‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ (TV Review)

Prime Video's Daisy Jones & The Six is one of those rare adaptions that does justice to the original book. Whilst HBO's The Last of Us is getting the rightly deserved praise, Daisy Jones & The Six will now hopefully get the attention it deserves.

Riley Keogh absolutely shines in the role of Daisy (perhaps due to her own musical background), and viewers should truly want her to succeed. With a supporting cast in the shapes of Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone, Will Harrison, Suki Waterhouse, Josh Whitehouse, and the odd special appearance by Timothy Olyphant, this show is nothing short of a powerhouse that is likely to sweep next award season.

Told over two separate timelines — the interviews told in 2012 and the flashbacks in the early 1970s — this is an intriguing and fascinating piece of television that does manage to keep you captivated for its whole ten episodes and even features a few original songs, that you'll be singing to yourself for days. It's a pleasant surprise to see how the show's soundtrack fits within the era.

But as the journey begins, the narrative arc will pull you in to not stop watching until you get to the bottom of what happened. At the same time, there are a few small grips bubbling under the surface.

Sam Claflin is perhaps the wrong actor to play Billy. Despite being the more famous actor out of the core six, the performance isn't enough to make audiences care for Billy or his journey over the season. Author Taylor Jenkins Reid makes you fall in love with his charisma, wit, and charm within her opening few chapters, yet all of this seems to be missing from Claflin's portrayal.

The interview segments arguably add nothing to the show either. If this was presented as just a series with flashbacks, it would exactly the same show. The book works because its whole set-up is told in those interviews, but they don't entirely work in episodic form. Yes, they bookend things, but they do sometimes feel out of place.

Overall, the series is likely to be a success — especially for those who are planning to watch it just for Sam Claflin. Daisy Jones is full of nostalgia and the things that make the 70s music scene feel so special. Whether viewers have read the book or not, the episodes make for the perfect binge of a  heartwarming story framing what it's really like to try and make it big.

Daisy Jones & The Six is now streaming on Prime Video.