Robbie Williams in Netflix documentary "And suddenly my legs stopped working"
Is the four hours of Robbie Williams worth it for non-fans? Let's put it this way: if you want confirmation that a superstar can be just as miserable as the rest of us, you shouldn't miss the Netflix series.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The life of pop star Robbie Williams is the subject of a new documentary series on Netflix.
- In four one-hour episodes, his life from Take That to his solo successes and recent comeback is traced.
- The series is above all a testimony to the mental problems that the superstar still has today as a result of his early success.
- His relationship with Switzerland falls by the wayside in the series.
He has often let his pants down - even on stage. But not many people are likely to have experienced Robbie Williams being as ruthlessly honest as he is currently on Netflix.
It's fitting that the superstar is being filmed at home on his bed in his underpants while he sifts through countless hours of video footage from the last 30 years of his pop star life for the documentary team.
"I'm a recluse," he explains. "When I'm not on stage, I'm in my bed."
But is it even worth watching the four hours of "Robbie Williams"? Especially as the British newspaper "The Guardian " wrote that the series is a "grim watch" - a depressing movie experience?
Drugs, pills, mental breakdowns
In fact, the Netflix show is above all a testimony to the abysses behind the glamorous pop star façade. Robbie Williams has always been open about his darker side; his downfalls were and are well documented in the press.
But because the singer is filmed this time as he looks at the stages of his troubled life on a laptop, the Netflix documentary has a brutal closeness - and authenticity.
The alcohol and cocaine phase following his Take That departure, the prolonged panic attack at the first of his two mega-shows in Leeds (which were broadcast live on British TV), the steroid injections as a pick-me-up on the 2003 tour, the pills that led to a breakdown and admission to a rehab clinic in his new home in Los Angeles - the Netflix four-parter paints a picture of a tortured soul.
Anyone who has ever envied Williams for his fame, his success with women or his wealth will no longer do so after this show.
Robbie Williams struggled with England and the press
Sure: fans of the British entertainer will be familiar with many of the events.
But because the camera has obviously almost always been present at very personal moments in Robbie Williams' 30-year career, the audience is given an incredibly intimate insight into a superstar's life between highs and depression.
The shots from his vacation with Ginger Spice Geri Halliwell are great, for example, about which Williams says: "I was happy in these pictures - the only moment of all the ones you've shown me so far".
The source of his unhappiness is partly the impact of his early success, which all Take That members had to deal with. But also his insecurity, which was exacerbated by the press, especially during the paparazzi heyday at the turn of the millennium.
We see the star reading mocking headlines about himself in the Sun and can literally feel how much they hurt him. And how the negative reviews of his very personal album "Rudebox" hurt him - so much so that he hardly dared to go on stage anymore.
He also made frightening recordings in which he got so high on prescription drugs that he injured himself.
"I had to go to the toilet at night. I wanted to get up, but suddenly my legs stopped working. I fell headfirst into the light switch on the wall in my bathroom."
Robbie's love for Switzerland is left out
So the Netflix show about Robbie Williams is often more horror movie than homage, despite the incredible successes, the screams of his many female fans and the beautiful locations.
At least the series ends on a conciliatory note. It shows a reformed almost-50s actor as a loving father and grateful husband who has also made a comeback in his career.
However, it is also obvious that - probably for the sake of the family - certain episodes in his life were only touched on marginally. His aggression or his excessive groupie time in L.A., for example, are only mentioned in a short sentence ("I'm not the first and not the last pop star to do this").
Switzerland is also not mentioned. It is known that Williams liked to retreat to Zermatt at the time of his greatest successes; in the meantime, he is even said to be looking for a place to stay in Gstaad.
But the tranquillity of the Swiss mountains falls by the wayside in "Robbie Williams". Too much harmony would probably not have done this docu-series, which is consistently geared towards psycho-drama, any good either.