Daisy Jones & The Six
★★★
Amazon Prime
Based on the bestselling 2019 novel of the same name by chick-lit author Taylor Jenkins Reid, this adaptation from Reese Witherspoon’s production company follows a fictitious 1970s rock band’s journey from struggling artists to biggest band in the world and their implosion while at the top. But it’s also a love story between two charismatic but damaged people: joint lead singers of said band.
Riley Keough (second from right) as Daisy Jones and Sam Clafin (far right) as Billy in Daisy Jones & The Six.
Riley Keough (The Terminal List) – the granddaughter of Elvis Presley – is Daisy Jones, from a wealthy family but ignored by her parents. Daisy spends her teen years sneaking out to gigs on Sunset Strip, taking the requisite 1960s drugs, sleeping with rock stars and writing song lyrics in a notebook.
When she eventually breaks into the industry, she’s paired with The Six, a band who had been on the cusp of making it big when lead singer Billy Dunne (British actor Sam Clafin), brought things to a halt with his drug addiction. Billy, who formed the band with his brother, guitarist Graham (Will Harrison) in high school, still clings to his dream of fame, and so reluctantly accepts when band manager Teddy (Tom Wright channelling Berry Gordy) insists on Daisy joining the band if they’re to record a new album.
When the pair sings together, it’s obvious to everyone (Suki Waterhouse as keyboard player Karen, Josh Whitehouse as bassist Eddie and Sebastian Chacon as drummer Warren), it’s a wise move. But Daisy – wild, unreliable and constantly popping pills – and Billy – now a responsible teetotaller – clash from the outset, despite their artistic chemistry. Which, of course, spills over into the personal. Tricky, as Billy has a wife (Camila Morrone) and a young baby at home. This chemistry, though, catapults the band to worldwide fame after they release their album Aurora, the making of which is at the core of the series (although it takes too many episodes to reach this point).
As in the novel, the story is framed through a “where are they now” documentary being filmed 20 years after the band’s demise, with each of the members (and a barely recognisable Timothy Olyphant as their tour manager), weighing in on why The Six dissolved at the height of their fame.
More bell sleeves than Stevie Nicks: Riley Keough in Daisy Jones & the Six.
Jenkins Reid loosely based Billy and Daisy on Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks (Aurora is their Rumors), and their sound is distinctly 70s Mac. Grammy-winning producer and songwriter Blake Mills worked with songwriters Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford, Madison Cunningham and Jackson Browne for the series’ 24 songs, and impressively, all the actors learnt to play their instruments and the songs are actually remarkable. The album is even getting a “real” release under the name of the fictional band, which should confuse Google’s algorithm – already “is Daisy Jones and The Six a real band” is apparently a popular search.
There are some soapie subplots – a love story between Karen and Graham, rivalry between Billy and Eddie, an incongruous storyline about Daisy’s friend, disco pioneer Simone (Nabiyah Be) – but Billy and Daisy are the centre.
The period vibe is meticulously rendered in the production and wardrobe design (Daisy has more bell-sleeved ensembles than Nicks ever did), and Keough in particular is a standout – but it’s not always enough to distract from the occasionally clichéd dialogue and predictable fame-and-its-fallout story arc, particularly for something that stretches over 10 episodes.
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