if Five star weekend getaway If the cookie recipe is the kind made famous by its heroine, food influencer Hollis Shaw (Jennifer Garner), it’ll be great on paper, look good out of the oven and taste… you know, good. sweet. smooth. However, it’s a bit disappointing, as we miss the complexity that could take a dessert from good to great.
Likewise, with its star-studded cast, stunning scenery and refreshing beach-read originals, the Peacock limited series is perfectly palatable as a midsummer party, big enough to hold your attention but not so heavy as to be taxing. It’s never as special or memorable as one might expect from the sum of its promising parts.
Five star weekend getaway
Bottom line Beautiful and polished, to a fault.
Broadcast date: Thursday 16 July (Peacock)
ejaculate: Jennifer Garner, Darcey Carden, Gemma Chan, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Harlow Jean, Timothy Olyphant
Developed by: Becca Brunstetter, based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand
These high-quality ingredients, for starters, include a plot (adapted by Pekka Brunstetter from Elin Hilderbrand’s best-selling novel) that was probably designed in the laboratory to elicit tears, laughter, and envious sighs in equal measure.
Six months after the sudden death of her husband, Matthew (Josh Hamilton in flashbacks), Hollis is still too immersed in grief to overcome this crisis. today Show recording without breaking into sighs. Desperate for a break, she summons her four best friends—one from each stage of her life—for a weekend of free-flowing wine, artisan roasted meats and matching outfits at her luxurious, airy Nantucket home.
The girls in question (who are all friends of Hollis’s, but more importantly, not him). Absolutely With each other) is played by a group of top-notch actresses that I’ve seen and loved in other things. Chloë Sevigny is Tatum, a somewhat gruff childhood friend whose relatively humble life is an implicit reminder of the path Hollis did not choose. Regina Hall is Dru-Ann, a college best friend whose unapologetic ambition and refined tastes make her a symbol of what Hollis did.
Darci Carden is Brooke, the mother’s awkward friend who’s surprised she’s invited at all. The same goes for Gemma Chan’s mysterious and seductive Gigi, an Internet friend who had never met Hollis in person before agreeing to what is essentially a four-day sleepover with her. It all makes more and more sense once her big spoiled secret is revealed.
They all play their roles to a T, including Garner, who is perfectly cast as a woman so preternaturally put together that she can get through entire crybumps without smudging her mascara. However, my favorite performance of the group was Sevigny’s salty, earthy, and often funny turn as the friend most determined to get past all the bullshit.
Everyone plays well together too. While the barely-hidden repulsion most of these women have for each other gives the first hours a slight tinge of sadness, it also means that their inevitable reconciliation in the second half of the eight-part season — once they begin to form real connections beyond their shared interest in Hollis — tastes that much sweeter.
Like the tough-minded Hollis on the itinerary, Five star weekend getaway He likes to keep himself moving. Naturally, Hollis’ grief takes center stage, despite her habit of insisting on it fineIn fact, she’s in a hurry to start making the peach and prosciutto pizza she promised to make for dinner. But each of the women has her own deeply personal reasons for accepting this last-minute invitation, from a fear of cancer (Tatum) to an impending filing (Brooke) to the potential cancellation of her career (Drew Ann).
Furthermore, Hollis’s college-aged daughter, Caroline (Harlow Jean), is also “on the island” for the weekend, trying to surprise her mother. So does Jack (Timothy Olyphant), Hollis’s former high school friend, for reasons that are barely explained because who cares. And an acquaintance, Elektra (Judy Greer), is determined to ruin the weekend for less obvious reasons. And a group of “Hollibabes” who periodically appear to enjoy their favorite cooking online at inopportune times.
It’s a lot, and it’s a blessing and a (mild) curse at the same time. Five star weekend getaway He never wanted the story. There’s always something going on, and if you’re not interested in one thing, there’s something else just around the corner.
Are you unimpressed with Dru-Ann’s story, which examines like a definitively offline Boomer’s idea of what these undermotivated, hypersensitive Zoomers might be complaining about online? Maybe she’ll be more interested in her passive-aggressive rivalry with Tatum. Has the entire Electra deal been postponed? Perhaps you’ll be impressed by Caroline’s blossoming friendship with Audrey (West Duchovny), Tatum’s daughter. (“Do you want to come talk about our moms?” they text each other.)
But this preoccupation also persists Five star weekend getaway It is impossible to delve into all this in depth in any of these novels. Each character reveals themselves to be more complex than they might initially appear, but not complex enough to feel like they might continue to exist beyond our scope. (The only possible exception is Tatum, who has the advantage of being a local with her own set of supporting characters, including a suave husband played by David Denman).
This, in turn, prevents the emotions of the show from soaring as high as they should. For example, the romantic sparks between Jack and Hollis are diminished by the fact that he seems less like a person than a perfect cipher for projecting her past and possible future. (In fairness, as far as perfect romantic codes go, you could do a lot worse than Timothy Olyphant in rom-com mode.) The thrill of watching Brooke gain confidence is diminished by a second’s thought about what likely awaits her at home with her terrible husband, Charlie (Rob Heupel).
Even Hollis feels less like a raw experience of grief than a completely polished performance. We learn that, in the depths of her despair, Hollis was seeking solace in Instagram comments while screening calls from loved ones. Her journey is one of learning to acknowledge her pain instead of smearing it with butter and sprinkles. but Five star weekend getaway She seems content to merely scratch the surface of her feelings, not penetrate to process them. It makes for a more beautiful picture, one where you can trust that everything will be over in time for one last round of cuddles on the clear blue water. It also makes one less interesting.
