It’s been a few weeks since the screeners for Daisy Jones & The Six entered my inbox. That first night, I stayed up and watched the series from beginning to end. As I sit and write this, I am on my fourth viewing of the Prime Video series. It’s very rare that I would tell you that a television series or movie is what an adaptation should be.
Because Daisy Jones & The Six is just that. It’s what an adaptation should be.
The series is the adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s book of the same name. If we’re being honest, even though Reese Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine is attached to the series, I was pretty sure that this, like a lot of adaptations have in recent time, would suck.
I was wrong.
Now I know that you’re going to come for me, because how dare I speculate that this series would be bad. It’s because like most of you, I live in a finite world when it comes to adaptations. There are no shades of grey, it’s either black or write.
But Daisy Jones & The Six has taught me that there are shades of grey. Not everything is perfect, but in the imperfections, we get what we should get – a complex story that will grab you and keep a choke hold on you.
We open with Sam Claflin’s character of Billy Dunne, awaiting his time to talk. He’s got the best hair and TBH that’s all that I can say about that. Everyone else seems so relaxed, but Billy, he’s not relaxed. He doesn’t seem like he even knows how to relax. Billy seems like he wants to be vindicated for having everything taken away from him.
It doesn’t matter that it was two decades ago.
We’re diving head on into this documentary on who these band members are, how they came to be, what led Daisy and Billy to be who they are. While I will tell you that Daisy Jones & The Six is what an adaptation should be, I will not say that every moment is perfect.
But what I will say is that what a lot of critics have gotten wrong about the show is saying that it’s a lot of drawn out drama that has no end. The truth, in this writer opinion, is that every moment in this series is a lesson on finding yourself, following your passion, and overcoming what you think holds you back.
Billy and Daisy both do just that.
Daisy is a child of privilege and wealth in Los Angeles. Her life isn’t perfect. She was born with her fathers money and her mothers good looks, but all that’s taught her is that she is good at being alone. While her house was always filled with people, she learned to stay out of the way.
She never got the love that she needed from her parents, but she found passion in music. She was everywhere that she needed to be, sneaking into all the clubs and acting like an adult. The only place that she feels alive is when she’s around music and celebrating music.
Billy’s younger brother, Graham, wanted to start a band, telling his best friends that his older brother would be in it. Billy hadn’t ever made that agreement, but after watching a practice, he became involved and before you knew it, the band was performing. They had a lot of gigs playing the local circuit in town.
But it’s one particular performance that changes everything for the Dunne Brothers band. It’s a wedding where they see the father that had abandoned them. The interaction is somewhat scary and also somewhat WTF. Whereas Billy’s reaction – it may scare a lot of people and make a lot of people retreat or run the other way – for Billy, his pain is his motivator.
The boys take the band more and more serious, but even then are stuck. Billy still has an ego unlike anyone should have. He thinks that everyone should know who he is.
But enter Camila.
I am probably going to get a lot of slack for this, but this episode of Daisy Jones & The Six is Riley Keough and Camila Morrone’s episode. The two are who you are paying attention to. While as we know that eventually there is the love triangle aspect, with this episode you’re focused on these two characters.
Their growth.
They have perseverance.
Their strength.
Make no mistake these two actresses command a screen.
Camila and Billy are dating and things are serious. She’s heartbroken when the boys decide to move to Los Angeles and is torn about the possibility of going. Her life is at home – near her family, her job, and her school. But Billie, he’s got her heart.
Camila is a photographer. She’s a good one. She brings a side out of Billy that I didn’t expect to see. One that is softer and tamer. She keeps him focused, but I have to wonder watching her – has she forgotten who she is? What she stands for?
Camila Morrone can hold a screen against Sam Claflin, which says something about her acting. We look past all of the roles that we have seen him in and somehow he fades into the background. She takes over the screen and you’re wondering who her character is, what you can learn from her, how is she willing to give up everything that she knows. Camila Dunne is in the background, but she’s exuding main character energy.
I think we can all applaud that.
Just as Riley Keough as Daisy Jones does. Daisy has lived a life with everyone telling her that she’s worthless, that she’s never enough, and she’s a pretty face. But she doesn’t want to be someones muse, she wants to be someone.
Daisy’s had everyone taking everything from her – from her innocence to her music, but she’s had enough. She’s had enough waiting and finds her voice, by performing her own music. To me, there is no greater moment than seeing Daisy finding her confidence. Kinda makes you believe you can find your own – no matter what.
Daisy Jones & The Six isn’t a regurgitation of the book, but it holds its own. It’s what adaptations should be – the spirit of the book with a piece of a new story that will give you something new. It will have to anxiously awaiting the next episode, wanting to know what happens, and really clamoring for more of the music.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- I really want to learn more about Karen – I mean she’s gotta be more to the story. Love Suki Waterhouse.
- Billy Dunne is a pompous asshole and I wanna like him but I don’t
- Camila Morrone is a star.
- The kid who left the band for college – is he living with regret or no?
- Rod is an idiot
- Please more Simone Jackson
- Will Harrison may be my new celebrity crush
Daisy Jones & The Six is streaming on Prime Video.
