HBO’s The Last of Us and Prime Video’s mini-series Daisy Jones & The Six gained significant hype and attention upon release. Daisy Jones & The Six is an adaptation of a faux-interview novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The limited series features Sam Claflin, Riley Keough, and Suki Waterhouse, among other famous faces, and revolves around the rise and fall of a fictional Fleetwood Mac-inspired band and the messiness of their tangled love lives.
Daisy Jones & The Six was an immediate favorite among fans. The chemistry between Daisy Jones (Keough) and Billy Dunne (Claflin) takes center stage in this 70s musical drama, helping make the series one of the best releases of the year. But what does the show have in common with the popular post-apocalyptic HBO series The Last of Us apart from its dramatic aspects?
Daisy Jones & The Six and The Last of Us Were Praised for Sticking Closely to Their Source Materials
First of all, both shows were critically acclaimed for sticking closely to their source materials. In the case of Daisy Jones & The Six, the producers worked with author Taylor Jenkins Reid to bring Daisy Jones’ story to life. In an interview with Collider, the show’s executive producers Scott Neustadter and Brad Mendelsohn shared how Reid’s insight into the human psyche also helped them to turn the book into a successful series, over just one weekend of collective brainstorming.
Reid also shared that she was often present on set, and expressed how much she trusted Scott Neustadter in translating her book into a digestible TV show. “He’s incredibly talented at understanding how to take an adaptation and remain faithful to the source material while adding and expanding a story and telling it again for the audience, a second time. Since choosing him, I have not been worried and I knew that it was gonna be great”.
Similarly, HBO’s The Last of US, created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann can pride itself in being an astonishingly accurate portrayal of the video game. The show follows a smuggler – Joel (Pedro Pascal), who ventures out in the post-apocalyptic wasteland caused by a fungal pandemic with a teenage girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who could potentially cure the world. The show’s script, unfolding in nine episodes, is celebrated for closely following its source material, delivering almost identical results. Most pivotal scenes are respectfully translated into TV, while the story in the show might even offer more insight into the perspectives of its characters.
Both Shows Expanded on Their Original Lores Without Missing the Heart of Their Stories
Both adaptations have, however, taken the freedom to expand their stories for the sake of good TV. Daisy Jones clearly employs other songs and lyrics than the author had originally written, this is due to the fact that Reid isn’t a musician. But for a series about a famous band, fitting melodies, and rhyme schemes were necessary, which were then written by established songwriters.
Moreover, small personality details were added; for instance Daisy’s best friend Simone (Nabiyah Be) is a queer woman in the show, which further signified how impactful music was and still is for the LGBTQ+ movement. Furthermore, Billy’s wife Camila (Camila Morrone) is a passionate photographer, whilst her occupation was never mentioned in the book. Bandmate Eddie (Josh Whitehouse) gets more reasons to hate the frontman than in the book, where it is not quite elucidated why he hated Billy much. Evidently, these small additions give the characters more depth, expand the story, and give reasonable explanations for their actions.
Like Daisy Jones & The Six, The Last of Us also impresses with their additions to characters. For instance, the show provided more depth to Frank and Bill’s story, delivering one of the most heartfelt TV episodes in recent memory. The series also gave brothers, Henry and Sam, more extensive storylines, that further elucidate their reasoning behind wanting to join Joel and Ellie in their mission. Overall, the show treats its characters less cynically than the game. The series allows for the observation of not only two characters (that players would embody in the game) but a rich world of personalities and observations, detached from a one-dimensional point of view. This makes the series far more emotional and diverse than the video game. One can definitely say both shows – Daisy Jones & The Six and The Last of Us – managed to expand the insight viewers get in comparison to the previous materials both shows were adapted from.
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