In March 2019, readers across the country were captivated by the gaze of an enigmatic redhead named Daisy Jones and on March 3rd, her legend will come to life. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & The Six tells the story of a band’s rise to fame in the seventies led by the egotistical yet gregarious Billy Dunne and the titular Daisy Jones, a talented songwriter who is equal parts dreamer and destroyer. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the story was optioned the same year as publication, and just shy of four years from its release, it was made a reality courtesy of production companies Hello Sunshine, Circle of Confusion, and Amazon Studios.
Daisy Jones & The Six is a seventies dream from costumes to the iconic Los Angeles locations it uses to set the scene of a proficient but emotionally entangled band not dissimilar from Fleetwood Mac. The soundtrack in its entirety sets the tone for the emotionally driven series whether listening to classics or the band’s original songs. The source material follows the passionate and infuriating process of creating the band’s album, Aurora in detail and the production goes above and beyond and brings the music of the novel to its audience which comes as an unexpected but thrilling treat to fans of Reid’s original story.
Riley Keough brings Daisy from page to screen effortlessly and is both visually and vocally stunning, creating a portrait of a woman unwilling to accept that she can be anything other than remarkable. Sam Claflin takes the complicated alcoholic frontman Billy Dunne and makes him a confused artist stubbornly grappling to become everything his father is not and trying to balance his passion for the band and his love for his family. The cast takes their characters to the next level, adding nuance and background all their own and making them relatable in all their drunken and self-absorbed glory.
The story feels complete though it goes off-book at times in its ten-episode run, but readers of the novel won’t be disappointed. Daisy Jones & The Six is a faithful retelling of the story, adding background and representation to create more understanding of the impulses of the volatile yet lovable characters we came to know four years ago. Watching this series felt both comfortable and unsettling as what I thought I knew about the story altered with each episode, character flaws became strengths and I found myself relating to the audiences in their packed stadium shows and not wanting the ride to end.
Based on the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six is a limited musical-drama series detailing the rise and fall of a renowned rock band based loosely on musical acts such as Fleetwood Mac. In 1977, the band Daisy Jones & The Six were on top of the world, lead by two talented and problematic lead singers-Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin)-the Pittsburgh-based band made a name for themselves (both good and bad) in Los Angeles prior to their iconic nationwide tour which leaves them thrilled, inspired and also broken. After a sold-out show at Chicago’s Soldier Field, they disbanded and haven’t spoken about it since. Now, the band members finally agree to the interviews they have avoided for decades. Daisy Jones & The Six is a musically driven story detailing the price of fame and love.
Releasing March 3rd on Amazon Prime Video, the series stars Riley Keough as Daisy Jones, Sam Claflin as Billy Dunne, Camila Morrone as Camila Dunne, Will Harrison as Graham Dunne, Suki Waterhouse as Karen Sirko, Josh Whitehouse as Eddie Roundtree, Sebastian Chacon as Warren Rojas, Nabiyah Be as Simone Jackson, and Tom Wright as Teddy Price, with a special guest appearance by Timothy Olyphant as Rod Reyes.