What am I missing?

So The Butterfly got curious and decided she wanted to see the train wreck that was supposedly Britney Spears' performance at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this week. Here it is:



I have to ask...what am I missing? I realize she did a marginally worse job of lip-syncing, and I realize she doesn't have that six pack anymore but...is this really much different than any number of her previous performances? I know she didn't wear a boa around her neck or french kiss Madonna, but...this is exactly what they had to be expecting.

Now...I'm not saying it's a good performance. Far, far, far from it. But I get really tired of the build-you-up-to-break-you-down routine. We're not talking about an amazing artist. She was propped up for years--media folks just couldn't get enough of her--and now the tide has turned on her career, so no matter how she performed on Sunday, it was going to be deemed a train wreck.

Again...let me be clear: this performance is worthless, but I've thought that about most of her performances. It's just all part of a storyline that the actual subjects of the story can't change. And it annoys the hell out of me.