Overview
It's a very specific genre — that'd be documentaries about Britney Spears, her life over the past 13-plus years under a conservatorship and her efforts to free herself from the arrangement — and it's about to hit viewers one more time. After Hulu's Framing Britney Spears quickly became everyone's must-see doco earlier in 2021, Netflix's Britney vs Spears is stepping back into the case. And, it'll be doing so very soon.
Block out Tuesday, September 28 in your diary, as that's when the Erin Lee Carr (How To Fix a Drug Scandal, Dirty Money)-directed film will hit the streaming platform. If you watched its aforementioned predecessor, or you've paid any attention to news stories over the years, you'll know that Britney vs Spears will cover quite the tale — and Netflix has just dropped a trailer for the doco as well.
"I just want my life back," says Britney in the sneak peek's first seconds. "I've worked my whole life. I don't owe these people anything," she continues. Since early 2008, when she was first put under a conservatorship, the pop star's choices haven't been her own — and that's an arrangement she's been fighting against for years, and the whole reason that the #FreeBritney movement has sprung up.
Drawn from investigative journalism over several years, Britney vs Spears will explore Britney's life — both public and private — and her quest to be rid of the conservatorship. It also promises new documents and interviews, some of which are teased in the trailer. And, with Carr working alongside journalist Jenny Eliscu to unpack exactly what the situation has meant for Britney, who has been involved and what the star has been doing behind the scenes, it also charts her path from teen stardom to battling for legal autonomy.
This year marks 23 years since '...Baby One More Time' rocketed up Australia's charts, and made sure that everyone in the country knew who Britney was. Before then, she'd been in the spotlight since her time on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in the early 90s; however, it was that blockbuster pop song that truly catapulted her to megastar-level fame. In the decades since, the singer has enjoyed a slew of other hits, thanks to everything from 'Sometimes', '(You Drive Me) Crazy' and 'Oops!... I Did It Again' to 'Toxic', 'Everytime' and 'If U Seek Amy'. Yes, you now have at least one of these songs stuck in your head (or, let's be honest, a medley of all them).
Britney vs Spears will also arrive on Netflix a day before the next court date in Britney's ongoing quest to end the conservatorship. Just yesterday, on Wednesday, September 22, one of her lawyers told a Los Angeles judge that he expects her conservatorship will finish "completely and inevitably" during the American fall.
Check out the Britney vs Spears trailer below:
Britney vs Spears will be available to stream via Netflix on Tuesday, September 28.