Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Series / DaisyJonesAndTheSix

Go To

1[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dj6.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:349:''"Oh, baby, look at us now..."'']]
3
4->''"The chosen ones never know they are chosen."''
5-->-- '''Rod Reyes'''
6
7''Daisy Jones & The Six'' is an American television show streamed on Creator/AmazonPrime, adapted from [[Literature/DaisyJonesAndTheSix the book of the same name]] by Creator/TaylorJenkinsReid. The first three of its ten episodes premiered on March 3, 2023.
8
9The show chronicles the short-lived career of the fictional [[TheSeventies 1970s]] rock band, Daisy Jones & the Six: from their origins as a Pittsburgh-based garage band named The Dunne Brothers to one of the most popular bands in the United States, until their final sold-out concert that ended the group. It is framed as a tell-all documentary filmed 20 years after the climactic concert.
10
11The band members are:
12* Margaret "Daisy" Jones (Creator/RileyKeough), a singer-songwriter from a rich Los Angeles family who eventually becomes the band's frontwoman;
13* Billy Dunne (Creator/SamClaflin), the Dunne Brothers' charismatic frontman who eventually leads the band alongside Daisy;
14* Graham Dunne (Creator/WillHarrison), Billy's younger brother and the band's lead guitarist;
15* Eddie Roundtree (Creator/JoshWhitehouse), the band's increasingly resentful bassist;
16* Warren Rojas (Creator/SebastianChacon), the upbeat drummer;
17* Karen Sirko (Creator/SukiWaterhouse), a pragmatic Londoner who becomes the band's keyboardist and guitarist.
18
19Other main cast members include Creator/CamilaMorrone as Camila Alvarez, Billy's wife; Creator/NabiyahBe as disco singer Simone Jackson; Creator/TimothyOlyphant as tour manager Rod Reyes; and Creator/TomWright as music producer Teddy Price.
20
21An album of songs supposedly performed by the band, ''Aurora'', was released on the day the show premiered. It was produced by Music/BlakeMills.
22----
23!!Tropes:
24
25* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: In contrast to the later period of the [[Literature/DaisyJonesAndTheSix the book]], the present section isn't set in the "present", but in the late 1990s as a SequelHook.
26* TheSeventies: The bulk of the story is set in 1970s Los Angeles, where rock-and-roll and bohemian outfits abound.
27* AbortionFalloutDrama: In the ninth episode, [[spoiler:Karen, adamant that she doesn't want children, quietly aborts her baby by Graham.]] The fallout occurs in the finale, [[spoiler:when she tells Graham, who's upset that she didn't tell him, and the two are forced to confront their incompatible desires for family.]]
28* ActorAllusion: At one point Daisy wears a guitar strap that looks like the one worn by Music/ElvisPresley during his '68 Comeback Special. Daisy's actress, Creator/RileyKeough, is Elvis' granddaughter.
29* AdaptationalNationality: The book's Nicky was Italian; here he's Irish.
30* AdaptationNameChange: Some surnames change from page to screen:
31** Eddie Loving becomes Eddie Roundtree.
32** Camila Martinez becomes Camila Alvarez.
33** In keeping with the character's Latino ethnicity in the show, Warren Rhodes becomes Warren Rojas.
34* AdaptationalSexuality: Simone's exact sexuality in the book is unknown, and she eventually marries and has a daughter. In the show she has an explicit lesbian romance with a woman named Bernie.
35* AdaptationalTimespanChange: The framing device of [[Literature/DaisyJonesAndTheSix the book]] takes place in the present day (so, around the late 2010s, judging by the book's publication date of 2019), whereas the documentary takes place in the late 1990s, facilitating a possible Season 2 that [[OrphanedSeries has not yet happened.]]
36* AlwaysLate: Daisy is so notoriously tardy, The Six's manager Rod routinely tells her sound checks are an hour earlier than they are. The band refers to this as "Daisy Standard Time."
37* ArtistAndTheBand: The show is called 'Daisy Jones and the Six.'
38* BaitAndSwitch: In the episode "She's Gone", Simone gets a telegram from Daisy that reads, "I Need You", and assuming Daisy is AFriendInNeed, jumps on a plane to find her and help. Turns out [[spoiler:Daisy is getting married, and wants Simone to be her maid of honor]].
39* BandOfRelatives: Only two of the Dunne Brothers' members are actually the Dunne brothers (the rest are friends), but they roll with the name.
