Recently Netflix released their own version of a documentary regarding Britney Spears and her fight against her conservatorship in order to compete with Hulu, another popular streaming service. Britney vs Spears goes into the background of the conservatorship and confidential court documents that have not been revealed to the public until now. 

In a conservatorship,a person who is deemed incapable of making their own decisions has a conservator put in place by the state who manages their day-to-day affairs along with their financial decisions. 

Spears was placed into a conservatorship in 2007 by her father Jamie Spears after she had a public mental breakdown from pressure due to her divorce, the media tabloids, paparazzi, and postpartum depression. 

The Free Britney movement was started by fans after they started looking into the conservatorship and how suspicious it was. Despite being deemed “mentally incapable,” Spears had released two albums, completed world tours, and went on the X Factor throughout the conservatorship. 

This prompted suspicions that launched the movement into full force. At this point in time, Spears was able to get her own lawyer along with getting her father removed as being the conservator of person due to the help gathered by the Free Britney Movement. 

Britney vs Spears by Netflix primarily focuses on interviews with people who interacted with Britney Spears.. The documentary also goes more in depth on the people who allegically helped to establish the conservatorship while reaping the benefits of Spears’ multiple million dollar fortune. 

I appreciated the interviews and the look at the people who worked with Britney because it allowed the documentary to paint a picture of Spears the person and not the pop legend we already know. I also appreciated this because it provided more perspectives and discussion points that were not talked about in Framing Britney Spears by Hulu. 

Britney vs Spears also went into previously confidential court documents and included anonymous tips given to the producers. I appreciated how this gave more insight into how deep the conservatorship really went. 

However, this documentary in my opinion was a better supplement to someone’s prior knowledge rather than being a documentary for someone who does not know anything about the case. Hulu’s Framing Britney Spears did a much better job at explaining the situation and what a conservatorship is more clearly. 

On the other hand, Britney vs Spears was a little more personal in its depiction, but it lacked the ability to explain things thoroughly. A lot of important information is left out, and if I had not watched the Hulu documentary, I would have been very confused by the end of the Netflix one.

Netflix most likely left out a lot of the nitty gritty of Spears’ conservatorship to focus on the more personal aspects because Framing Britney Spears had already done such a great job at that.

Additionally, by the time the Netflix documentary came out, the world as a whole was pretty familiar with the case through watching the Hulu documentary first or through the news over the last few months. 

Overall, I believe that Britney vs Spears is a good watch. It’s fascinating and it piqued my interest despite already being educated on the case. People should try to watch Hulu one first or do more research to get more background information before watching the Netflix documentary. 

Despite Britney vs Spears not being as impactful as Framing Britney Spears, I believe that it’s a good watch to get more educated on a fascinating yet chilling topic.