Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Five Star Weekend” Season 1, Episode 8.
When “The Five Star Weekend” showrunner Bekah Brunstetter first read Elin Hilderbrand’s novel of the same name the day after the writers’ strikes ended in 2023, she “immediately” saw the vision for the show and how the Nantucket-set adaptation could come to life.
But it wasn’t just the cozy beach read aspect that attracted Brunstetter to the project, which centers on widow Hollis Shaw (Jennifer Garner) who leans on the support of her friends (her stars) from different phases of her life as she works through her grief. “[Elin’s books aren’t] as light as some people think — there’s a lot of depth there, and just a lot of relatability,” Brunstetter said.
It’s that lightness that initially made Chloë Sevigny think the project was “too mainstream” for her audience, to which Brunstetter admitted she had a “similar reaction,” noting the show was “lighter” than her past projects. “But we need that, right?” she said. “What I love about this story is that it gives you a little bit of both — it’s escapist and it’s warm and it’s life-affirming and friendship-affirming and lovely, but there’s also some really relatable, grittier stuff going on as well.”
The show’s mesh of tone is what drew Brunstetter to the all-star cast, which also includes Regina Hall, Gemma Chan and D’Arcy Carden, all of whom had never worked together as Brunstetter hoped for relationships to build at the same pace as they do in the show. “Once it started assembling, [it] was just these group of women that you can’t put in a box,” she said. “I also wanted a group of actors that as a group, transcend any genre bucket, so that there was this feeling like even when you see the billboard, like, ‘what the hell is that show,’ right?
Brunstetter left the characters from Hilderbrand’s novel untouched, only altering the storyline of Hollis’ daughter Caroline (Harlow Jane), who in the book has an affair with her filmmaker boss. Instead, Brunstetter wanted to keep her story “more on the island” and connected with the grief her mother is also facing as she rekindles a friendship with Tatum’s daughter (West Duchovny).
The main shift was making the book’s biggest twist — Gigi’s (Chan) affair with Hollis’ late husband, Matthew — more external, prompting Brunstetter to have the secret revealed to the friends as well, while the book sees only Hollis find out towards the end. “You really want to give these five formidable actors something to do, and something to chew on every episode,” Brunstetter said. “You can’t have them off fully siloed in their own stories every episode. They need to come together.”
Brunstetter decided early on she wanted Brooke (Carden) to be the first one to find out Gigi’s secret — which is revealed by a glimpse at her phone — purely due to the effort Brooke makes for everyone to like her. The reveal is also complicated by the kiss Brooke and Gigi shared while shopping in town — another shift from the book, which sees Brooke and Dru-Ann kiss.
“Brooke still feels like she’s 13 years old, and she’s drawn to her, but it’s not really sexual — or is it — and she’s kind of whirling around in those confusing feelings, and then she finds out the secret, and it just complicates her story,” Brunstetter noted. She also wanted to “steer away” from the clichés that come with writing the kiss with Dru-Ann, a Black woman who works in sports. “I just thought we could try something different than that,” she said.
The kiss is one of the first steps along Brooke’s journey across the weekend as she comes to terms with both her sexuality and her dissatisfaction with the life she’s been living — a realization Brunstetter wanted to slow down from the book.
“We wanted to slightly shift the focus from ‘I’m gay now,’ and shift the focus to her realizing her autonomy within her own life and within her own marriage,” she said. “Her realizing that she’s attracted to women, I think, is part of that, but it’s … not the only thing.”
Brooke doesn’t hold on to Gigi’s secret for long, eventually leaning on Tatum and Dru-Ann to figure out how to handle it — and Gigi. The trio craft an exit route for Gigi, but are forced to tell Hollis what’s going on, setting the ground work for Hollis and Gigi’s big confrontation in the finale.
Most of the confrontation was pulled straight from Hilderbrand’s book, but the focus for Brunstetter was on balancing the theme of forgiveness with Hollis’ growth in an effort to not make her a pushover. “Hollis is really connected with this lady, and then also learns this terrible truth, but also feels a little bit responsible for the affair,” Brunstetter said. “There’s a part of her that still feels bad for Gigi, even though she’s so angry and heartbroken.”
Having empathy for Gigi was inherent both in Hilderbrand’s and Brunstetter’s writing, with Brunstetter noting she didn’t want to villainize the character. “[I] was thinking about why she falls in love with this guy and what it is within herself that she’s that she’s needing or lacking that she’s looking for in this relationship,” she recalled. “I wanted to … see if I could challenge an audience to have some empathy, even though what she did was wrong.”
Their confrontation comes just hours after Hollis rekindled her teenage flame with Jack (Timothy Olyphant) in a romance Brunstetter calls “wish fulfillment” for those in their 40s, 50s or 60s whose mind wanders to their first love after a marriage ends.
Their relationship is just one thing Brunstetter hopes to explore in potential further seasons of “The Five Star Weekend.”
“My hope is that if we get to do more seasons, I can dig into that a little bit more, because the first season is definitely the story of her grief — I’m really interested to see what their relationship would actually be like once they have the second chance,” Brunstetter said.
The pitch for a multi-season arc from Brunstetter and the producers is to have each subsequent season follow Hollis, Tatum, Dru-Ann, Brooke and “potentially a new fifth star” in a new vacation destination. “They could go on vacations forever,” Brunstetter said.
There’s certainly enough going on for the women to motivate another season, especially as Tatum she kickstarts her battle with cancer after getting the results back from her doctor in another change from the book. With happy endings all around, the decision to change those results came early on as Brunstetter amped up the show’s grit and depth. “Women get breast cancer — it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s going to die like her mom did,” she said. “We … thought it’d be interesting to have her and have the show the end of the show sit with that truth.”
As for who that fifth star could be, Brunstetter said she had a few ideas, but would ideally craft a character around a willing actor. “You could just find someone who really wants to do it, some amazing actor who’s really interested in doing this, and … talk to them about what they want to play and what they feel like their strengths are and what they’re interested in,” Brunstetter said.
That fifth star won’t be Gigi, though Brunstetter didn’t shut down a potential return in the future, saying “she’s not going to be coming on the weekend, but I don’t think she’s gone forever.”
Neither is Electra (Judy Greer), with Brunstetter explaining the running gag could be “no matter where they are, she shows up.”
“The Five Star Weekend” is now streaming on Peacock.
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