Taylor Jenkins Reid’s popular book Daisy Jones and the Six was a literary blast from the past, a fictional oral history of a drugs-and-sex-fueled rock band from the 1970s that might as well have been called Schmeetwood Schmack.

The new television adaptation, developed by (500) Days of Summer’s Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, has morphed into the most common TV trope du jour, a docu-style talking heads drama. The result is one of omniscient truth – instead of different people’s stories clashing and coalescing, the audience has to take the version we see as the gospel (or rock) truth.

The results don’t plum deep enough into character nor does the original music really take viewers back to the more freewheeling 1970s. As Daisy, Riley Keough is beguiling, but the series lets her down but not letting her be bad enough – she needs to be likable at times but also hedonistic enough to be a face of the era. Daisy Jones and the Six wants you to want them when it should really make you want to go your own way.