When it comes to drama series set in beachy locales featuring affluent characters in crisis, there are plenty to choose from — and many of them are adaptations of popular novels. The Perfect Couple was one bingeable Netflix series based on a book by Elin Hilderbrand, and now another of the author’s works — The Five-Star Weekend — is available to stream with a Peacock subscription. And while I loved watching Nicole Kidman’s icy matriarch in the 2024 drama, reviews say what Jennifer Garner is serving may be even more delicious.
In The Five-Star Weekend, which hit the 2026 TV schedule on July 9, Jennifer Garner plays Hollis Shaw, a grieving food blogger who gathers friends from different eras of her life for a luxe Nantucket weekend in hopes of healing. Carla Meyer of The Wrap says it perfectly balances authenticity with its clichés in a way that The Perfect Couple was unable to do. The critic writes:
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.
Alison Herman of Variety is similarly more impressed with the latest Elin Hilderbrand adaptation, writing in her review of The Five-Star Weekend that she’s glad this story differentiated itself from The Perfect Couple and other series like Big Little Lies and The White Lotus by not making it a murder mystery or eat-the-rich drama. In freeing itself of those plot necessities, the Peacock series is allowed to dig into the nuances of these female friendships. Herman continues:
The Five-Star Weekend doesn’t see Hollis’ success as something to be punished. The woman has already suffered enough, and her friends refuse to handle her with kid gloves; she deserves a break... Many of the show’s characters are well-off, but unlike so many recent series about how the rich spend their leisure time, it’s not about wealth per se, nor their riches’ collateral damage. That a series finally found some new themes to focus on is as much a soothing break as all the B-roll of ocean waves and clapboard houses.
The Five-Star Weekend also benefits from an impressive cast, says Cristina Escobar of RogerEbert, who do more than simply serve Hollis’ storyline. Chloë Sevigny, Regina Hall, D'Arcy Carden and Gemma Chan play the other four “stars” on the weekend getaway, which ends up being way more than so many of the “pedestrian housewife melodramas” we see. Escobar writes:
The show’s focus on the regular problems people face – when to switch careers, how to deal with loss, how to trust yourself – is downright refreshing, particularly given the cast’s female focus. Here are a few hours spent in a narrative that takes women’s internal lives seriously! Perhaps it’s not new, but it does feel different in our wash of murder mysteries everywhere, from teen dramas to white bourgeois affairs. And that newness, along with the sheer talent radiating off this small screen, is enough to tune in and keep watching. Oh, and the beautiful shots of food help too.
Alise Chaffins of MacGuffin or Meaning gives it 4 out of 5, agreeing that the series shows surprising depth for this type of melodrama. The fleshed-out characters, exploration of female friendships and A+ performances add up to a “truly entertaining” project, Chaffins says, writing:
While the show focuses on Hollis, the other characters don’t exist exclusively to serve her story. The series does a great job of allowing all of the women to have their own lives and problems to solve while also being there to support their friend at her lowest point. It is a lovely testament to enduring friendship that even while going through difficulties, you can hold space for someone else’s suffering.
The critics aren’t all in agreement, though. In his The Five-Star Weekend review, Dave Nemetz of TV Line rates the series a C+, calling the story “more mild than wild.” It’s a “pleasant snooze,” Nemetz says, “but a snooze nonetheless.” In his words:
The picturesque seaside setting and aspirational wealth immediately calls to mind shows like Big Little Lies and The White Lotus, but the writing here is not as sharp or as deep as on those shows. Hollis' grief is too vague to be affecting, and the dialogue between the women lacks bite. Although it's a nice show to look at — she does have a beautiful house! — it feels at times like an ad for luxury lifestyle brands, set to a soundtrack of inoffensive radio hits best described as ‘cool mom Spotify playlist.’
From the reviews I read, critics mostly seem to like the series, and fans of The Five-Star Weekend novel will surely be interested in seeing how the story is adapted. Also, if you loved The Perfect Couple, it sounds like this one might offer a better story (at least more likeable characters) — albeit without the murder mystery.
All eight episodes of The Five-Star Weekend are available to stream now on Peacock.
