Review: ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’

The start of March heralded the release of one of the most highly anticipated shows of 2023, and with an abundance of talented stars and a ton of 70s charm, Daisy Jones & The Six manages to meet most expectations.

Sunset Boulevard provides the backdrop to this glamourous tale of rock n’ roll, charting the swift rise – and chaotic fall – of fictional band Daisy Jones & The Six, as they make musical waves across America. The Fleetwood Mac influence is hard to miss, and their impact on the soundtrack is self-evident: ‘The Chain’ is echoed in ‘Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)’, the second song to be released from the full length album Aurora which was created alongside the series. Marcus Mumford and Phoebe Bridgers are amongst several prolific songwriters who helped bring the imagined tunes to life, and being able to experience the album on Spotify, or vinyl, only added to the hype before the show’s release. 

Satisfying book fans is no mean feat, but in terms of casting Daisy Jones is as close to perfect as you could hope. Sam Claflin, with several book-to-screen adaptations already under his belt (think The Hunger Games, Me Before You), stars as the ambitious yet troubled lead singer Billy Dunne, a man struggling with both addiction and infidelity – traits that draw him closer to Daisy as the show progresses. Camila Dunne (Camila Morrone) is his beautiful and long-suffering wife, through whose camera lens we see several key moments unfold.

Though this marks her first singing role, Riley Keough (granddaughter of Elvis Presley) smashes the part of Daisy Jones, a fiery singer-songwriter in the midst of her own tumultuous journey to fame. Daisy is battling her own demons when she is put in the path of Dunne by manager Teddy Price (Tom Wright). Nabiyah Be plays disco pioneer Simone Jackson, Daisy’s only friend and comfort, whose departure to New York leaves Daisy feeling adrift when she begins collaborating with The Six.

The chemistry between leads is electric: Claflin and Keough bounce off each other in a way that, even when the characters frequently and furiously lock horns over creative differences, makes their collision inevitable, and one we eagerly await for the first half of the show. Will Billy keep his promises to his wife and infant daughter? Or will the temptation of having someone understand him the way Daisy does prove too much?

Told as flashbacks interspersed with interviews from twenty years later, we know as soon as the series opens that disaster is in store. The unreliability of present-day Daisy and Billy makes it all the more interesting: what they tell the interviewer often differs from what we are shown. The supporting cast only add to the drama, as we see the stresses of stardom gradually affect the band in different ways. Suki Waterhouse, already a successful musician off-screen, is power-house keyboardist Karen Sirko, and newcomer Will Harrison is underrated as Graham, Billy’s soft-hearted brother. Warren (Sebastian Chacon), stoner and drummer of The Six, provides some of the show’s more comic beats, whilst bassist Eddie (Josh Whitehouse) completes the talented line up. It’s a shame they aren’t all afforded the same space to shine as their co-stars, but this is hardly a surprise when the show’s marketing revolves around the potential Daisy-Billy-Camila love triangle. 

Despite the outfits sometimes evoking Vanessa Hudgens at Coachella, the settings and overall atmosphere of the show enable the heady vibes of 70s Los Angeles to be successfully brought to life. The dynamics between the main cast, along with the original music, make it an engaging watch – albeit one occasionally lacking the emotional punch that the book promised. Nevertheless, now that all episodes are out, I challenge anyone to binge the show and leave without the sultry tunes of Daisy Jones & The Six stuck in their heads all summer long.

Featured Image Credit: IMDB