The titular subject of the new R.J. Cutler’s Martha, Martha Stewart, is a life of beginnings. One of those beginnings is a wreck in Westport, Connecticut, which she turned into a catering business. The Netflix documentary then shows that business turning into an empire and proximity to certain things. By things, I’m talking, specifically, about Wall Street and the insider trading that occurs within and the calls people make that are dicey. That kind of trading gets her prison time, a setback that’s going to make her start all over again.

Martha fits into one of the niches that Netflix is trying to get into in its ‘we’ll take anything’ era. Part of that ‘anything’ includes the rise, fall, and rebounds of scrappy ‘self-made’ multi-millionaires. And yes, I’m saying this because I’m watching this in proximity to one of the streamer’s docuseries. This doesn’t have the problems that Mr. McMahon has in that unlike McMahon, Stewart shows vulnerabilities. She reveals her letters to her now ex-husband, showing the desperate phase of a ‘perfect’ homemaker.

Revealing embarrassing moments during a breakup feels like small potatoes next to other subjects. The documentary spends a lot of time during Stewart’s insider trading era, which she’s open about. Sure, that aspect of Martha is surprising, but there’s a wish-y washiness to how it handles that subject matter. And sure, there are worse crimes, and she faced consequences that her male counterparts did not. Stewart’s intentions are understandable here as she tries to paint herself as a good person like most.

But as Cutler follows Stewart’s lead on that subject, it robs her of an otherwise complex portrait. This simplification almost ruins Martha if it didn’t bring up other subjects comprising a third act save. By that part of the documentary, it recreates, through diary entries and illustrations, Stewart’s prison time. Through voiceovers, she laments bad prison food and the fact that her boyfriend ended up abandoning her. I don’t know if I should be surprised or not that Stewart is an advocate for prisoners’ rights and abolition.

There’s also a subject matter that Martha that doesn’t come out fully formed but I like that it touches on it. That subject is her unlikely partnerships that are more meaningful than ones that are more conventional. Her partnership with upper class men faded faster than the one with K-Mart and her friendship with Snoop Dogg. I wish the documentary spent more time examining those dynamics and how Stewart navigates class structures. The doc’s argument of her being the first influencer also feels forced but her comeback is quintessentially American.

Watch Martha on Netflix.