The long awaited series, Daisy Jones & The Six, premiered its first three episodes on March 3rd on Amazon Prime. The next three episodes were released on March 10th, followed by two on March 17th and the last two were released on March 24th. Based on a book released by Taylor Jenkins Reid in 2019, the story surrounds a famous band called Daisy Jones & The Six who are being interviewed many years after their last show in 1977 and how fame, love and drugs resulted in their downfall. 

The star of the show, Daisy Jones, is played by Riley Keough. Other members of the band include lead singer Billy Dunne played by Sam Clafflin, his brother Graham, played by Will Harrison, the band’s keyboardist, Karen, played by Suki Waterhouse, the drummer, played by Sebastian Chacon, and the guitarist, Eddie played by Josh Whitehouse. 

Although the Presley bloodline talent is present in Keough’s on screen presence, the aura of Daisy Jones wasn’t as felt as immediately as it was felt when I first read the book. No matter how many times I read it, her aura was felt through the pages. However, Keough was lacking the enchantment that was described in Daisy in the book. Her look, however, is spot on. As for Billy, I feel as though they tried to make Claflin look too much like a stereotypical jerk in a 70’s inspired movie. It was a little too much like Russell from Almost Famous. His depiction of Billy and his ways were accurately felt through the screen, as were those of his betrayed wife Camila, played by Camila Morrone. For a model and actress mostly known for dating Leonardo Dicaprio, her acting was surprising. She displayed the difficult emotions that Camila had to endure. 

I am not for book to movie or book to show adaptations, but this is one I really, really, really enjoyed and wanted more after each episode, even though I basically already knew what happened from reading the book. One of the changes was leaving out an original member of the band, The Six, and in the show the “sixth member” is Camila. Another one is how Billy and Camila met, and the biggest one is two of the main characters kissing who, in the book never did anything physical which builds the tension throughout the book and is the main motivation to keep you reading. Some other changes were minor characters like Daisy’s friend, Simone played by Nabiyah Be, having an actual storyline whereas in the book, she was just an entity in Daisy’s life. In the show, she is depicted as a queer disco musician trying to make her way in the music industry while wanting to not show who she really is and loves to the public. 

One of the major successes of the show was the music. The hit album “Aurora” By Daisy Jones & The Six was actually released onto music platforms as an actual album, not a soundtrack that just stars the actors from the show. In the book, the lyrics are given and many readers left it to themselves to make up their own beats and melodies to the words. I can surely say that the portrayal of the songs in the show exceeded my expectations. Although it is a glorified and somewhat fantasized depiction of the ‘70s, you are almost left wishing that Daisy Jones & the Six are a real band and that you are in the late ‘70s waiting for them to release more music. Even though it felt like a mask of the 1970s and lost many key elements, with an 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and 69% on the tomatometer, I would say that Daisy Jones & The Six thrived in the mini series category. Although there sadly isn’t another book to go off, I am very satisfied with how they brought the book to life.