40* BettyAndVeronica: Billy is torn between his loving and loyal wife Camila and his volatile and vivacious co-frontman Daisy.
41* BigDamnHug: Though the hug itself doesn't occur in overly dramatic circumstances, Daisy and Billy's OverlyLongHug at the first Daisy Jones and the Six recording session is extremely significant because it's the first time that EveryoneCanSeeIt that Daisy and Billy have feelings for one another, which becomes the driving focus of the rest of the show ([[spoiler:ultimately leading to their breakup as a band]]).
42* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Even when Daisy spirals into addiction, her looks are never impacted except for looking sweaty at the peak of her addiction.
43* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: The three main women of the band. Karen is blonde. Daisy has reddish-brown hair (the red is more prominent when she returns from Greece). Honorary member and Billy's wife, Camila, is brunette (in Daisy-centric episodes, her good friend Simone fills in as the brunette).
44* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: [[spoiler:In the final episode, Graham insists he can give up his dream of having a family and just focus on music if it means he and Karen can stay together, because he loves her. She doesn't say she loves him back, and dumps him. Later on in life, Graham is HappilyMarried to another woman and has a couple kids, and is very grateful Karen was "brutally honest" with him, as it meant he didn't sacrifice what he really wanted to pine after someone who didn't feel the same way about him. In her own interview, Karen confessed she ''wasn't'' honest; she loved Graham, but she realized their life goals were incompatible, and she had to make a hard break so he could move on with his life.]]
45* CompositeCharacter: The novel's Chuck Williams (the group's original rhythm guitarist who dies in Vietnam) and Pete Loving (the bassist who stays out of the documentary) are combined here into Chuck Loving, who quits the band early to go to college.
46* CareerVsMan: A lesbian variation. Simone, an aspiring singer, is on the cusp of getting signed by a label...except they want to hide the fact that she's a lesbian.
47* CastingGag: Star musician Daisy Jones is played by Creator/RileyKeough, who is Music/ElvisPresley's granddaughter.
48* CheatedDeathDiedAnyway: A series addition. In [[Literature/DaisyJonesAndTheSix the book]], [[spoiler:Teddy dies of a heart attack during the Aurora tour.]] In the series, [[spoiler:he survives that heart attack and lives until 1983, where he has another heart attack.]]
49* ConsistentClothingStyle: Daisy is shown to prefer long dresses in cape style, or to wear capes with other clothing ensembles.
50* ADayInTheLimelight: Although it ends up being mostly about Daisy, "She's Gone" is told largely from Simone's point of view, including her life in New York and relationship with Bernie.
51* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: [[spoiler:In the book, Teddy died during the Aurora tour leaving Billy unsure if the band could go on without him. In the series Teddy dies in the 1980s, well after the band had already broken up.]]
52* EarnYourHappyEnding: After the band breaks up, the characters spend many years trying to deal with their issues and get their lives in order. They mostly succeed and are satisfied with their lives.
53** [[spoiler: Billy goes to rehab and this time he stays clean. He reconciles with Camila and they have a happy marriage till she dies of cancer]]
54** [[spoiler: Daisy's continued her music career but her romantic life was a mess for decades. She gave birth to a daughter, finally settled down and became a good mother.]]
55** [[spoiler: Karen started her own band and still has a successful music career.]]
56** [[spoiler: Teddy continued producing music and discovering new talent. He died in 1984, doing what he loved, recording a new album.]]
57** [[spoiler: Warren is HappilyMarried to Lisa and still works as a session drummer.]]
58** [[spoiler: Graham left the industry and settled down back home, getting married and starting a family, and is quite happy with the way things turned out, preferring a simpler life.]]
59** [[spoiler: Eddie is the sole exception; he still works as a musician and has more creative freedom, but is no longer friends with anyone in the group, didn't attend Camila's funeral, and hasn't found much independent professional success. He simply says his life is "fine."]]
60* EndsWithASmile: The series ends with [[spoiler:Daisy and Billy smiling at each other at Daisy's door after Billy honors Camila's dying wish by getting back in touch with Daisy.]]
61* ForegoneConclusion: Both the first and last episodes open with the knowledge that the sold-out Chicago performance was the band's final performance. The ninth episode ends with various interpersonal conflicts within the band threatening to boil over as they head to Chicago, upping the tension for the eventual breakup.
