Friday, July 14, 2023

Daisy Jones & the Six can rock out in a book, and the band is maybe even better on the screen

You've seen me rave here before about the entertaining novels of Taylor Jenkins Reid. Well, my wife and I finally just got through the TV adaption on Amazon Prime of Daisy Jones & the Six, which I consider my third-favorite TJR novel behind The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising.

We loved this adaptation. In fact, it may be the relatively rare case of the show being better than the book. Even if the story is possibly less suspenseful than the real-life story of Fleetwood Mac (there are seemingly winking and frequent parallels between DJ6 and FM), TJR's hallmark twists, the built-in cliffhangers that make it work so well for TV, and exceptional acting top the highlights for this production.

It's a very cool element that TJR actually wrote the show's music and the cast actually sings and plays it. I need to listen more to the songs, but while they definitely work well in propelling the story and capturing a 1970s arena-rock vibe, the songs also don't jump out at me as truly great upon hearing them throughout the 10-episode show.

Riley Keough, Elvis Presley's granddaughter, is particularly good as Daisy Jones, and she brings a lot of charisma and energy to the role. Sam Claflin is also great as Billy Dunne, and he has sizzling chemistry with Keough. The supporting cast is also very good, and they all bring their own unique personalities.

Fittingly, the show is full of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and the power that music holds, but it also shows the darker side of the lifestyle, such as the accompanying problems of addiction and the euphoric feelings of love and loss sometimes heightened by drug use. 

Some reviews (while offering near-universal praise) have groused about the documentary format because it hints that the whole band has lived to reflect 20 years later on those wild 1970s. But simply put, Daisy Jones & the Six, in my book, beats out Vinyl as the best fictional rock and roll TV show of all time.

5 out of 5 stars

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