Your favorite beach read has come to life as Peacock turned Elin Hilderbrand's best-seller The Five-Star Weekend into your next favorite summer binge-watch. The author of The Perfect Couple takes us back to Nantucket for what's supposed to be a coastal weekend full of fun, friends, and great food, but once the group settles into their getaway, secrets and tension rise to the surface.
Emmy Award nominee Jennifer Garner stars in The Five-Star Weekend as Hollis Shaw, a popular online food influencer and cookbook author who recently lost her husband. Struggling in her overwhelming grief, Hollis invites friends from different corners of her life to spend a weekend together and take her mind off of life, work, and her confusing relationship with her daughter.
However, Hollis' perfect weekend quickly goes out the window when her friends Dru-Ann (Regina Hall), Tatum (Chloë Sevigny), Brooke (D'Arcy Carden), and Gigi (Gemma Chan) break right through the wall she's trying to put up. But are all of their problems solved by the end of the weekend or do we need a second season to keep the story going? It's a little of both, but let's explain.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead from The Five-Star Weekend season finale.
The Five-Star Weekend doesn't need a season 2, but it could happen
Since The Five-Star Weekend fully adapted the story featured in Hilderbrand's book and was conceived as a limited series, there's no direct reason to believe that Peacock will actively pursue renewing the show for a second season. The series follows a complete arc for each of the characters and doesn't leave us with any burning questions we're in desperate need of answering.
In the final episode, Hollis finally learns the whole truth from Gigi about her affair with Matthew (Josh Hamilton). While he did cheat on Hollis, Matthew was ending things with Gigi and driving back home to Hollis when he got into his fatal car accident. Hollis admits that she can forgive Gigi in an effort not to carry anger with her through life, but she doesn't want Gigi to contact her ever again.
Additionally, Hollis finally takes positive steps forward to repair her relationship with her daughter Caroline (Harlow Jane). Now that both know the truth, they resolve to continue being honest with each other. Hollis also finds love again. She's taking things slow with her first boyfriend Jack (Timothy Olyphant) and has seemingly decided so spend much more time on Nantucket.
As for the other stars, Tatum received her test results, but it's not good news. While her lump was benign, suspicious cells were still found behind it. She doesn't share her exact diagnosis, but she's much calmer than she was earlier in the season knowing that it was caught early. Dru-Ann decides to quit her job and star her own agency, and Brooke ends her marriage and gets her first girlfriend.
Before parting way after their weekend of catharsis, the group of four promise that they will take another trip together the same time the following year, and that's the perfect door to leave cracked open for a potential follow-up season. We don't need to reunite with these characters since the series gave them all closure. These aren't cliffhangers; they are choices to move forward.
In the event that The Five-Star Weekend becomes a huge success on Peacock and the streamer decides to bring the series back for another round, there's an entry point. Whether they gather again at Hollis' Nantucket home or travel to Greece, each character has a new life challenge to work through: new relationships, new jobs, new fights for their own mortality.
But for the most part, The Five-Star Weekend season 2 would run the risk of ruining what made the limited series special. The throughline was grief and the tension that causes separation in long-term friendships. With these things resolved, some aspects of the series would have to be undone to make season 2 feel necessary. So, season 2 could happen, but it doesn't need to happen.
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