Jennifer Garner is back on screen in a role that blends culinary passion with emotional depth, playing a food blogger navigating loss and reconnection in the new series The Five-Star Weekend. Set against the picturesque backdrop of Nantucket — the Cape Cod-adjacent American island known for its pristine beaches, cobblestone streets and iconic lighthouse — the show follows Garner's character as she gathers four friends from different eras of her life for a weekend that peels back the carefully constructed masks people wear, even around those closest to them.

A Character Built on Aspiration and Concealment

Garner plays Hollis Shaw, a blogger whose mastery in the kitchen has made her a kind of culinary everywoman — described within the show's world as a younger, more relatable version of a domestic authority figure. The series is adapted from Elin Hilderbrand's 2023 novel, and Garner says reading the source material gave her a clear picture of who Hollis is at her core.

"She's someone who came from, quote unquote, the wrong side of the tracks and through education, gone to a good college, had left the island on which she'd grown up and grown beyond her station," Garner explains. "She didn't want to go back. She liked it. She wanted to look the part. She wanted people to see her as that part."

That drive, Garner says, is precisely what makes Hollis effective as an aspirational online presence. Having genuinely clawed her way toward a better life, she understands the feeling of wanting something more — and knows how to translate that longing for an audience.

Joining Hollis for the titular weekend are four women who represent the full arc of her life: childhood best friend Tatum, played by Chloë Sevigny; former college roommate Dru-Ann, played by Regina Hall; mother's group peer and adult best friend Brooke, played by D'Arcy Carden; and Gigi, played by Gemma Chan, a woman Hollis has come to know through her blogging work.

Food as Grief, Healing and a Lost Skill

Food is not merely a backdrop in The Five-Star Weekend — it functions as the emotional language through which the series explores collective healing. But Garner's thoughts on cooking extend well beyond the storyline. The 54-year-old Texas-born actress is genuinely concerned about what modern convenience culture is costing us in the kitchen.

"We've started to just lose sight of how simple it is to crack an egg in a frying pan and just swirl it right there with a little oil and just with a spatula," she says. "You have done it. You've done the trick."

She sees the rise of home delivery apps and supermarket prepared meals as eroding something far more fundamental than a practical skill. The kitchen, in her view, has historically served as the hearth of the home — a theme that runs through the entire series. Beyond the cultural cost, she points to an environmental one.

"I'm grateful that there is so much good food available, but the waste that goes into the amount of boxes, the amount of carbon that's eaten up by driving food from one place to another, when that same thing could be made on your stove in 10 minutes or less and for a fraction of the cost, truly makes me nuts," Garner says. For those curious about the broader conversation around food traditions and the politics of what we eat, it is a debate playing out in many corners of the world.

A Career of Unforgettable Women

Hollis Shaw sits in marked contrast to the roles that made Garner a household name. She spent years as super-spy Sydney Bristow in Alias, transformed into a teenager-turned-magazine editor in 13 Going on 30, embodied Marvel anti-heroine Elektra across multiple films including Daredevil and Deadpool & Wolverine, and delivered a quietly powerful performance as adoptive mother Vanessa Loring in Juno.

None of those characters have entirely left her, she says. "Of course," Garner acknowledges when asked whether past roles linger. "Some have stamped me more than others. Sydney Bristow definitely taught…" — a sentiment that trails off but speaks to the lasting imprint of a signature role.

The Five-Star Weekend streams on Peacock.