Peacock’s newest television series, The Five Star Weekend, centers on Hollis Shaw, a famed cook and best-selling author whose life is upended by a devastating loss. As grief exposes the cracks in her picture-perfect world — her strained marriage, complicated relationship with her daughter, and growing need for fan validation — Hollis hosts a weekend at her Nantucket home with three friends from different stages of her life, plus one surprise fifth star. Against a luxurious coastal backdrop, the group is forced to confront secrets and undergo unexpected changes.

New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand’s novel “The Five-Star Weekend” was released in 2023 and quickly became a top national fiction bestseller. It was soon optioned by Sue Naegle and Alik Krug, whose Dinner Party Productions have an overall deal at Peacock. Hilderbrand, who serves as an executive producer on the series, said, “I can’t believe how fast and beautifully it all came together.” This marks the second adaptation of her work after The Perfect Couple .

“I was so delighted by the combination of something light and also deep,” the series creator, executive producer, and writer recalled. “There was something so lovely and life-affirming about the story that as soon as I finished it, I immediately wanted to do the show.”​

Jennifer Garner next came on board to play the lead role of Hollis Shaw and serve as an executive producer, and Brunstetter said that was when everything clicked into place. “It was a serendipitous and special thing to have happen because I’ve always been a fan of hers, but it wasn't until I met her that I realized we were such a good creative match in terms of the way I write and the way she performs.”

The eight-episode season is helmed by two acclaimed directors: BAFTA-nominee Minkie Spiro ( All Her Fault, Better Call Saul, 3 Body Problem ), who serves as lead director and executive producer, and Jennifer Morrison ( House, This Is Us, The Night Agent ). “It was great to have complete trust in Minkie and Jennifer, to get their input on scripts, and have them with me all the way,” said Brunstetter. “They really helped me figure out the best way to tell the story.”

During our interview, Brunstetter shared that getting the adaptation right was important to her and her team, as Hilderbrand has a devoted following. “Her fans love everything she writes, and it was really important to me to get it right for them. I feel very protective of them. I want to give them what they want.

When I first read the book, I loved it instantly, and I felt like the characters were so exceptional, so funny and relatable and flawed, and I love what goes down in the book, so I didn’t feel the need for an overhaul. Sometimes when you're adapting a book, you'll love it, but there's like some big problems in the plot, or a big problem with a character that you just know that you're going to have to make a big change, because you just have to trust your gut that it will make better TV. But honestly, I didn't have to make any huge changes. We were really loyal to the book, and I felt like I inherited an incredible blueprint for a great season of television from it, which is a rare blessing. My job was really figuring out how to take the story that Ellen created and pace it out through eight episodes that each felt compelling, and keep that narrative engine going while staying true to the characters without manipulating stories so much that it feels like the characters aren't acting like themselves,” she said.

The women-led characters in the book and television series each bring emotional depth as they navigate immense grief, a human experience relatable to everyone.

According to Brunstetter, it was intentional to show that grief doesn’t have a single universal face. “Grief is my nightmare to an extent. I've never lost a partner. I'm so lucky both of my parents are still alive. So, for me, what I do then is imagine what I would be like in this situation, and in addition to that, I intentionally hired writers who had had very similar experiences, who had lost their father at a young age. I wanted to make sure there was lived experience from my writers' room, in addition to what I just do as a writer, which is imagining what I would be like in that situation. We had some of my producers during the phase of developing this show, both of whom lost their fathers, which was so devastating. However, what is so beautiful about life after grief is that you're trying to make sense of life again. You've been cracked open, and you're putting yourself back together,” she shared.

D’Arcy Carden plays Brooke Kirtley, Hollis’ mom’s friend; Gemma Chan plays British commercial pilot Gigi Ling, whom Hollis connected with through her influencer community; Regina Hall portrays her former college roommate, Dru-Ann Jones; and Chloë Sevigny plays her unfiltered childhood best friend, Tatum McKenzie.​

It was the first time the lead actresses had worked together, and as filming on the first episode began, the off-set bonds mirrored those forming on screen. “Rehearsals were particularly important to me because these five women didn’t know each other,” recalls Spiro. “So we had some less conventional rehearsal time. We congregated at my place and played Pictionary in character. It was interesting to watch how natural personalities and traits came to the fore. It paid dividends when we were all on set together, because we’d done a concentrated friendship process, so they felt comfortable with each other and with me, too. There's a chemistry that feels lived in and believable, and it was sheer bliss to work with all of them.”

Sevigny said, “I think grief is one of the more intriguing parts of something to explore, because I think so many people don’t know how to talk to people that have had a loved one that died, and I think it's something that we have to kind of have more out in the open and talk about more.”

Carden similarly found the theme of grief to be relatable. “Hollis being so guarded and not wanting to talk about it, and almost like wanting to talk about anything else, but then Chloe’s character, Tatum, knowing that we needed to talk about it (grief), was admirable. I would probably be a little afraid to do something like that in real life, but that is ultimately what she needed. Working with these actors and with Jen (Garner) and with Regina (Hall), when you're dealing with these like big gigantic feelings and themes and something like grief, it's like getting to just react to it in the scene, like not even necessarily knowing where it's going to go, I found really amazing and inspiring,” she shares.

Sevigny chimed in, “It’s hard to be vulnerable, you know, especially if you have this armor around yourself, and it’s like something that you’re, you know, you’re this guarded, and that's kind of become your personality of who you are. To pivot and open up is soft and scary."

Chan shared, “I would say that no matter what has happened and how much time has passed, the show is saying that healing and forgiveness are always possible. I think there's something beautiful about long-term friendships where you can just pick up where you've left off, and I would hope that anyone watching this show is inspired to pick up the phone and call someone they haven't spoken to for a long time, because that is the final point.”

Stream The Five Star Weekend now on Peacock