The Five-Star Weekend is the perfect beach watch, adapted by Bekah Brunstetter from the perfect beach read of the same name by bestselling beach‑read author Elin Hilderbrand. It blends schmaltz, melodrama, jokes and genuine feeling in perfect proportions throughout its eight episodes. It is escapist entertainment that contains, in its tale of five female friends unwinding and spilling secrets over a faultlessly curated long weekend in Nantucket, absolutely nothing to distress us. Come on in, it says warmly with every gorgeous shot of island coastline, the water’s lovely.
The weekend is organised by a tradwife-inflected culinary influencer, Hollis (Jennifer Garner), who has recently lost her husband, Matthew (Josh Hamilton), in a car crash. This all happens off screen; after the police arrive at the house to break the news, we cut swiftly to six months later. It’s the equivalent of a children’s book killing off the parents without a backward glance so the fun can begin.
