Sex, drugs, and rock & roll: Daisy Jones and the Six, Amazon Prime’s new limited series produced by Reese Witherspoon provides all three, and does it exceptionally well.
The show follows The Six, originally called the Dunne Brothers, as they travel from Pittsburgh to the gold paved streets of Los Angeles, where they go from playing weddings to playing along the Sunset Strip, to eventually sold out stadium shows.
For me, the show provided exactly the entertainment I was looking for as the days slowly inched by in anticipation of Spring Break. Its plot does anything but inch – Daisy (played by Riley Keough) quickly rockets to stardom alongside the band, their tumultuous relationship thickens and fizzles as each episode progresses. It’s a classic tale – kids with dreams of tour buses, rock and roll, and of grandeur making it – reminiscent of Almost Famous.
While music is a central component of the show, so is the love triangle between Daisy Jones, co-lead Billy (Sam Clafflin), and Billy’s wife Camilla Dunne (Camillia Morrone). When Daisy and Billy first meet at Sunset Studio (where Fleetwood Mac infamously recorded Rumors), it’s enigmatic – their voices join in perfect harmony as do their eyes. Karen Sirko (Suki Waterhouse), lead pianist, opens her eyes wide as they sing, almost in disbelief. Yet, tension underlies their relationship. For Billy, the constant choice between what’s right and what’s tempting, forms melody and harmony that together spark artistry at the highest level, until it becomes overbearing.
The story is told in a narration style one that no doubt has watchers (and readers of the New York Times bestselling book) scrambling to Google ‘is Daisy Jones and the Six a real band?’ – don’t be ashamed, we’ve all done it. While the band itself is fiction, it heavily relies on the fact of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s tumultuous relationship amidst stardom. The fashion: pale floral sundresses to glimmering gold pantsuits and shearling jackets, further entrench watchers into the already encapsulating story.
For the sake of transparency – I’m a sucker for bad TV. I don’t believe Daisy Jones qualifies, in fact I do believe that its characters are complex and its plot lines intricate, but parts feel saccharine. Daisy’s drug overdose following a long winded tour in which her already problematic drug use is only heightened, ends with her in the arms of Billy. “It’s you,” she says. The complex issue of drug addiction, although dealt with in a very direct way, doesn’t feel as serious as it should. Instead, the issues presented feel like the cover of a glossy magazine.
Regardless, Daisy Jones and the Six struck a chord with me, it was fun, energetic, and full of chemistry. The ending had me unsurprisingly bawling my eyes out – and yes I did watch it twice. Its accompanying album Arora, available on Spotify and Apple Music, brings ‘70s to the 21st century and will resonate with all listeners, young to old.
