The first six episodes of Daisy Jones & the Six showed a lot of promise, ending on an episode that included a huge diversion from the 2019 novel of the same name when Sam Clafin’s Billy Dunne kissed Riley Keough’s Daisy Jones. The stage was set for an interesting adaptation that pushed boundaries of the original novel and the final 4 episodes proved to be a mixed bag.
Daisy and Billy’s legendary “almost” is still in tact, but the bounds of that “almost” are certainly pushed and expanded to new heights when their unspoken emotional affair from the book becomes more of an explicit affair. Anyone who’s read the book knows that Billy and Daisy were in love and musically attached, reflecting the innermost parts of themselves to degrees that frightened them at times but neither made the choice to officially act on their romantic feelings.
The music did the talking for them, and everyone around them knew there was more to Daisy and Billy than they were even ready to admit to themselves.When Billy kisses Daisy in episode six, that silent emotional affair is no longer silent and the stakes are risen to great degrees.
As a comic book fan, I’m certainly no stranger to my favorite reads being adapted on screen, but while watching Daisy Jones & the Six, I realized the comic book movie formula had altered my perception on adaptations as a whole. In comics, when the adaptations deviate greatly from the source material, it’s often not a choice that comes from a place of love — Marvel Studios literally admitted to avoiding writers who love the comics — and when those changes don’t work for comic fans who have loved the property for years, we’re further disappointed when the comic books themselves adapt the movie’s narrative into their own.
In essence, the movie adaptation ends up changing the source material itself. But Daisy Jones & the Six and other novels don’t have that problem — whatever changes the adaptation makes will never retroactively change the novel. Everything I love about the 2019 book will always stand on its own and the novel will always exist as is.
The other thing about Daisy Jones & the Six‘s show is that you can tell there is a lot of love for the book and a lot of attention to detail not just in the casting choices and certain narrative choices, but with the music itself. In the final episodes of Daisy Jones & the Six, you can certainly tell the cracks with the 10 episode formula are starting to show, but the end product is still thoroughly enjoyable in many aspects, especially taking performances and musical arrangement.
When the Taylor Jenkins Reid books to screen adaptations were announced, I had been puzzled by the choices made to adapt Daisy Jones as a show and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as a movie when the two books lend themselves better in the reverse. Daisy Jones makes a compelling case for its multi-episode structure, but in the final episodes, you can tell they were writing just to fill the time at certain points, particularly the episodes with Daisy and Niccolo’s relationship.
Photo: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video
There’s no doubt that Daisy Jones would have succeeded as a movie, but the team tries to make the best with the formula. When the show is using that extra time to flesh out Simone and Bernie’s relationship and give those characters a plot they didn’t have in the book in the first place (and Bernie didn’t even exist in the book), the show really works. The same sentiment applies to Eddie, whose reasons for disliking Billy are actually explained and much deeper in the show — when he gets the benefit of the extra time, his character really gets a chance to feel more realized.
The weaker points are Daisy and Niccolo’s relationship, which gets drawn out to fill time but it’s one of those moments where you can tell they are just trying to fill the time. The rift he causes between Simone and Daisy felt unnecessary as well and even though they patch things up by the end of it, I had to wonder why that plot needed to happen in the first place. Daisy and Billy are more of an intense, explicit affair in the show, with all parties knowing exactly what the vibe is between them even if they don’t admit it to themselves.
The stakes are certainly higher when Billy’s marriage has fallen apart by their final show and Daisy tells him to go to her while performing “Honeycomb” (a song he wrote for Camila but became his and Daisy’s when she rewrote it). Riley Keough and Sam Clafin have chemistry that sizzles and while the book makes sure neither of these characters ever reach this point because they cut things off before either one is fleeing a sinking ship, I could see this happening for those characters if they hadn’t. In a world where the “almost” becomes less vague I can see them reaching this point and hitting that inevitable wall too late.
What saves it is knowing it’s Daisy who makes the biggest moves to save Billy’s marriage. In the book there’s a line where Daisy stresses she could never hurt Billy’s family or want to and by having her make the decision to encourage him to go to Camila mid “Honeycomb”, the show made the only choice Daisy Jones from the book I love would have. Yes, Daisy can be selfish and careless at times, but she is a good person at her heart and she wouldn’t make the wrong choice when it counts.
The show gets a lot soapier than the book ever does, but I grew up on soaps so a little camp doesn’t scare me. And this one was giving off major All My Children Tad and Dixie in their 90s storyline vibes. When the show is complete camp, I still have fun. But where it lacks the most consistently is unfortunately, Billy Dunne. Billy doesn’t feel as strong a character as he is in the book and a lot of his best moments are taken from him, most notably that it’s Teddy Price who drives him to rehab instead of checking himself in.
When his marriage is falling apart, he doesn’t make enough moves to save it. It’s Daisy who tells Camila she should stay with Billy and it’s Daisy who tells Billy to leave the show and get his wife back. It’s even Daisy who makes the most important move by telling the guy she wants to be with that they can’t and shouldn’t when he offers. In the show, Billy and Camila’s relationship was allowed to last and survive not because of Billy’s commitment to her, but because of Daisy choosing selflessness.
Photo: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video
Camila also gets the short end of the stick. Like Daisy and Billy, her casting is absolutely perfect and she captures the tenderheartedness and backbone that Camila has quite well. The writers just don’t give Camila her best material like the aforementioned rehab scene, which happens in the book because Camila gives Billy an ultimatum: be a parent now or go to rehab.
And Billy knows immediately what he has to do to do right by her and his family and goes to rehab. Camila and Eddie are an unexpected couple, but they are cute. And watching this show, one has to wonder why she didn’t just leave Billy for Eddie who probably could have made her happier anyway.
Camila’s death seems to happen in the book much later, like the main cast are in their 70s and recounting their lives for an interview. In the show, it seems like Camila’s death got sped up because the cast is much younger (the reason given was not wanting to pile on prosthetics to the cast), appearing more so to be in their 40s. The truth is, this deaging might have been done to leave the door open for a season two, but it still feels unfortunate to kill Camila this early.
The music is truly the best part of the show. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a phenomenal writer but a songstress she is not, and when the brilliant musical minds of the show got together and took over this album, magic happened. The old songs are rewritten and the new stuff perfectly fits the vibe that Reid was going for.
What’s more, the lyrics have this feeling of actually being from Billy to Daisy and perfectly explaining their relationship even if the song was technically made and written before Billy knew Daisy. This kind of linking really feels like it’s hammering home how musically, the two are soulmates because they really do get each other like they’re the missing piece of the other’s puzzle.
All in all, Daisy Jones & the Six is a fun ride and in many ways, it does feel like the book I love so much was brought to screen. But at the same time, the show begins to meander a little in its final episodes to fill space and in those moments, the cracks in the Daisy Jones formula are at their worst.
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