TV Show Review - Daisy Jones & the Six

Season: Mini Series
Genre: Drama/ Music/ Romance
Number of episodes: 10
Year: 2023
Starring: Riley Keogh, Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone, Suki Waterhouse, Will Harrison, Josh Whitehouse, Sebastian Chacon, Nabiyah Be, Tom Wright, Timothy Olyphant

Description: Following the rise of rock band Daisy Jones and the Six through the 1970s Los Angeles music on their quest for worldwide icon status.

Review: Based on the book of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid, “Daisy Jones & the Six” focuses on the rise and fall of a rock band in 1970s Los Angeles. The book is an absolute favorite of mine and I was so happy to see it come to life. The book is still better, but I highly enjoyed the TV series.  

The book is in interview form, the series is set up as a retrospective documentary. While being interviewed, the band looks back at how they started. The setting is amazing, the sound, the wardrobe, the hair, the vibes, it’s aals present. The band is somewhat modeled after Fleetwood Mac, around the time they made their album “Rumours”. The serie’s “Rumours” is called “Aurora”.

Riley Keough and Sam Claflin play the two lead singers of the band, Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne. They both portray their respective roles wonderfully. Claflin is charismatic, the cool rock star with a sensitive edge. But Daisy Jones is really the magnetic centerpiece here. Keigh, who is Elvis Presley’s eldest granddaughter and daughter of Lisa Marie Presley. She is a joy the watch. Daisy Jones is confident, independent, strong, but also fragile and a little broken. And both of them have a great voice.
As many book to movie/ TV series adaptations, there are a lot of differences. I really liked how Camila, Billy’s wife, got a more prominent role and she was actually one of my favorite characters. In the book she wasn’t. I also enjoyed Simone’s story, how they added that in the show. She played an important role in Daisy’s life in the book as well, but they give her more to do in the TV series.

What I didn’t like was the role of Karen. Pianist Karen was my favorite character in the book. A woman who knows what she wants, trying to keep her head above water in a man’s world, constantly having to prove her worth and fighting for her place in the music world. I love how confident she was I the book, how Karen said it like she saw it and she was never inferior to the men. Karen disappeared a bit into the background, her as a band member and woman. The show does focus on her relationship with fellow band member Graham, Billy’s brother. And that’s fine. But I wanted more of the person Karen. We hardly get to know her here.

The thing that bothered me the most was the “The Six” didn’t have six band members. Pete, a character in the book, is not in the series. They simply count Camila as their sixth band member. But I really hated that. Pete didn’t have a huge role in the book, he was barely in it. But calling a band with five band members “The Six” is pretty lame.

Because it’s a story about a band, there needs to be music. And Taylor Jenkins Reid did a great job describing all the songs on the album “Aurora”, what their vibe is, their meaning, what you’re supposed to feel, what they represent. We were finally going to hear the songs. And “Aurora” is an actual album which you can listen to on Spotify. “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)” is definitely the song with the biggest impact.

Despite the series having two changes I hated, I did really love this show. And listening to the album, makes the book even better.