Swifties rejoice because Disney Plus has just served up a double dose of Taylor Swift. Today (December 12) sees the premiere of not just a new Eras Tour movie (yes, it now includes "The Tortured Poets Department" era), but also the first two episodes of a new six-episode docuseries, “Taylor Swift: The End of an Era.”
No, this isn’t her retirement announcement; it’s a behind-the-scenes look at the globe-spanning “The Eras Tour” covering the show’s initial inception, the highs and lows of taking the three-hour concert extravaganza road, and also how Swift fell in love with a certain NFL football player along the way. It’s going to be must-watch television this holiday season in any household containing a Taylor Swift fan (my own contains two dedicated fans!).
I’ve just streamed the first episode, titled “Welcome To The Eras Tour,” and after 45 minutes of pure Swift overload, I’ve come away impressed at the pop star's willingness to show extreme vulnerability, but also wondering if a few moments couldn’t have been trimmed.
‘Taylor Swift: The End of an Era’ is surprisingly raw (at times)
“Taylor Swift: The End of an Era” isn’t a new concept. Several artists have featured in their own behind-the-scenes doc. Swift’s close personal friend and collaborator, Ed Sheeran, has his own Disney Plus show as well. And for much of the runtime, at least in the first episode, “The End of the Era” sticks to the script established by similar docuseries focused on other artists.
That means lots of talking head interviews hyping up the phenomenon that was the Eras Tour, so much footage of adoring fans on the verge of tears, and Swift proudly describing how many in the industry thought the three-hour concert was impossible, only for her to prove all those doubters wrong — well, after all, haters gonna hate, hate, hate ….
This footage is fine, but it lacks much substance, and even as somebody who’s been a fan of Taylor Swift’s music for more than a decade, I found my eyes starting to glaze over after just a few minutes. I know Swift is a superstar. I know the Eras Tour was the most successful concert tour in history. I know her music has touched millions of listeners. Being told these undeniable facts over and over again is hardly gripping television.
What surprised me was when, at around the 10-minute mark, the documentary takes a darker turn and focuses on the events of August 2024 in Vienna, Austria. The three tour dates in the city were cancelled after authorities uncovered a plan to stage a terrorist attack at the concert. I figured this dark chapter of The Eras Tour might feature, but for it to be highlighted in the first episode wasn’t something I expected.
Right after showing news coverage of what happened (or should that be, thankfully didn’t happen) in Vienna, the doc touches on the horrific events in Southport, England, where three young children were murdered while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Viewers see Taylor Swift at her most vulnerable in the aftermath, and as a Brit who followed that story live, I got a little choked up recalling the sense of heartbreak that gripped the world over such senseless and cruel violence.
These portions of the doc are certainly not fun, and they tonally clash with the majority of the documentary footage, which is full of sequins, sparkles and Swift’s songbook, but I’m glad they were included, and particularly given such a prominence in the premiere episode. It would have been easy to gloss over these darker events, but including them reminds us why celebrating a force for good like the Eras Tour matters.
The first episode of “Taylor Swift: The End of an Era” ends on a triumphant note, as Swift takes to the Wembley Stadium stage and finds solace in the sold-out crowd singing along to every word. And as the credits started to roll, I was already eager to click the “play next episode” button. Though I’m hoping that future chapters offer a little more insight into the tour’s inner workings, and are slightly less focused on telling viewers over and over how Taylor Swift is the modern equivalent of The Beatles.
Watch "Taylor Swift: The End of an Era" on Disney Plus now
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