(Amazon / Warner Bros / DreamWorks) Time and time again, I wonder why it appears to be so hard for the film and television mediums to properly portray the music community. Like a lot of people lately, I’ve been watching Amazon’s new mini-series “Daisy Jones & the Six,” based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2019 best selling novel with the same title. Right away you’ll notice the creators took a lot of inspiration from Fleetwood Mac for their own pop/rock band. There are also references to Jefferson Airplane, the Mamas & the Papas, Big Brother & the Holding Company and the like. Real groups such as the Byrds and the Doors make fictionalized blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos as well, since the series starts in the mid-1960s and ends in the late 1970s. As a longtime classic rock fan and well read on the history of the era, I do sort of go into these type of releases with high standards. I began “Daisy Jones” mildly interested since I dig the setting and am a casual fan of lead actress Riley Keough [fittingly Elvis Presley’s real granddaughter]. Riley as Daisy, as well as co-star Camila Morrone as photographer-turned-housewife Camila Alvarez Dunne, are good. Most of the male casting is questionable though, particularly Sam Claflin, whom I have the hardest time buying as sexy rockstar with attitude, Billy Dunne. The original music is fine, but not as good as the real famous songs mixed into the soundtrack. [And why is Patti Smith’s ‘Dancing Barefoot’ the theme song instead of one of the fictional band’s tunes?] The costumes and art/production design are decent, as is
I’m enjoying Daisy Jones. It’s fiction
I like it too!