This article contains spoilers for the show “Daisy Jones & The Six.”
When I first saw the trailer for Amazon Prime’s tv adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel “Daisy Jones & The Six,” I was immediately excited. I had the release date marked on my calendar for weeks. When the show finally came out on March 3, it did not disappoint.
“Daisy Jones & The Six” tells the story of a fictional, Fleetwood Mac-esque rock band in the 70’s, from their formation in a garage to their breakup at the end of their first national tour.
The show starts off in the early 60’s and follows how the band’s leaders, Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne, individually fell in love with music. Los Angeles native Daisy used music as an escape from her tumultuous family life and across the country Billy dreamed of making it big by forming The Dunne Brothers, the band’s original title. The band consisted of his brother, Graham, and friends Eddie, Warren, and Chuck.
After meeting a tour manager Rod Reyes, The Dunne Brothers band, minus Chuck, move to Los Angeles, join forces with keyboardist Karen Sirko and change their name to The Six in order to include Karen and Camilla, Billy’s wife.
As their career grows, they have multiple almost-run-ins with singer-songwriter Daisy, who has recently connected with R&B goddess Simone Jackson and legendary record producer Teddy Price.
One night after months of playing small gigs in bars on Sunset with The Six, Billy runs into Teddy Price outside of a liquor store and convinces him to give the band a chance. Over the next year, the band release a fairly popular debut album and set sail on their first tour while Billy spirals into addiction and ends up in rehab after Camilla gives birth to their daughter.
In an attempt to get the band back on track, Teddy enlists Daisy to improve Billy’s new song Honeycomb and record with The Six. The song becomes an overnight hit, leading the band to make Daisy a permanent addition. The rest of the show dives deep into the rise and fall of the band and all their personal lives.
Although I have never read the book, I loved this show a lot. I would even go so far as to say it’s one of the best shows of the last decade, particularly because of three key things.
- The Marketing
There are many times these days when a movie or tv show comes out and I feel like it
just appeared from the ether. Like… Did they even make a trailer? That’s not the case with Daisy Jones. For months before it premiered, this show was everywhere. I couldn’t watch a single youtube video without getting an ad for “Daisy Jones and The Six.”
Along with the promotional team at Amazon who need a raise immediately, the show also had partnerships that made great marketing. The show teamed up with the clothing brand Free People to create and sell a lot of the authentic looking 70’s wardrobe featured in the show.
They also partnered with Atlantic Records to release the album that was created on the show, “Aurora” on vinyl and cd, with different stores even selling exclusive colored vinyls like Amazon’s translucent yellow, Indie’s clear blue, and Walmart’s black.
2. The Music
As part of the promotion for the show, the fictional band’s record, “Aurora,” which features the music from the show, was released. To this day, I still have the inexplicable urge to scream like a thirteen-year-old girl everytime I hear Sam Claflin who played Billy Dunne sing “Please” – a song I’m still mad never got a full performance in the show.
The show worked with real songwriters like Blake Mills, Marcus Mumford and Phoebe Bridgers to create the incredible tracklist. Listening to this album makes you feel like you’re listening to a real rock & roll band from the 70’s.
When it comes to the final product, the entire cast went to “band camp” for months before filming in order to learn how to play their own instruments, with Riley Keough and Sam Claflin having to completely learn how to sing like professionals from scratch.
3. The Story
Throughout the show the writing, the music and the incredible performances by the cast all made me feel like I was watching a real band. While the show contains some tropes, like the love triangle between Billy, Daisy and Camilla, they do it in such a unique and beautiful way.
Even though I spent the entire show rooting for Daisy and Billy together, I still loved and rooted for Camilla. Every character in the show was fleshed out, with their own personal histories and relationships that really enhanced the story.
There were also a few fairly major adjustments made from the book when it came to formatting the tv arc that I can’t imagine the story without. First, Simone’s character plays a much bigger role in the show than in the book, and we get to see more of her relationship with Bernie. Second, the entirety of episode seven is all new material written just for the show.
Another adjustment from the book that I’m happy about was changing the time jump of the documentary portion from 40 years after the breakup, to only 20 years, so that all the actors could still play their roles with minor makeup. Sam Claflin with his long, straight 90’s hair blowing in the wind – chef’s kiss.
Overall, “Daisy Jones & The Six” is one of the best shows to grace our screens in a long while. So good that I restarted it 2 days after finishing it. So do yourself a favor and go watch all 10 episodes, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
5/5 stars