The new adaptation of Daisy Jones and The Six is a big fat lie. Why? The answer is in the title. While there certainly is a Daisy Jones (Riley Keough)—you can’t make the show without the lead—the second half of the title isn’t true. While the original band in the book that the show is based on has six members, this new series completely erases one of the main characters from the novel.
The group originally was called “The Dunne Brothers,” before non-Dunne-related members of the band wanted to rename the act. Sure, Billy (Sam Claflin) and Graham Dunne (Will Harrison) are the two leading members. But what about smooth keyboardist Karen (Suki Waterhouse), drummer Warren (Sebastian Chacon), and jealous bassist Eddie (Josh Whitehouse), none of whom are part of the Dunne family?
The name “The Five” doesn’t sound so great. In the show, the rockers make the point that there are already enough bands using the word five in their names: The Dave Clark Five, The Jackson 5, Maroon 5… (Okay, maybe not that last one.) So, they include Billy’s girlfriend and photographer Camila (Camila Morrone) as an honorary band member and settle on another name instead: The Six.
This makes far more sense in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s original novel, which actually involves a six-person band before Daisy Jones joins. There’s Billy, Graham, Karen, Warren, Eddie, and Pete, Eddie’s brother who actually starts the band with the Dunne brothers and later invites Eddie into the group.
While they’re still called The Dunne Brothers at the start, the same argument occurs in the novel—anyone who isn’t Billy or Graham wants a name change. They settle on “The Six,” partially because it sounds like “The Sex,” and that’s the whole appeal of this rock ‘n’ roll group. They’re sexually appealing and they’re all (allegedly) sleeping with each other, so “The Sex/Six” fits well.
In the show, though, Pete’s character is completely erased. There’s also another band member in the book that this adaptation neglects to include—Chuck Williams, who dies serving in the Vietnam War and is then replaced by Eddie, since Pete’s already in the band at the start of the novel.
There's a reason behind this removal. Because the showrunners wanted to examine the side characters in more depth, they decided one of the band members was unnecessary—and that member happened to be Pete.
“We did a little consolidation,” showrunner Will Graham told TVLine. “For anyone who loved Pete, we’re sorry, but we got to spend so much more time with Teddy, and so much more time with Eddie, and so much more time with Simone, and really realize full arcs for those characters. So that was kind of the root of that decision.”
Is Pete missed in this TV adaptation? No, not really. Even OG book author Reid agreed with Graham, saying, “We don’t need Pete.” And we don’t! Still, calling a band of five members “The Six” is pretty goofy.
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