A good book does not always equal a great watch. But in the modern streaming era, TV and film executives are ever willing to take that risk.
A solid portion of the most anticipated projects and biggest surprise hits of this year are book adaptations: Wuthering
Heights, The Long Walk, Heated Rivalry, Project Hail Mary, and The Odyssey, to name a few. At a time when digital communities like BookTok have helped grow audiences and awareness for all kinds of stories, the major platforms are battling over book IP to corner those built-in fandoms. And while many studios are chasing prestige titles, Peacock is all-in on a less heralded genre: the airport novel.
These are books whose defining quality is a kind of inoffensive banality — engaging enough to distract from turbulence or aggravating delays but easy enough to absorb plot- and theme-wise that they don’t require too much mental energy. Peacock’s aim appears to be translating this pleasant, lightly anesthetizing experience to the screen, with a bunch of name-brand stars plugged in to draw viewers. Case in point: the streamer’s recent release, The Five-Star Weekend.
Based on the book by Elin Hilderbrand, an author whose beach-read oeuvre dominates airport bookstores, the series drops readers immediately into the midst of an ongoing family tragedy. Food influencer Hollis (Jennifer Garner) is devastated when her husband tragically dies in a car accident. After having an on-air meltdown while filming a cooking segment with Jenna Bush Hager (playing herself), she takes the advice of her publicist and heads off for a girls weekend on Nantucket.
Each attendee is a woman from a different part of Hollis’ life. There’s Tatum (Chloë Sevigny), the childhood best friend she calls sister; Dru-Ann (Regina Hall), the driven college roommate; Brooke (D’Arcy Carden), the supportive mom-friend; and Gigi (Gemma Chan), an Instagram follower who’s become a dear friend. It’s a cast so full of stars that even fan favorites like Timothy Olyphant and Judy Greer are relegated to minor background characters.
The plot is uncomplicated: The women traipse through an Instagram-perfect itinerary of shopping, pajama dance parties, tequila shots, sunrise yoga sessions, and long walks on the beach, working through their awkward interpersonal relationships and painful secrets in the process. Garner is a master at the tearful longing gaze over the ocean. Hall effortlessly channels protective best-friend energy. Carden infuses heart and anxiety into her performance as a housewife having a midlife sexual awakening. The result is a campy delight that has made The Five-Star Weekend Peacock’s current Number One show.
This approach follows a formula that is proving quite successful for the streamer. On July 8, the Peacock series All Her Fault, based on the airport thriller by Andrea Mara, was nominated for seven Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress for Dakota Fanning, and Outstanding Lead Actress for Sarah Snook. A ridiculous but impossible-to-quit binge-watch, it beat out critical darlings like Netflix’s Lord of the Flies adaptation and Half Man, Richard Gadd’s follow-up to Baby Reindeer, for nominations. Similar efforts at Peacock show no signs of stopping: In June, Deadline reported thatSuch A Nice Girl, also by Mara, is in development there, with the All Her Fault team at the helm. The streamer is also developing Before I Let Go, the hit contemporary romance by author Kennedy Ryan.
None of these books are Pulitzer Prize winners or future AP English assignments. But Peacock is reaping the rewards of putting some high production value and high-profile casting behind adaptations of books that are nothing more than a breezy good time. The Five-Star Weekend isn’t Dune — and it doesn’t need to be. These airport-novel adaptations are about escapism at their core. And sometimes, that’s exactly what people want.
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