The Greatest Show on Earth is really quite bad.

I totally agree with you. I remember being wrecked by it when I saw it. I didn't hate Beth; it might've been because of the golf course scene, in which MTM's performance is chilling:

And Catherine Zeta Jones in the supporting actress category (which she won) even though her role was equivalent to Zellweger's. And Jake Gyllenhaal being in the supporting actor category, even though, again, his role was equivalent to Heath Ledger's. For some reason, that kind of thing drives me bonkers.

This B grade seemed wildly overgenerous to me, but these things are subjective.

Watching the show now, it's hard for me to believe that I once absolutely loved it too. I finally gave up on it some time ago, but recently I was looking for something mindless to watch, and boy did I find it. In addition to what you wrote, Mindy the character is also now an idiot. To give the show (faint) credit,…

I wonder what he'd have to say about Jennifer Coolidge's Polish accent in 2 Broke Girls?

I briefly mentioned Steel Magnolias above (in which I remember the actresses saying in an interview that Herb Ross told them just to use their own accents; he wasn't interested in being authentic to northwestern Louisiana where the movie takes place. Shirley MacLaine is from Virginia; Dolly's from Tennessee, of…

Must be. The Southern accent is frequently awful. Not that hers is awful, but Sally Field, whether it's in Norma Rae, Places in the Heart, Steel Magnolias, Forrest Gump, has got one Southern accent in her, and it doesn't sound like it's from anyplace.

I think that ship has sailed. I read the first couple of recaps when the show first started, then just got away from it. But now, reading them pretty much all at once, they're all so riddled with actually quite bad mistakes, it's distracting.

I know that there are all kinds of situations, but I couldn't wrap my mind around that woman who came up to the car, asking if she could have the plastic bottles (nice to wake up a stranger napping to ask if you can have stuff from their car, lady!).

Well, she treats her own mother, Phyl, execrably. So it seems like no surprise that her kids, observing that, treat her the same way.

Mormon Morgan spitting whenever Duke said, "Oh, my god!" (Twice). I guess one of her issues?

I can't take that quavering voice. I feel like Mikey Madison leans on it too much.

And Paisley said she'd been a fan since she was seven. I was thinking, really?

What, you couldn't get a read out of this? "Adlon directed this episode herself (she also did the second episode, “Period”) and she continues the tradition that the likes of Lance Bangs and Nisha Ganatra." (Amid about 20 other mistakes.)