DAISY JONES & THE SIX tries to give the titular band its place in the music industry
Developed by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
1.01–1.03: “Come and Get It”; “I’ll Take You There”; and “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”
Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; Jenny Klein; and Nora Kirkpatrick & Will Graham, respectively
Directed by James Ponsoldt
Starring Sam Claflin, Riley Keough, Camila Morrone, Suki Waterhouse
New episodes streaming Fridays on Amazon Prime
by Megan Bailey, Staff Writer
For those unfamiliar with Taylor Jenkins Reid’s oeuvre, she wrote a number of conventional romance novels before finding her niche in historical fiction. She wrote a quartet of novels in this connected historical fiction universe, including her breakout Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, followed by Daisy Jones & the Six, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto is Back. The four novels are connected in a lot of small ways: minor characters are referenced in multiple books, the same magazines and books are referenced in each one, and the like. But the big connection between the four is Mick Riva and his family. Mick is one of Evelyn Hugo’s titular husbands, he’s at a party with Daisy Jones in her novel, Malibu Rising is focused on his children (and his shitty parenting of them), and he also makes an appearance in Carrie Soto.
While Carrie Soto does not seem to have been optioned (at least not yet), the other three adaptations are in various stages. The first three episodes of Daisy Jones, which I’ll review in more detail below, is obviously out now. Evelyn Hugo is in production at Netflix, with Malibu Rising at Hulu. Disappointingly, because all three properties are with different production companies, it doesn’t look like these projects will be linked in any way. So, there’s no mention of Mick Riva here, though it would have been a fun easter egg to drop his name at least.
Fashioned as an oral history, Daisy Jones & the Six (the novel) focuses on Daisy and Billy Dunne. Billy’s band, formerly The Dunne Brothers and then later simply The Six, joins forces with Daisy and the rest is history (alternate history at least). Taking advantage of the unreliable narrator concept, the book lets the characters speak for themselves and recounts the band’s rise to fame, and subsequent life after it. Reid’s book is half inspired by Fleetwood Mac—tension between a very famous band and ‘70s vibes—and half by The Civil Wars—an incredible band that broke up under mysterious circumstances, hmm.
The screen adaptation follows the same premise, of course. The show is fashioned as a tell-all, sort of Behind the Music type of deal, recorded twenty years later, in the late ‘90s. I have to point out that the styling for these talking heads scenes is very lackluster. This is the major flaw of the show for me, and since the pilot opens with these talking heads, it’s pretty noticeable from the start. While there are very few visual cues for the period setting, nothing feels all that ‘90s about it. And likewise, the actors don’t look like 20 years have passed since the flashbacks. Again, some little things stick out—some under eye makeup and a few wrinkles here and there, but it’s just not quite believable.
On the whole, the show pulls back from including quite as many talking heads, and I understand why. Compared to the book, where Reid can pull in random folks for some one-liners here and there, and readers can flip back to see how they were originally introduced, it’s a bit much in a visual medium, where you have to remember who all these people are after their initial lower thirds.
The biggest change to the plot comes toward the end (no spoilers here, promise). The dynamics between the love triangle—Billy (Sam Claflin), Daisy (Riley Keough), and Camilla (Camila Morone)—are different, and that’s by design. The series co-creator Scott Neustadter told the NY Post that the show depicts what really happened, and the book features some unreliable narrator from the main characters. He said, “When I read the book … memory is a funny thing, I always sort of got the impression that there was more underneath… We made a conscious choice early on that [the story onscreen] is not anyone’s interpretation of what happened. It is what happened. And when you do that, I think automatically it gets a little messier.”
This is a, let’s say, interesting choice, given that the first few episodes of the show also play with unreliable narration. I kind of wish the show had leaned into that more, by showing us what really happened even when the talking heads insist it happened some other way.
The first three episodes try to strike the right balance between Billy and Daisy’s story, but I don’t think it quite gets there. The episodes end up feeling, in my opinion, pretty heavy on Billy, his relationship with Camilla, and his struggles while on tour. Along those same lines, while there’s some attempt to build out some of the side characters, no one character gets their time to shine here. Some episodes later in the season do a better job, and while I can say that I find some characters charming (not Billy though), it’s not enough to really sell me. I’d love a show focusing on just about anyone but Billy, if I’m being honest.
On the other hand, I like that Billy is depicted as pretty in touch with his emotions. He cries, he tells his bandmates and manager that he loves them, he feels things. That’s pretty much the most interesting thing about this character, as we’ve definitely seen more stoic iterations of this same archetype before.
I think the cast does a great job with what they have. Nabiyah Be is amazing at Simone, Daisy’s friend who goes on to find some fame in the disco scene, but she pops in and out of the story too much to really get a handle on her. Likewise, I found Warren (Sebastian Chacon), the drummer for The Six, super charming, but there’s not much for him to do other than crack some jokes and rock a mustache.
Riley Keough is electric as Daisy, and she brings an energy to the character that is really compelling. She doesn’t quite hit the anger levels I expected from the book, but I get the sense that show-Daisy holds her rage a bit closer to her chest. Sam Claflin does his best impression of Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born, and it’s enough to keep you watching.
Despite all the criticism I’ve put here, the show works best when it’s focused on Billy and Daisy performing together. Whether it’s recording “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)” by the end of episode three or some of the concerts from later in the show, those are the standout scenes. Overall, there’s a lot that works in Daisy Jones, but it’s not quite there for me. And while the cast has mentioned wanting a season two, I have to wholeheartedly disagree. Don’t Big Little Lies this, y’all.