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Celebrity

29th Sep 2021

Netflix’s new Britney Spears documentary is getting a lot of backlash

Katy Brennan

britney spears

The media is still exploiting Britney, except this time they’ve changed the angle.

Netflix’s long-awaited Britney documentary only premiered on Tuesday but it’s already being met with a plethora of negative reviews.

Britney vs. Spears, directed by Erin Lee Carr, delves into the the singer’s highly publicised conservatorship case.

The story of the 13-year-long legal battle is told through exclusive interviews with figures from Britney’s past, including British paparazzo Adnan Ghalib, business associate Sam Lutfi, and her former assistant and friend Felicia Culotta.

The Guardian gave the documentary a one-star review, referring to it as “shlocky, trashy and deeply uncomfortable,” adding that “the makers couldn’t keep up with an ever-shifting case but wanted to meet a deadline nonetheless.”

According to inews.co.uk‘s two-star review, the film has “has all the air of an amateur true-crime podcast thinking it is solving a particularly juicy murder,” and is “one-sided, careless and inaccurate.”

The UK independent deemed the documentary “irresponsible, boring, and a waste of everyone’s time.”

Britney vs. Spears is the latest in a seemingly endless line of Britney-themed documentaries being thrown our way. The abundance of films revolving around the pop-star’s life – which brand themselves as being supportive of the star and her struggles – has some people questioning the true intentions of those behind them.

Britney herself expressed her frustration though an Instagram post back in May.

“These documentaries are so hypocritical… they criticise the media and then do the same thing,”  she wrote.

And her fans agree. After watching the documentary on Netflix, many viewers shared their opinions on Twitter.

“Someone care to explain how the media dragging Britney Spears’ entire life on public display for ratings is different/better this time around? Leave the poor woman alone and stop broadcasting her every move to make other people money,” one user wrote.

“Every media company making 15 documentaries about Britney Spears is really just continuing the tabloid paparazzi exploitation of her for views and money but rebranding it as informative and helpful,” another said.

Netflix’s documentary follows the release of The New York Times’ Controlling Britney Spears, which dropped on Hulu and FX last week – a sequel to the successful Framing Britney Spears.

After the release of Framing Britney Spears in February, Britney took to Instagram to share her thoughts, saying the film left her feeling “embarrassed” and that she “cried for two weeks.”