New series chronicles the rise of Martha Stewart

A new four-part series from CNN (which will be broadcast later on Max), “The Many Lives of Martha Stewart,” chronicles the rise of the iconic domestic doyenne, from model to stockbroker to controller of a media empire. Eater’s Bettina Makalintal provides us with a glimpse of what the limited series has to offer.

The first two episodes trace Stewart’s trajectory from being a stockbroker to cookbook and lifestyle author to being crowned the world’s “first self-made billionaire.” Relying on clips of Stewart along with interviews of former employees and people who viewed her as a role model (Stewart declined to be interviewed), the show discusses the effect she has had on the modern brand of aspirational lifestyle and cooking influencers. It also confronts the fact that Stewart’s dogged pursuit of perfection could be polarizing. (I knew someone who worked with her in the 1990s and let’s just say that person does not have warm and fuzzy memories of her time there.)

The show’s third and fourth episodes discuss Stewart’s stint in a federal prison and her carefully orchestrated comeback. We also see how Stewart has modified her image as the times have changed, becoming more relaxed and laidback in recent years, palling around with Snoop Dogg and lending her image to CBD products and Bic pens, among other things.