Delicious Nothings: ‘The Five-Star Weekend’ is a great binge-watch with lots of style and little substance

The Five-Star Weekend | Director: Bekah Brunstetter | Cast: Jennifer Garner, Chloe Sevigny, Gemma Chan | Jio Hotstar

If it’s based on an Elin Hilderbrand novel, it has to have beautiful women in lovely homes set on the ocean in Nantucket. Usually there is a murder too (think Perfect Couple). By the end, the audience feels like doing something life-threatening to Jennifer Garner’s Hollis, a perpetually sunny food influencer whose idea of dealing with grief is to throw some exotic food at it. Hollis has recently been widowed and decides to have a weekend getaway with four friends from each important phase of her life, including an internet friend called Gigi (Gemma Chan). Gigi seems like the perfect candidate for murder, but all that happens in the hypnotically watchable series is that there is more gorgeous looking food with Hollis pretending to be a better version of Meghan Markle. There is lots of drunk dancing, wisdom spouted from Instagram reels, and a subplot inspired by Nicholas Sparks’ novels (two lovers meet after 30 years). The dialogue is Hallmark special (I don’t deal with things, I just frost over them), and the homes look like they’re from Pottery Barn catalogues. Why did I watch it? It’s empty calories but oh so delicious.