This definitely could've been more. I was expecting an unraveling of early 2000s culture, in which exploited girls are singing girl power anthems, an unraveling of things that seemed fine and/or bonkers at the time but decades later revealed themselves for what they actually are (reporters asking sixteen-year-old girls if they were virgins, Britney Spears shaving off all her hair because she was tired of it not being hers). The closest it came to me was The Rolling Stones article where opinion is treated as fact, quotes are layered in to paint Amber in the only light people want to see her in, but done to meet your expectations so perfectly that you don't even realize you've been manipulated into it and that that's not reality, just a gross old man being gross. The quiz giving all the current female singers 2-D characteristics making them into archetypes as though that's actually their personality was pretty good too.

But, honestly, this was too rose-colored glasses for me. Amber and Gwen would not have started or remained friends, I don't believe it - I liked it but the messaging in that era was definitely other girls are your competition: for men, for jobs, for attention. I imagine fame would've pushed that up to 11. There's a reason 'not like other girls' became a thing and that it took years for people to realize why that was even problematic.

That Amber was 'the whore' and no one tried to make her prove it - when you're around that many skeezy dudes with power over you? Didn't ring true. I don't know if this was just trying to focus on the characters it made, who weren't realistic for the time period, or if it was trying to lampoon said era but - either way - it didn't accomplish it.