It's a Thin Line

Forgive me if Emily Nussbaum's walkback on Smash feels like vindication:

Since its delightful pilot, the show has taken a nosedive so deep I’m surprised my ears haven’t popped. All the caveats I noted but dismissed in my earlier review have become the definingly awful features of “Smash.”

And the rap I'd heard from its early boosters was that it got better after a pilot I found anything but delightful. Seems to me instead, as a friend put it, that Smash was born jumping the shark.