Daisy Jones & The Six, the Prime Video limited series based on the Taylor Jenkins Reid book of the same name, is out now! Despite the fact that episodes are dropping in batches, I will be recapping each and every one right here for you. From the formation of the band to its eventual collapse, we’re going along on this wild ride together.

The first episode opens with the sound of Daisy singing and text that tells us:

On October 4, 1977

Daisy Jones & The Six performed

To a sold out crow

and already I’m so excited. I read Daisy Jones & The Six about a year ago and absolutely adored it. Since then, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of this limited series, which I’m hoping lives up to expectations! 

We start with a series of images and video in old-timey footage detailing various moments of the band, culminating in words that read “It would be their last performance”. We then find out that it is now 20 years later, and members of the band are agreeing to speak about what happened for the first time. Queue interview shots, and then we head to the intro, which tells us the character names of various characters, as if this is the start of a real documentary.

For those of you who do not know, Daisy Jones was written in an extremely unique way. The entire thing was a series of interview clips spliced together, as though it was a transcript for a documentary. One paragraph would be Daisy speaking, the next would be James, or another member of the band. It’s very cool that the show is taking a similar route in bringing this to life!

We begin for real where Daisy begins, in 1961 where the young girl first fell in love with music. We see her mother throwing a fancy party and her being yelled at for singing too loudly, laying the foundation for the fact that despite Daisy growing up rich and beautiful, she was “completely alone”. 

And now, it’s 1968. Daisy is a teenager, shy in a short red floral dress and asking to smoke with performers in back alleys. The performer leaves the door slightly cracked when he goes inside to perform, and Daisy slips inside. It was her plan all along— find a way to enter the venue for free and without being carded. 

And then there’s Billy Dunne, the lead singer/songwriter for the band. In an interview clip, he shares that growing up, the only two available options were the “mill or the war”, but he wanted something different. In 1968, he heads inside with a bag full of groceries and encourages his 14 year old brother to get over his heartbreak. After all, the kid can play the guitar. He’ll get all the girls he wants one day!

The next member of the band we’re introduced to is Warren Rojas, the drummer. In the interview, he claims that it was Graham’s idea to start the band. In 1968, we find out that Graham is, in fact, the 14 year old heartbroken kid. He’s not starting the band to get his girlfriend back, he’s doing it because he wants to do something fun with his “brother and his three best friends”. Hearing that Billy is going to be a part of the band, Warren is in.

Interview Billy says that he never agreed to be in the band. In fact, he was just there to listen and help them out! 

During the first 1968 rehearsal, he had lots of feedback to give! The band doesn’t sound very good at all, and it’s a wonder they ever made it out of the garage. When a member of the band suggests that Billy join in and show them how it’s done, Billy jumps at the offer. Interview Eddie Roundtree, the bass, does not sound pleased with how this went at all!

Meanwhile, 15 year old Daisy is sneaking around, getting backstage at concerts and heading back to hotel rooms with lead singers. She anticipated this hotel room to be filled with people, but in fact it was just her and him, and he locked the door when they entered. From a cut to a very serious Interview Daisy, we know that young her was not prepared or consenting to what she experienced. 

After that, she headed down to the pool and watched this same man flirt and talk with other women. It wasn’t that she was naive as people claimed, it was just that she was “a baby”. How was a “helpless” fifteen year old supposed to know anything! Daisy hated the feeling, and when she went back home that night, she began writing. 

Cut to 1970. 

The Dunne Brothers band is performing onstage at a small outdoor party. By this point, they were regularly performing at proms, graduation parties, and sweet sixteens. When they introduce themselves as the Dunne Brothers, Eddie says that their name “for now”. Still, they are enjoying the band as a distraction from the real world. Then, Billy spots this father (who supposedly left the entire state) hitting on a younger woman at the party.

Billy is a mess. Interview Graham shares that he was so young when his father left that he never felt like he had one at all, but Billy is pissed. He confronts his father, who is clearly drunk and doesn’t care much that his child is there. He does, however, recognize the guitar Billy was playing with as the one he gave his son.

This makes Billy even angrier, and he smashes the guitar in front of his dad, and Graham punches the man in the face before they all leave the venue. In the parking lot, Billy gives a speech about how they’re going to become the “biggest fucking band in the world someday”. 

I got chills!

Daisy has gotten older as well, and she’s dressing the part. Interview Daisy says that she was most probably out of control, and in 1970 we see her popping pills and scribbling frantically in her notebook.

Then, we see her mother, sitting on the side of her bed and reading her notebook. While Daisy is initially pissed that her mother read her private thoughts, she immediately wants to know if what is in the notebook is any good.

“You’re a pretty girl, Margaret” is all that her mother replies. 

Dejected, Daisy wanders down the street sadly. I feel for this girl. All she needs in life is a little bit of encouragement from her mother.

Over at the laundromat, Billy sees a pretty girl, who we’ll later find out is Camila, and when she goes to ask if he’s using the basket, he assumes that she recognizes him in his relative fame. It’s embarrassing, but they both rally spectacularly and enjoy some flirty banter about Billy being in a band. 

