On March 3rd, Amazon Prime released Daisy Jones & The Six, one of their most anticipated TV shows of the year. Directed by James Ponsoldt, the show is based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel by the same title and tells the story of Daisy Jones, an aspiring musician whose world collides with Billy Dunne’s band. Both the show and the book are inspired by the 70’s rock band, Fleetwood Mac, telling their story through music, drama, and creativity. 

TV Show Review

As the show opens up, we meet Daisy Jones, the daughter of two wealthy, but neglectful parents. Daisy, played by Riley Keough, struggles to follow her passion in music, until her best friend encourages her to pursue a music career. Daisy gets signed to Runner Records, who introduces her to Billy Dunne and his band, the Dunne Brothers. Billy,played by Sam Claflin, partners up with Daisy, and with that, Daisy Jones & The Six is born. The rest of the show explores the band’s rise to fame, but mostly focuses on Daisy and Billy going back and forth between hating and catching feelings for each other. 

With a band as iconic as Fleetwood Mac, it’s difficult to expect a re-telling to be as profound. Reid’s bestseller did this effortlessly, capturing the minutiae of love, addiction, stardom, and creativity in the ensemble’s story. However, the TV show was not able to recreate its magic.

Visually, the show delivers. The actors resemble who they are meant to play, and the locations are aesthetically pleasing in their own right. Storywise, the TV show feels slightly rushed and compressed. With the Fleetwood Mac archetype, we expect a focus on the band, but the show keeps shifting back to the romantic tension between Billy and Daisy. When we do get back to the band, the show rushes these sequences, making the overall storyline shallow and spread too thin.  

Album Review

Aside from the Billy and Daisy dynamic, the miniseries also shows the band recording Aurora, their first album. The music is supposed to resemble Fleetwood Mac’s 70’s rock discography, and it’s surprisingly commendable. As someone who listens to a lot of 60s and 70s rock, I was expecting an underwhelming soundtrack given the difficulty of replicating Fleetwood Mac’s music. Sure, the songs aren’t on the same level as Dreams or Gypsy, but many tracks on the album rise to the challenge of matching Fleetwood Mac’s style. Other songs stand out in their own ways.

The actors themselves are singing in each record we listen to, despite not having much experience with music prior to filming this show. It is another reason why the cast deserves applause; singing for the first time on a TV show is no big feat, but attempting to be on par with rock icons like Fleetwood Mac is a whole other challenge. 

The album was produced by Blake Mills, known for his collaborations with famous singer-songwriters like Lana Del Rey and the Dixie Chicks. Mills partnered with modern songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford, Jackson Browne and Marcus Cunningham to write lyrics. In the TV show, the audience sees Billy and Daisy writing Aurora. 

The only real let down in the album were songs like Aurora, and More Fun to Miss. These tracks were filled with a loud instrumental, often overpowering Keough’s softer vocals. 

On the other hand, songs like Look at Us Now, Let Me Down Easy and The River are some of the best songs from the TV show. All three of these songs do a great job resembling Fleetwood Mac’s style. Look at Us Now in particular, the first song Billy and Daisy wrote together, samples Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain. Although the audience won’t hear lyrics as deep and symbolic as Fleetwood Mac’s discography, the album does deliver sonically. 

The Verdict

Overall, Daisy Jones & The Six is a TV show that deserves appreciation. It is clear that the cast and crew put significant effort toward telling the story of a key figure in 70’s rock. While the music and visuals deliver, the storyline feels rushed, cliche, and all over the place. The show is good, but not great, making it a hit or miss.

Daisy Jones & The Six is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and the album Aurora is currently on most musical platforms.