I'm Glad My Mom Died

It wasn't working for me at first. I found it wide-eyed and simple, not realizing that McCurdy is subtly adjusting her voice to reflect the age she's writing about. It's a small thing, but done well as we see her moving into her petulant teenage years and then into the revelry and rebellion of young adulthood.

While it's specific to Jennette's experience as a Nickelodeon child star, it's also the perfect encapsulation of what we've long been witness to. From the conservatorship of Britney Spears to the entire D'Amelio clan cashing in Charli's initial TikTok fame which has shades of Lindsay Lohan's camera hungry parents. Sadly this isn't an especially new story.

Debra McCurdy is still a one of a kind monster. Hypocritical hyper-religious Mormon when it suited her, to capitalizing on her bout with cancer for points, she exploited, bullied and manipulated her daughter into becoming a child actor so she could live vicariously through her. She encouraged her anorexia so Jennette could land child roles longer, which inevitably led to her bulimia. Weirdly insisted on showering with her daughter until she was 17, and became fiercely co-dependent on Jennette as her star began to rise.

Meanwhile Jennette herself was wrestling with being sexualized onscreen as such a young age, of having to take increasingly irate direction for what was her first ever kiss, to being manipulated, lied to and dismissed. All while she trying to uncover who exactly she was when the cameras weren't rolling with an upbringing that never provided her with the tools to deal with it all.

It's unbelievably frank, even-handed, and even empathetic when Jennette could have justifiably taken a torch to everyone involved in her formative years at Nickelodeon. One hell of a debut.