Taylor Swift Tour Disney+ docuseries

“I wanted to serve the fans too much. That was my main goal,” Taylor Swift says in the Disney+ docuseries. The end of an era. And while she’s talking specifically about the Eras Tour, the giant event that saw record revenue over 21 months and 149 shows, she might as well be talking about the last few years of her life in general. In this case, objective achieved. Even the most voracious Swiftie couldn’t argue at this point that our pop goddess stood up to us.

Since launching the tour in 2023, Swift has released two new albums, two “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings and one high-profile engagement. (The latter may not be part of her professional career per se, but no fan would deny that watching their fairytale romance unfold in public was part of the fun.)

The Eras tour itself resulted, in addition to the three and a half hour set, in a commemorative photo book, not one but two concert films (Taylor Swift | The tour of eras | The final show also comes out on Disney+ today), and now this, a six-part look at it all. Like most soft-focus documentaries about much-loved musicians, this collage of interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and concert B-roll paints a flattering portrait that will primarily be of interest to those who are already devotees of the Taylor Swift ecosystem. But those devotees should be happy with the warm (albeit carefully negotiated and artist-approved) intimacy on offer here.

The end of an era is not a juicy reveal. (For a more revealing examination of the musician’s inner life, it’s best to return to Lana Wilson’s documentary Miss Americanreleased in 2020 when Swift was “just” an A-list pop star and not the world-devouring phenomenon she is today.) The first two hour-long episodes released today — four more will air over the next two weeks — are a pleasant meander through the experience of putting together and performing the Eras tour, focused primarily but not exclusively on Swift.

It does, however, offer amusing little glimpses into Swift’s daily life, in scenes where she playfully scolds her cats as they fight on her bed, or while rehearsing with her friend and special tour guest Florence Welch, or while calling her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

During one call, the couple showered each other with so much praise that it’s hard not to wonder how much they’re poking fun at the cameras: “How are you doing so well?” says Kelce as she prepares for a special appearance by Ed Sheeran. But later, when she enthuses that the crowd seemed to know exactly the energy she needed and he assures her that’s certainly the case, you remember that he’s one of the few people in the world who knows exactly what it’s like to regularly get up to perform in front of thousands of screaming fans. And what might have seemed like a gentle but hollow assurance coming from someone else looks like the truth of the Gospel coming from him.

It is in scenes like these, seemingly unguarded, moving and improvised, that The end of an era is very convincing and endearing. But there are other moments when the tension between polished superstardom and authentic “reality” feels more poignant. When Swift choked up while recounting the summer of 2024, when the fatal shooting of three children in a Swift-themed dance class was followed days later by a terrorist threat that canceled three shows in Vienna, I felt both emotional and guilty: Who was I to see this woman grappling with such intensely private feelings?

The answer was, of course, “a fan.” More than any pop star of her caliber, Swift has made “relatability” part of her brand, and this documentary series was made not only with her blessing but also with her active participation; Clearly, she’s determined that this is a part of herself that she’s willing to share with the world. But when she talks about feeling “stalked,” and her friend Sheeran — another person very familiar with the spotlight — sneers, “I feel like people have forgotten that you’re a human being in all of this, too,” we wonder whether leaning over to watch this woman cry is more a matter of empathy on our part or parasocial voyeurism.

Not that The end of an era is equipped to philosophize, or particularly interested in philosophizing, about pop stardom on this level. That interlude aside, the docuseries feels almost too cold, in contrast to the ecstatic energy of the tour itself. There are numerous shots of fans filling stadiums or shouting their favorite lyrics from the front row; interviews with Swift’s musicians and dancers, who marvel at how impressed they are with everyone’s work ethic and what a wonderful experience it was; and (most amusingly) takes a look inside the cleaning cart that Swift used to hide in while being transported to different stadiums. It’s all very mild and, unless you’re a truly passionate Swiftie, unnecessary.

There is no (unlike Renaissance: a Beyoncé filmhalf concert film and half behind-the-scenes documentary), a ton of information on the creative inspirations that went into designing the show, or the day-to-day logistics of putting it together in a different city each week. But the series makes a point of highlighting Swift’s collaborators, devoting mini-profiles to assistant choreographer and dancer Amanda Balen and dancer Kameron Saunders. The most ardent supporters will know these names well, and everyone else will have the chance to marvel, through Balen’s story, at how physically demanding the job can be, or admire, through Saunders’s, what a warm and inclusive place the tour has been.

If these two segments seem designed to refract a flattering light on Swift and her tour, well, that’s part and parcel of this whole exercise. The end of an era is a victory lap for a job well done rather than an event in its own right. But after so many songs, so many albums, so many nights on the road and so many records broken, it’s hard to deny that Swift and her Eras tour didn’t deserve it.