62* GayBestFriend: Simone is either bisexual or a lesbian [[AdaptationalSexuality in the adaptation]], and she is Daisy's best friend, as illustrated when [[spoiler:Daisy calls for her help from Greece.]]
63* GirlsLikeMusicians: In the first episode, Graham sighs about a crush. Billy comforts him by telling him that he's a guy who can play guitar, so he'll have no shortage of future girlfriends.
64* TheHeart: Camila. Everyone cares about her, and everyone in the group has an emotional connection with her and generally wants to do right by her. Even Daisy, who begins to fall for Camila's husband Billy, likes and respects Camila herself, and doesn't want to hurt her. In the show, the reason the band is called "The Six" even before Daisy shows up is because Karen considers Camila to be an essential part of the group, despite her not being a musician.
65* HeadbuttOfLove: In the ninth episode, Daisy [[spoiler:professes her feelings for Billy. He admits that he loves her too, but he can't leave his wife Camila]]. He presses their foreheads together and tells her that [[spoiler:they can continue to have an amazing work relationship.]] Unfortunately, [[spoiler:Camila sees them doing this and is convinced Billy is in love with Daisy.]]
66* HollywoodOld: The band are all played by the same actors in the wraparound section, which is set around 20-30 years after the flashback section, and the old-age makeovers are not very clear. For example, older Daisy has straightened hair rather than her waves and heavier makeup, while Camila looks no different.
67* HollywoodThin: In [[Literature/DaisyJonesAndTheSix the book]], Daisy has an eating disorder that manifests in her only eating one meal a day in order to maintain her thin frame. In the series, no mention of her having an eating disorder is made. The one scene that shows it (where Daisy goes to a hamburger place on a date and doesn't eat) is changed in the series, so that she actually eats two hamburgers. She stays extremely thin.
68* HowWeGotHere: The tenth episode opens with the band's final concert performance. Things are obviously tense among the group, with a lot of long looks and disheveled expressions (Eddie's even sporting a black eye). The episode intersperses the concert with scenes from earlier in the day, showing how things got that bad between the members.
69* LegFocus: Daisy wears a lot of outfits that emphasize her legs. Warren and Eddie comment about Daisy's great legs until Daisy tells them to stick it.
70* LonelyRichKid: Daisy is described as having her father's money and her mother's beauty, and yet being completely alone. Her family is unsupportive of her musical ambitions, and even she starts to doubt herself until she meets Simone.
71* MandatoryMotherhood: Defied in one way, and downplayed in another. [[spoiler:Graham ''wants'' Karen to have their child when she gets pregnant, but she has an abortion because she is adamant that she doesn't want to have children.]] However, [[spoiler:Daisy tells Camila that she never wants to have children, but ends up having a daughter after the Six break up. This is possibly justified as Camila senses that Daisy only doesn't want to have kids because she's afraid of continuing her parents' abuse, not because she herself doesn't want them.]]
72* MasculineFeminineGayCouple: Simone has a more feminine style, and starts seeing ButchLesbian Bernie.
73* AMinorKidroduction: Invoked. Daisy is unsure where to start their tell-all documentary, so the interviewer suggests telling where her love of music began. Cue flashback to her rocking out in her room as a child.
74* TheMuse: Defied. Daisy hates that her boyfriends keep using her as inspiration. She doesn't want to be the muse, but to be recognized as an artist and person in her own right.
75* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
76** Although there are several differences, the titular group has obvious parallels to Music/FleetwoodMac. Both are 70's folk/rock groups with both British and American members, both featured a female singer/songwriter and keyboardist, and both were known for internal romantic entanglements and tensions. WordOfGod has confirmed that Fleetwood Mac was indeed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfy6hqKHg6U part of the original inspiration for the novel.]] [[invoked]]
77** Daisy in particular dresses and acts a lot like Music/StevieNicks, including wearing dresses similar to the famous black "Rhiannon" outfit. It even extends to their music -- "Honeycomb" contains a [[https://youtu.be/1X9sT4RToEU?t=109 guitar solo/riff]] evocative of [[https://youtu.be/kBYHwH1Vb-c?t=228 one]] from Fleetwood Mac's [[Music/{{Rumours}} "The Chain"]]. Karen is heavily inspired by [[Music/FleetwoodMac Christine McVie.]]
