DAISY JONES & THE SIX – A Review by Jenn Rohm
New York Times Best Seller (2019) Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is coming to Amazon Prime in a weekly episode release mini-series. This is a story of a fictional band (inspired by, yet not the story of, Fleetwood Mac) telling how they started, rose to fame, and then walked away after a sold-out Soldier Field (Chicago) concert. This series format is a series of interviews (think Behind the Music) with different members of the band that switch to flashbacks.
I would like to give props to the casting, make-up, and wardrobe departments as the characters show realistic age progression/regression (20-30 year spread). Honestly, it annoys me when they put someone in a grey wig and add wrinkles to convey being older. There are a lot more options available to make someone look older and those involved in filming used those options. At various times not only is fashion different but our choice of clothing is as well. In the 70s, a lot of males would walk around shirtless or in t-shirts. More current fashion trends impact that at a certain age, a button-down shirt with sleeves rolled up or a zip-up collared jacket is preferred over shirtless. For the make-up crew, they chose to use shadow and not just prosthetic wrinkles.
The cast themselves also did well with representing the different ages they were at for each scene being filmed. Allow me to introduce you to the band:
Daisy Jones, Riley Keough (yes, she would have called Elvis “Grandpa”)
Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin)
Graham Dunne (Will Harrison)
Eddie Roundtree (Josh Whitehouse)
Warren Rhodes (Sebastian Chacon)
Karen Sirko (Suki Waterhouse)
Other characters that help them on the path to fame:
Simone Jackson (Nabiyah Be)
Rod Reyes (Timothy Oliphant)
Teddy Price (Tom Wright)
There are a few places where the movement was a bit slow, such as the scenes with Daisy in her early years being an afterthought to her parents and joining the late 60s LA rock scene. And a little bit of predictability, one of the females becomes pregnant, so there is a wedding. While another female character needs to “play nice” with a man in the business and does not, which impacts her career. These things did not prevent me from going to the next episode. (Reminder this series is being released an episode each week. It will not be “binge-able” for 10 weeks). Well before the last episode, I had fallen in love with the characters. I know this is a mini-series due to the limited material to pull from and even in real-life “where are they now” type stories, life goes on after filming stops. I can accept how the series ended. At the same time, because I am invested in them, I want to know what happens next.
For those of you that are music fans. The songs written in the book have been put to music, recorded, and the album Aurora by Daisy Jones & the Six is available for purchase. Just like the mini-series, the songs are released weekly.
Directors: James Ponsoldt, Nzingha Stewart, Will Graham
Cast: Riley Keough, Sebastian Chacon, Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone, Will Harrison, Suki Waterhouse, Josh Whitehouse, Nabiyah Be, Tom Wright
Genres: Drama, Music
Selig Rating: 4.5 stars
Home Release Date: First Episode March 3, 2023. Weekly release of the following 9 episodes
Home Release: Prime Video
Trailer: Daisy Jones & the Six – Official Teaser | Prime Video
The Selig Rating Scale:
5 Stars – Excellent movie/show, well worth the time and price.
4 Stars – Good movie/show
3 Stars – OK movie/show
2 Stars – Well there was nothing else . . .
1 Star – Total waste of time.