Interview Camila claims that she obviously knew who Billy Dunne was— and it wasn’t because he was in a band, if you know what she means. 

Billy admits that he’s at the laundromat because his mother’s washer/dryer broke, and unfortunately it’s kind of his washer/dryer too, given that he still lives at home. Camila teases him, and eventually agrees to give him her number.

Interview Eddie knew Camila from Sunday school as children, and he says “you couldn’t help but fall in love with her”. A rivalry is brewing! 

The band is practicing HARD now, with Camila shooting video footage of the whole thing. We see some of the similarly styled clips from the beginning, making it clear that the footage we see is all hers.

Billy heads over to eat dinner with Camila’s family, and it’s going awkwardly. They don’t seem all that impressed with the kid who needed his girlfriend to tie his tie on the front porch before entering. They’re even less impressed when they find out he’s a musician who can’t even pay his bills. 

When the band heads over in their new van to practice, they run into a problem. Chuck, the bassist, got into college and now he’s quitting the band. He doesn’t see a future in anything except heading to dental school.

While some of the guys want to cancel their gig, Billy refuses. He wants Eddie, who was playing guitar at that point, to switch over to bass. He says no at first, but finally (poutily) agrees. 

Daisy is taking a shower, and when the man she has over the house hears her singing he comes in to share his love of her singing voice. Then, while waiting for Daisy to finish up, he rummages through her notebook and begins strumming along to her lyrics. He doesn’t think her writing is half bad, and in fact when he plays along with it they sound pretty good.

“It doesn’t go like that.” Daisy says. Then, she sings it to a completely different beat. Book trivia! Taylor Jenkins Reid actually wrote the lyrics to all of the songs they mention in the back of the book. These songs exist, and now we’re going to get to hear them.

Interview Daisy tells us that she “let him” take the song from her and claim it as his own. If she hadn’t met Simone Jackson, she believes, she never would have thought of herself as worthy of anything else. 

We now get to see our first ever interview with Simone! Interview Simone says they met for the first time at a party in the hills, and she seems genuinely happy to talk about Daisy. 

At the party on the hills, Daisy tells Simone that she thinks she’s way too cool for Penny Richardson, the woman she is singing backup for— and, I get the vibe, dating. After this conversation, the two never stopped being friends.

They hung out at Simone’s new house, and Simone validated Daisy’s love of the music, encouraging her to get up on stage.

The Dunne Brothers Band is headed into a show, but onstage before them is a gorgeous blonde named Karen. Graham is immediately obsessed, and they talk for a second backstage before he heads up to perform and she slips out to grab a burger. At least, that’s what she claims.

Karen doesn’t actually leave. She lights up a cigarette next to producer Rod Reyes, and they nod along to the music. Interview Rod Reyes tells us that Billy Dunne has incredible rockstar power, and after the show Rod and Billy chat about what Billy should write next. He has OPINIONS! 

He wants Billy to write love songs, Graham to chill it with the solos, and Karen to wear low cut shirts. The boys appear to be loving everything Rod has to say about them. Interview Karen says she told Rod to eat shit. 

Rod wants everyone to move out to California, fulfilling Billy’s dream, but Camila isn’t nearly as delighted. She isn’t willing to follow a boy around the country when she has her own dreams. She walks inside her home devastated, sobbing to her mother, who agrees that she can’t leave her family.

Camila looks up at her. “You did,” she says.

The next day, she piles into the back of the van with the rest of the band! 

The song Daisy wrote has been #1 for four straight weeks, but her boyfriend still claims that he wrote the entire thing on his own. Interview Daisy tells us that him stealing her material was becoming a pattern, and young Daisy orders a coffee and champagne to go with the benzo she had for breakfast. She makes a joke about it being an up-and-down, and her boyfriend, Gary, claims that he’s going to use it in a script one day. He wants Daisy to be his muse.

Daisy isn’t having it, and she storms out of the restaurant. She isn’t interested in being anyone’s muse! She’s not the muse, she’s the somebody! I love this for her, but Gary just laughs in her face and Daisy’s face twists up in rage and sadness. She shoves her boyfriend, to little effect, and drives off. 

Later that night, she heads to a dusty old bar and decides to find out if everyone else is right to call her a piece of shit. She sits down at the piano, breaks out her notebook, and begins to play. 

Her music continues to play as background, and we flip between the boys in the van,  (Graham musing aloud whether they should add Karen to the band) Daisy singing with tears rolling down her face, and old-style film that Camila shot of the road trip. 

When the song ends, there’s light applause from the one person in the bar, and Daisy walks back outside with renewed confidence. 

We end as the boys pull up to the strip and Daisy walks along it, the entire group looking excited about what’s to come.

And that’s the episode!

Personally, I think it’s done a really great job of staying true to the documentary roots while still making it an interesting limited TV series. The book lent itself incredibly well to a multifaceted adaptation, and so far it’s achieving its goals. 

I hope to continue to recap each episode, but I won’t if you guys hate it so let me know in the comments below. I’d love to talk about the series!