Amazon Prime’s “Daisy Jones & the Six” lazily acquiesces to an established archetype of feminine desirability: the free spirit.
, a creative genius and nonconformist idol—although comparing the two women ends poorly for Daisy, who lacks the complexity of her progenitor. According to Jenkins Reid, the dynamic between Daisy and Billy, which ricochets between hostile and sexually charged, was directly inspired by the romantic relationship between Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Nicks’s songwriting partner and the guitarist for Fleetwood Mac.
This recurring fantasy of womanhood engendered perhaps the most maligned iteration of the free spirit onscreen: the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. The term, first coined by the culture writer Nathan Rabin in a 2007 review of “Elizabethtown” , refers to women who exist primarily to bring the male lead to greater understanding about himself, so that, at the end of the story, he can go on to achieve his dreams, likely leaving her behind.
It’s notable that Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who adapted “Daisy Jones” for television, wrote the screenplay for “ Days of Summer.” Daisy is not a perfect Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but she has some of the trademark characteristics. A sexually liberated woman, she exists as a foil to male responsibility: she’ll teach Billy the value of an unfettered approach while also instructing him in the risks of his own desires. He is drawn to her because she helps him understand himself.
Ultimately, Daisy is not the focus of “Daisy Jones & the Six.” Her shallow, jejune motivations are significant only so far as they indicate her powerlessness. But Amazon clearly sold the series via Daisy’s character, who is front and center in the show’s promotional material. Amazon also released an album alongside the show, and Keough has repeatedly dropped hints at a possible “Daisy Jones & the Six” tour.
And so, Daisy is, depressingly, the muse. She’s Billy’s muse, and Amazon’s. And she’s the muse for those viewers who will watch her swan about and feel an erotic charge based on her unpredictability. All of this might be easier to swallow if her character had any agency, but, through the show’s ten episodes, she remains the equivalent of a cardboard cutout shuffled from scene to scene.
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