would be the coastal grandma?
“The Five Star Weekend” premieres Thursday on Peacock.