What happens when tension rises in an up-and-coming band threatening their collapse? “Daisy Jones & the Six,” a recent TV adaptation, dives into the desperation of a band trying to make it in the 1970s. The highly anticipated adaptation has been making waves since its recent release on March 3. The show brings to life the best-selling 2019 Taylor Jenkins Reid book featuring the Fleetwood Mac-inspired band. “Daisy Jones & The Six” is a documentary-style show, retelling the history of the fictional band. The popular cast brought much excitement to the release with Riley Keough, Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, portraying Daisy Jones, and popular singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse playing the role of Karen Sirko. 

The show opens with recordings of the band being interviewed decades after the band’s split, finally agreeing to explain what happened the night they went separate ways. The question of what caused the explosive end to the band raises tension. The fabricated band, Reid said in an interview held by her publisher, was based on the rock band Fleetwood Mac, an influential band in the 70s. The story starts with both Daisy and the original Dunne Brothers band retelling how they got into making music. Daisy, a privileged but distanced kid, at the age of 15 spent her nights watching bands perform at various bars. The Dunne Brothers were a high school band practicing in a garage, led by Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin). The second Dunne brother Graham Dunne (Will Harrison) as guitarist, bass as Eddie Roundtree (Josh Whitehouse), drummer Warren Rojas (Sebastian Chacon), and later Waterhouse as Karen, the keyboardist. 

Through the convincing acting of the fitting cast, the show discussed tough topics such as drug addiction, infidelity, and sexual assault, the morally gray character Billy dived into the struggle of drug abuse. The strain it put on not only his career but relationships with his family and friends. The show went behind the scenes showing the struggle and desperation of the band trying to make it in the music scene, doing whatever it takes to get noticed, like moving to California on a whim. Camila Alvarez (Camila Morrone) the wife of Billy, a common victim of his infidelity and poor decisions.

Parts of the show at points could feel superficial, showing the glamorous parts but failed to hold some of the more unlikeable characters accountable for their poor decisions and dangerous egos. Made up of people born privileged but unable to hold on to it for long enough to get big. The explosive fallout of the band caused by selfishness and poor communication pulling many into the hurtful separation.

The 10 episodes work to answer one question— what happened to make them finally split up? What caused their downfall after such a successful entrance to the music scene? The short-lived band did not even begin to work together until episode three. It is apparent through the show that tension is rising between characters, through Billy and his short fuse, and the relationship between Graham, and Karen. After their music being so big the pressure heightened existing irritation amongst each other.

Not only was the story captivating with drama, humor, and suspense but the original music was well written and put together. The music from the show has been popular on social media platforms attracting even more attention to the show. Their songs felt genuine when performed and stuck to the 70s theme. “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)” is the first song the full band released immediately getting major attention from the radio and people buying their vinyls in the show. The song was written by Grammy winning producer Blake Mills alongside Marcus Mumford from the folk-rock band “Mumford and Sons.” Originally in the show the song was written by Billy about hurting his relationship with his wife being unfaithful during the height of his drug addiction. The upbeat song originally delivered the message that he can fix his mistakes and put their relationship back together, after meeting Daisy she changed lyrics writing the famous line, “We can make a good thing bad.” The song after her changes told the story of strained relationships and the understanding that it won’t be the same.

Overall the show was fun to watch as someone who struggles with paying attention to a show all the way through, it was mostly easy to follow. Some characters were hard to like throughout the show but were outshined by characters like Camila and Karen. Through the female leads it was comforting to see such real and genuine friendships in the media, making those characters even more likable and fun to watch.