Second night of Janet Jackson documentary lacked fresh insight

“The youngest sibling of the famed Jackson family is proving she’s a performing powerhouse in her own right by winning eight Billboard magazine awards yesterday for smash-hit album ‘Rhythm Nation 1814,’ ” says the disembodied voice of a newscaster.

Thus begins the second half of Lifetime and A&E’s “Janet Jackson,” the authorized four-hour docuseries in which the singer promises to tell the “untold story” of her life. “This is my story, told by me,” she says in the trailer.

The first half, some have argued, didn’t quite live up to that promise — trading any true revelations for, well, a fairly basic outline of her early life. Not much about it seemed previously “untold.” The second half, which aired Saturday night, finds her catapulting to the pinnacle of fame, but it lacked insight into what any of it meant.

In ‘Janet Jackson,’ a star famous for her privacy lives up to her reputation

The third hour begins with her Hollywood Walk of Fame induction and a big new contract with Virgin Records.

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We spend time on the set of her 1993 movie, “Poetic Justice,” where we learn that both Q-Tip and Tupac Shakur were excited for their kissing scenes with Jackson. As unilluminating as that might seem, it hints at her burgeoning status as a sex symbol, an evolution the docuseries largely credits to her ex-husband and frequent collaborator, René Elizondo Jr. Not everyone is thrilled with the development, however. A famous Rolling Stone cover, which features a topless Jackson and hands holding her breasts (later revealed to be Elizondo Jr.’s), causes strife in her family.

“I did not like it,” says her sister Rebbie Jackson. “My mom really did not like it. I’m a Bible student, and I try to live in harmony with principles. And it’s not being prudish or anything like that. It’s just, for me, that’s private.”

Janet Jackson saw things differently: “I thought that was very bold of me, to be quite honest, to unleash that within my family. With everybody else, it was probably no big issue. But I’m talking about my family, because that’s not how we were brought up. I do what I do because it’s something that I feel at that moment.”

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Most of the episode’s focus, however, is on her brother Michael. She reveals that she lost a highly lucrative endorsement deal with Coca-Cola when the first allegation arose in 1993 that Michael Jackson behaved inappropriately with a 13-year-old boy.

Even so, much like with the first half of the docuseries, it’s difficult not to sense that she pulled some punches.

It’s true that she doesn’t always cast Michael Jackson in the best light. At one point, she reveals that she’s an “emotional eater” who struggled with body issues, which weren’t helped by her brother’s insults — though she rushes to defend him in the same breath.

“Mike used to tease me and call me names. Used to call me ‘pig,’ ‘horse,’ slaughter hog, ‘cow,’ ” she says. “It wasn’t out of malice on his part at all. Brothers tease sisters; sisters tease brothers. It was just fun and funny. But there was somewhere down inside that it would hurt.”

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She also admits that the allegations against him were “frustrating” and that she wanted to “be there for him.” She also discusses how “tough” working with him on the 1995 song “Scream” turned out to be. But she doesn’t delve particularly deep into the allegations themselves and what they meant for their family, aside from dismissing them. “I know my brother. He didn’t have that in him,” she says. “My brother would never do something like that, but I’m still guilty by association. Because that’s what they call it, right?”

The docuseries is less kind to Elizondo Jr., who is described as a deeply controlling spouse with an unhealthy relationship with prescription painkillers. He did not participate in the doc.

It also details her lengthy relationship with Jermaine Dupri, who Jackson says cheated on her, which partially led to the end of their courtship. To his credit, Dupri appears in the doc, but he defends himself by saying, “I was a man.”

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The true talking point of the four-hour series arrives early in the fourth and final hour, which focuses on the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” during her 2004 Super Bowl performance with Justin Timberlake.

Perhaps the biggest reveal is that Jackson discouraged Timberlake from making a statement about the incident. “We talked once, and he said, ‘I don’t know if I should come out and make a statement,’ ” she says. “I said, ‘Listen, I don’t want any drama for you. They’re aiming all of this at me.’ So I just said, ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t say anything.’ ”

The incident dealt a lasting blow to Jackson’s career, while Timberlake’s success took off. (He publicly apologized for his silence this past February.)

More striking, however, is the fallout from the moment. Jackson was accused of revealing her breast on purpose as some sort of publicity stunt. The Federal Communications Commission was flooded with complaints and launched an investigation. She says she was disinvited from the 2004 Grammys. As Tyler Perry puts it: “It was this anti-Janet movement.”

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But, again, the docuseries speeds along to happier pastures. It concludes, naturally, on a high note, finding Jackson reveling in newfound motherhood and being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The final minutes become a sort of montage of praise for the singer.

“Janet has had the most phenomenal career,” Perry says. “If you look at the body of work, people will be able to look at this and go, ‘Oh my God, look what this woman has accomplished and achieved. Look at the doors she’s opened.’ ”

Nestled in that praise, however, is one odd bit of business that serves to undercut everything we’ve seen thus far: a litany of praise for the docuseries itself.

“I don’t think anyone really, really knows the real Janet Jackson,” says choreographer Gil Duldulao. “Until now.”

Jackson herself says: “People are always doing documentaries of you or writing a book about you or this or that, and I wanted people to see my family and myself, who we really are. Not someone else’s perception of us, … the real story.”

Four hours in, it’s difficult to say that viewers got that.

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