Daisy Jones & the Six review

Created by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Based on the book by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: that’s hot 🔥

Tears are still rolling down my cheek as I write this. The finale of Daisy Jones & The Six satisfied me in a way that I’ve never quite experienced from a show. SPOILER ALERT! This review contains spoilers.

The series focuses on a fictional band that rose to monumental fame and broke up unexpectedly, seemingly overnight. We are introduced to the band through a series of filmed interviews where they are asked to tell their story of what really happened to the band. 

Throughout the show, I kept thinking to myself “I want to hate this, but I like it,”. Paradoxically I was also thinking “I want to like this, but I hate it”. I kept waiting for the balance to teeter definitively in one direction, but the oscillation persisted. I loved the “swampy” music, the crunchy 70s glam, and the ensemble cast. Yet it all felt a bit forced, like a less-good version of Almost Famous. I never bought the lead singers Daisy (Riley Keough) and Billy’s (Sam Claflin) diabolical romance, or the 90’s VH1 style “Where are they now” documentary setup. But something about the show kept me coming back for more.

Maybe it was Sam Claflin’s effortless smile or the seriously overplayed music that would get stuck in my head. But the one character that I wholeheartedly loved from the moment that she stepped onscreen was Billy’s wife Camila (Camila Morrone). Her stunning natural beauty made her an easy character to root for. And while she was more the Madonna, and Daisy was more the whore, she was never confined to an unattainably pure box. Camila felt real. She felt like a small-town girl who would never possess Daisy’s star quality. You believed that she was friends with everyone in the band because as I sat staring at the screen, I wanted to be her friend too. She was honest enough to facilitate connection but guarded enough to maintain an alluring mystery.  

When the twist was revealed that the director behind the documentary was Billy and Camila’s oldest daughter, I should have hated the cheesy turn of events. I should have predicted something so predictable! But I didn’t. Instead, I burst into tears and felt a sense of relief as everything fell into place. The documentary wasn’t a corporate cash grab about old rockstars. This was a love letter from a daughter to her deceased mother. An effort to connect beyond the grave. The stifling nostalgia suddenly made sense because that’s what it feels like when you lose someone. You don’t want to lose the feeling of being with them, but when you think about them too much it becomes incredibly overwhelming. 

The shifty eyes from the bandmates as they opened up about their experiences in the band weren’t because they were in front of an unfamiliar film crew. They were because they had to open up about aspects of their lives that they had hidden from an innocent child. And now they had to tell her about drug addictions, sexual affairs, and the real truth about her parents. That’s no easy feat!

Obviously, this is a fictional story and I’m speaking about the characters like they’re real people. But I think that is a testament to the incredible performances from the entire cast. They all embodied their roles so well, which is extra impressive considering the large amount of confessional-style dialogue. Yet despite this physical separation, you got the sense that they would always be connected because they shared such a pivotal part of their lives together. 

The set design and seriously enviable costume design brought us right into the 70s and set the stage for authenticity. If you don’t want to put on some macrame and bellbottoms and rock a stadium tour after watching this show then we are not the same. Daisy Jones & The Six was a special show and it’s no wonder that they earned nine Emmy nominations. If you haven’t seen it yet, I definitely think it’s worth your time!

Review written by Zianna Weston