Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Janet Jackson’ on Lifetime, A Documentary About The Mysterious Singer’s Life, Work, And Quest For Control

“In 2017, Janet Jackson invited a documentary film crew on her eighth concert tour. They followed her for the next five years.” And with that, Janet Jackson (Lifetime) sets the stage for its revealing journey through the enigmatic singer’s life and a career that spans four decades in show business. Janet Jackson airs in four parts over two nights on Lifetime.

JANET JACKSON: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An aerial shot of Gary, Indiana, the Jackson family’s hometown. A procession of black SUVs ferries Janet Jackson through the streets to her childhood home – she says she’s returning to the city for the first time since she was eight years old.

The Gist: Janet Jackson combines five years of access to the famously press-shy singer and performer by documentary director Ben Hirsch and his crew with archival footage, media clips, and interviews with family members, industry peers, and entertainment luminaries. It was time to tell her story her way, says the woman who redefined her career with the 14X platinum 1986 album Control. But her story is forever linked to the legacy of her hard-driving father Joseph and his shepherding of the Jackson children’s careers, and it’s that legacy that the first episode of this four-part doc attempts to unpack. The elder Jackson was a strict disciplinarian, but as Janet and older brother Tito tell it, it was his determination that fueled the Jackson Five’s ascendance and the family’s exodus from Gary. “Where we came from and where we are now,” Janet says, “We owe so much to my father.” But she also understands how that determination robbed her. “Growing up, I feel like I didn’t experience my father the way I wanted to, the way I saw other kids experiencing their father.”

With success, the Jackson family relocated to Los Angeles. Entertainers from Bing Crosby to Diana Ross partied at their house, and pretty soon Joseph had installed Janet in showbiz, too. At seven she was onstage in Las Vegas doing two variety shows a night. “I don’t ever remember being asked,” Janet says of Joseph’s management of her career. “I just remember being put into it.” And Janet’s acting and singing career flourished even as she questioned her personal identity.

Of course, that struggle to find herself was largely what fired the furious expression of the Control album. But before Janet Jackson can tell that story – part two takes on her rise to pop stardom – the doc has to reckon with Janet’s brief, disastrous 1984 marriage to James DeBarge, and the emotional fallout from it.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Janet’s personal relationship with her brother Michael and the myriad ways their careers intertwine are a part of Janet Jackson, which a mention of the controversial 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland worthwhile. It seems the Jacksons are always being talked about, wondered about, somewhere. And for more career and family controversy, there’s Britney Vs Spears on Netflix, concerning the singer’s complicated fight for legal freedom, not to mention Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson, a recent episode of the FX/Hulu co-production of The New York Times Presents that focuses on the infamous Super Bowl “Nipplegate” scandal.

Our Take: “Where do I fit in?” It’s a question Janet Jackson asks of her early childhood, where she was always adjacent to her brothers while their careers flourished. As coordinated by her father Joseph, the family’s energies were fully committed toward rehearsal and hustle, with no time left over for unstructured play or the other delights of childhood. And in that sense, that Janet would also enter show business feels preordained. Her natural talent aside, entertainment was the family business. But Janet’s question about fit also doesn’t feel like something she’s managed to really answer, even after her achieving worldwide fame and the groundbreaking empowerment embodied in records like Control, Rhythm Nation, and Janet. She describes how her famous last name puts her under a microscope, and her unwillingness to engage with that is well known. But Janet Jackson itself doesn’t explore that unwillingness. It only acknowledges it before moving on. And that feels like a missed opportunity in a doc that boasts such unfettered access.

That’s not to say Janet Jackson doesn’t have its rewards. Janet is warm, thoughtful, and quick with emotion throughout the doc – an early moment in Gary where she breaks down upon seeing a mural of the Jackson 5 is naturalistic and affecting – and the scope of archival footage that appears here is vast, from grainy film of the Jackson Five’s original Motown audition to a pint-size Janet working the room and wowing Vegas audiences with laughs and song. Janet Jackson is fascinating in its documentation of a life lived in show business. But the person at its center still manages to harbor her mystery.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: “Ben, I don’t wanna talk about this anymore,” Janet tells the doc’s director as she falters amidst recollections of her marriage to DeBarge. “It doesn’t matter how much work you do,” she says, perhaps imagining years of past therapy. “It’s still painful.”

Sleeper Star: Throughout, Janet Jackson cuts to takes from celebrities on Janet and her famous family band, personalities like Whoopi Goldberg, Lee Daniels, and Paula Abdul. “The Jackson Five captured the heart of young America,” Questlove Thompson says, and it didn’t matter what color you were, only that the youth understood the Jacksons’ vitality and energy.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I didn’t understand the vision my father had for my career.” There’s no question of Joseph Jackson’s profound influence over Janet and her work. But he’s also referenced with distance and awe, and that sense speaks more to the singer’s relationship with her father than anything she says overtly.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Janet Jackson’s reticence to reveal herself is well known, especially when it comes to her personal life, so this doc’s access is very much without precedent. But it’s also revealing in its wealth of incredible archival footage.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges