The first two installments of the six-episode series are entertaining, engrossing, emotional... and surprisingly willing to spotlight fan-favorite supporting characters.
To answer one of the most frequently asked questions about the two episodes of Taylor Swift’s docuseries, “The End of an Era,” now streaming: Does her boyfriend, the NFL superstar, appear? The answer is a qualified yes: Travis Kelce appears as a sweet, disembodied voice through a speaker. Swift knows how to build anticipation, so it’s likely that the substantial material about the NFL player and the romance that blossomed during the Eras Tour is being saved for episodes 3 through 6 (perhaps as a Christmas gift, since the last two air on December 26).
Stars: Taylor Swift, Mandy Moore, Andrea Swift
Meanwhile, in this pair of utterly engrossing 45-minute segments, the couple’s burgeoning long-distance relationship is heard, though not seen, as what’s shaping up to be America’s First Couple exchanges notes on their jobs. When Kelce expresses awe at her ability to memorize three and a half hours of choreography every night, she suggests they share the same brain chemistry. “How do you remember 36,000 plays that are tactical missions and then just execute them? It’s the same thing. It’s basically the same job,” Swift insists. “I have to remember dances, you have to remember plays. You have teammates, I have teammates. You have Coach Reed, I have my mom… I love you so much… Some people get a vitamin drip [before a concert], I have this conversation.”
Or perhaps Swift and her directors, Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce, who were likely hired because things went well on a previous project, the 2023 Prime Video documentary “Kelce,” are holding back footage of the promised future because they don’t want it to steal the spotlight from a possibly even bigger star in the world of die-hard Swift fans: Kameron Saunders. The dancer from The Eras Tour is undoubtedly the star of Episode 2, at least in a prominent appearance that demonstrates how well Argott and Joyce know how to give the audience what they want: "more Kam" and more information about her dancers in general, each with their own devoted following.
In fact, so much time is spent on them in the second hour that Swift herself practically disappears for much of the episode to allow the theme of "it takes a village of dancers" to unfold. Imagine a self-produced documentary about another pop star of Swift's stature, if such a thing even exists right now, and then imagine how much screen time they would be willing to cede for a segment about their dancers. That imagination contributes, however minimally, to giving credence to the oft-repeated maxim that there's something bigger than Swift herself at play in The Eras Tour. (Even a tired cliché, like a broken clock, can be right twice a day.)
Saunders is the plus-size dancer—though it doesn't take much to be considered that in the world of dance—who became a fan favorite early in The Eras Tour's nearly two-year run. It didn't hurt that Swift gave him something none of her other dancers have in the show: a line. (His job during "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" each night is to deliver a variation of the word "never" at a moment when the music stops, tailored to wherever the tour is, whether in a foreign language or with some local flair.)
When the segment about Saunders begins in Episode 2, there's talk of how he had given up hope of a career beyond teaching, when he answered an anonymous ad seeking dancers with non-traditional profiles, and it suggests that, yes, we're about to get a lesson in how diversity, equity, and inclusion still matter. But by the time the episode gets to a well-developed conversation between Saunders and his supportive mother, any doubts about the docuseries taking time out for a moral lesson are likely to have been overcome by emotion. Undoubtedly, there's no more thrilling moment in the first two episodes than when the editors repeatedly cut back to Saunders' mother in the stands, waiting for her son to have his moment of glory, and the roar this elicits.
Yes, even Andrea Swift is overshadowed, in terms of maternal pride, in "The End of an Era," and it feels great.
Saunders turns out to be one of two featured dancers in Episode 2 who thought their stage careers were over before they were catapulted to global fame as part of the Eras Tour. The other is Amanda Balen, who had already been hired as an assistant to the co-choreographer.
But watching Swift encourage the dancers and then integrate with them as the steps are revealed is undeniably thrilling. And the star makes a candid confession that will elicit laughs from fans watching at home:
“Everyone has their talents. It’s taken me a long time to even be decent at choreography.” She explains that her learning process involves staying connected to the essence of the songs she’s written. “Mandy knows how to teach me choreography from a lyrical perspective,” Swift says. “I don’t follow eight-counts. I learn based on the syllable of the lyric that I associate a movement with, and I can’t learn any other way.”
The reason that “decent” comment will get laughs is that for years, and especially over the past two and a half years, there’s been a global internet debate about whether or not Swift is a good dancer. (To the point that, although it’s not mentioned in the documentary, the New York Times dance critic had to weigh in on the matter in a column, after the paper’s pop music critics had already offered their opinions.) Whether Swift ever had the potential to be a Rockette is debatable, but what’s on display here is an athleticism that certainly rivals Kelce’s in her ability to perform for 210 minutes a night. These first two episodes only scratch the surface of the training regimen that went into making those marathons work for nearly two years. For now, it’s only mentioned that Swift began her physical training process six months before the first tour rehearsal. It would be valuable for the remaining four episodes to show us more of that grueling process; that may depend on whether Swift actually wants us to see her sweat.
In these early hours, what we mostly see is actual sweat. Episode 1 is largely about how she handles the big problems, like reacting when her concerts are canceled due to a terrorist plot. The series opens with some predictable celebratory footage and commentary… a montage of hands and friendship bracelets around the world… before getting down to business and tackling some of the tougher issues that will arise. Specifically, the thwarted terrorist plots that led to the cancellation of the three concerts in Vienna, and the profound anxiety this caused the star before the next series of concerts in London. And also, the deadly attack on a Swift-themed children's dance class in Liverpool that left three dead.
“We averted a massacre,” Swift says of the Vienna incident… and then becomes emotional as she acknowledges the victims in Liverpool, unrelated to the tour itself, but still considered an attack on the global, feminist joy she represented. (It's mentioned that Swift met with the families and survivors of that attack, but the cameras don't go into those rooms.)
After telling her mother that her hands are shaking and her nerves are frayed before the London concerts, despite the heightened, top-level security measures, Swift gets a much-needed boost from Ed Sheeran, who comes to the emotional rescue to duet on their old song "Everything Has Changed" as a surprise for the audience at the first London show.
For viewers who care about the musical aspects of all this, and how Swift prepared all the special performances that took place each night during the tour, these will be quietly captivating moments: Swift singing along to a recording of herself in the car to refamiliarize herself with the melody, and then sitting with Sheeran backstage with a couple of acoustic guitars as they recall exactly what this old song they're dusting off sounded like. He remembers a couple of chords she's struggling to recall, and they get down to business. For a few minutes, it feels like they're preparing to perform at a house party rather than preparing a spontaneous moment for the most rigorously planned and elaborate show in show business.
There's much more laughter in Episode 2, not only because there's no longer a terrorist subplot or the resulting anxiety to contend with, but because Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine proves to be a very charming comedic foil. She arrives to guest star at one of the later London concerts, recreating their duet of "Florida!!!" as a one-off performance on the tour. No expense was spared in the production of this segment, even though it will never be repeated; we see the band rehearsing the arrangement, but, more importantly, the choreographers devising elaborate dance steps that Swift and Welch will have to incorporate. And Welch's astonished reactions to the magnitude of a tour she had only imagined until that point add a touch of humor.
Comments
Post a Comment