78* NonIndicativeName: In the book, the Six are actually comprised of six people: Billy, Graham, Eddie, Warren, Karen, and Pete. The show excises Pete and makes it a RunningGag that there are only five of them. It is explained in the show that the sixth spot is filled by Billy's wife Camila.
79* OnlySaneMan: Warren is the only member of the band who's not entangled in romantic drama and/or ego clashes.
80* PragmaticAdaptation: In [[Literature/DaisyJonesAndTheSix the book]], the framing device is a transcript of an exposé on the band. In the series, this is changed to a documentary.
81* PromotedToLoveInterest: The adaptation adds romantic feelings between [[spoiler:Eddie and Camila]] that aren't implied in the book.
82* RaceLift: Ethnicity lift: Warren Rhodes becomes the Latino Warren Rojas on the show.
83* RaisedLighterTribute: At the band's Chicago encore the audience raises lighters as "Look At Us Now" comes on. It helps show how adored and popular they are.
84* RapeDiscretionShot: Daisy is raped offscreen in the first episode after going in to a room with a musician.
85* TheResenter: Eddie becomes increasingly resentful of Billy for how Billy keeps sidelining him. Another factor is that Billy married Camila, the girl Eddie liked, and mistreated her.
86* TheReveal: The final episode reveals that [[spoiler: the documentary is made by Billy and Camila's daughter]].
87* SecretRelationship: Graham and Karen hide their relationship. Although they got together after both joining The Six, Karen does not want their relationship to be public as she fears that people will think she is only in the band as she is his girlfriend. [[spoiler:This becomes subverted in the episode "Looks Like We Made It", when Karen, tired of hearing the other band members run Graham down, reveals their relationship to them, and the two make out in front of everybody]].
88* SingingInTheShower: Daisy sings in the shower in her first episode. It's how her then-boyfriend realizes she's an aspiring musician.
89* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the novel, the Six's original bassist Chuck is forced to quit the band due to being drafted and is killed in [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]]. In the show, he willingly quits to go to college, claiming he doesn't see a future for the group.
90* SpoilerTitle: In that it takes five episodes (halfway through the show) for Daisy to officially join the Six.
91* SuddenSoundtrackStop: A scene in the first episode sees a teenage Daisy lured up to the hotel room of a musician at an afterparty. A rock song is playing in the background that abruptly stops when she realizes there's nobody else in the room and the lock clicks behind her.
92* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: When the Six try to find a replacement frontman, the audience gets a montage of middle-aged men who butcher their song.
93* TimeshiftedActor: Different actors play the band members in flashbacks to their teens.
94* TitledAfterTheSong: All of the episode titles are named after period songs:
95** The pilot episode is named after the Badfinger song "Come and Get It".
96** Episode Two: "[[Music/TheStapleSingers I'll Take You There]]".
97** Episode Three: "[[Music/EltonJohn Someone Saved My Life Tonight]]".
98** Episode Four: "[[Music/ToddRundgren I Saw the Light]]".
99** Episode Five: "[[Music/ThePointerSisters Fire]]".
100** Episode Six: "[[Music/JohnLennon Whatever Gets You Through the Night]]".
101** Episode Seven: "[[Music/HallAndOates She's Gone]]".
102** Episode Eight: "[[Music/BarryManilow Looks Like We Made It]]".
103** Episode Nine: "[[Music/{{Foreigner}} Feels Like The First Time]]".
104** Episode Ten: "[[Music/DavidBowie Rock 'n' Roll Suicide]]".
105* TomboyishName: The ButchLesbian who flirts with Simone at a party is named Bernie, short for Bernice.
106* WholeCostumeReference:
107** In addition to the references to Music/StevieNicks, Daisy's on-screen outfits, especially when she's younger, are also inspired by Music/LindaRonstadt.
108** Alongside her resemblance to [[Music/FleetwoodMac Christine McVie]], Karen's looks in the past are inspired by Music/SuziQuatro and [[Music/{{Pretenders}} Chrissie Hynde.]] Her present look in the documentary (specifically her hair and makeup) homage [[Music/BlondieBand Debbie Harry.]]
109** Before Billy becomes famous, Camila's look is very inspired by Creator/AliMacgraw's NiceGirl costumes in ''Film/LoveStory''. Afterwards, her looks become more influenced by the much more glamorous Bianca Jagger (Music/MickJagger's former wife).

Top