This is billed as an "autobiography", but it's more of a rehashing of the case with comments from Ms. Smart interspersed. After an hour & a half the viewer doesn't come away with the depth of knowledge of the individual that one would expect from an "autobiography". In fact, this plays much more like an episode of any of several true crime shows. Not that there's anything wrong with that-- just don't try to sell it as an autobiography.
Since the producers chose to follow the true crime formula they could have easily focused on other lesser known aspects of this story in order to cast new light on a fairly well known event, but they blew those opportunities in spades. For example, using the same amount of screen time to highlight the bias, preconceptions, and outright incompetence of law enforcement investigating this case would have made for a much more compelling documentary. After all, this family was not only victimized by a pair of lunatics, they were also victimized by myopic police unable to think beyond the manual and their own limited experiences. The real story buried within is just how little the police contributed to the eventual resolution of this crime.
This presentation may be of interest to viewers with a strong curiosity about this particular case-- just don't expect to learn much (if anything) new. But if you're tuning in to learn how Ms. Smart coped with her ordeal during and after the fact, don't expect to learn much. If you're looking for an interesting true crime story you'll find better told stories elsewhere, so give this one a miss unless you've never heard the story before, because there's virtually no new ground broken here.
