Show of the Year: Daisy Jones & the Six

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Danica Ward '25, Staff Writer

Young adult book lovers all over the world have been long gearing up for the premiere of the Amazon Prime Video adaptation of one of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novels, Daisy Jones and the Six. The book, released in 2019, has gained a cult following of retro lovers and bibliophiles alike. Written in interview form, the novel recalls the uprise and sudden downfall of a fictional famed 70s rock band–Daisy Jones & The Six.  Topics of substance abuse, relationships, and forbidden love, along with captivating and deep, sometimes-relatable characters, round out this story of an international musical sensation. The show, an Amazon Prime Original, premiered on March 3, releasing three of the season’s ten episodes, along with an 11-song album titled Aurora. The episodes have been released three at a time so far, every Thursday night. 

With TV adaptations, the story is usually cropped to fit the running time of the show. However, each episode of Daisy Jones & The Six is around 50 minutes, a hefty amount but filled to the brim with entertaining content. The story mainly rings true to the original novel, but for someone who has an eye for detail, the adaptation gets some things wrong. The book’s author, Taylor Jenkins Reid, produced the show and managed to sacrifice little, but some things still stand out. A whole character is missing from the band’s lineup: Pete Loving, the bassist. Instead, Eddie Roundtree (Eddie Loving, Pete’s brother in the book) is the guitarist turned bassist of the band. Eddie’s whole plot line in the novel is that he is angry with lead singer Billy for controlling him and his electric guitar riffs, causing tension and hatred. Also, the band’s name is The Six, because there are six members in the novel: Billy, his brother Graham on lead guitar, Karen the keyboardist and love interest to Graham, Pete on bass, Eddie on guitar, and Warren on drums. But in the show, they only have five members but they call themselves “The Six” as a supposed joke. It is understandable to cut small details out from the show to save time, but with almost hour-long episodes, it wouldn’t have been a problem to include the correct number of band members. Getting rid of a character and switching up another’s plot is something that fans of the novel couldn’t see past. 

On the bright side, the characters in the show stay close to their appearances as deeply described in the original novel, and it was easy for readers of the novel to tell who each character was. The story is intriguing and serious, relatable and dramatic, and inspiring but truthful in the ways stars are harmed by the hard-hitting culture and norms of the 1970s rockstar lifestyle. The show is getting rave reviews amongst critics and fans, along with mass amounts of coverage from social media, talk shows, and additional interviews. Whether you read the novel first and then watch the show or vice versa, if you love drama, music, and/or anything vintage, you’ll love Daisy Jones & the Six