The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth

"The Circus - Inside the Craziest Political Campaign on Earth" (2020 release; episodes running 30 min. each) is Season 5 of the long-running Showtime documentary series in which we get the inside scope of the latest political happenings. As Episode 1 opens, we are in "Iowa, Two Weeks Before the Caucuses", and it is crunch time for the still large slate of presidential hopefuls. But these are not normal times, as the Trump impeachment trial in the US Senate is about to get started. It requires 3 of the front runners (Sanders, Warren, and Klobuchar) to return to Washington at the most critical juncture. Does it open the door for the other 2 front runners (Biden, Buttigieg)? At this point we are 10 min. into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: by now (Season 5), "The Circus" production team is seemingly a well-oiled machine. The three usual suspects (Alex Wagner, John Heilemann, and Mark McKinnon) are joined this season by Jennifer Palmieri (who advised the Clinton campaign in 2016), as there is so much going on that a 4th person is a godsend. The series continues to be well-served by the seemingly unfettered "all access" to the candidates. The energy is palpable, as these are all political junkies who just live for this stuff. Season 5 runs 9 episodes to date (more or less up to the days following Trump's COVID-19 national emergency declaration). It's unclear whether new episodes will be arriving, given the almost complete standstill of the country as a whole.

I binge-watched all 9 episodes on Showtime On Demand over the last 24 hrs. Even though I obviously knew the outcome of what would happen (covering roughly mid-January to mid-March), it really speaks to the strength of this series that I was absolutely transfixed from start to finish (and hoping for more episodes in due course). If you have any interest in the political process of this country, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

I really get a kick how those who get all their "Facts" from the Right Wing Spin Machine completely freak when they see reality. No! You won't find the fox spin here that supports everything the right does as though directed by god. Now if they stopped with their indignation long enough to actually pay attention...They'd see that the left isn't treated any easier, but then when you have a clown at the head of the right....Of course a show named "The Circus" will spend more time there...

We started binge watching in September 2020 starting from season 1 and we're mesmerized. It was so interesting to see the evolution of the 2016 election and compare it to the 2020 election. It was great to watch it that way.

Look at the dates of the other reviews. Fox News ran an attack piece on The Circus and created a run of reviewers who had never watched the show to claim it was Libral bias. There is a pathetic side which looks at news as anything not calling everything Liberal and using insulting terms for Democrats as being biased. To those reviewers when your news says "More Liberals are..." and talks about that for hours, that is biased. Not attacking Liberals for hours does not make a program Liberal. I am a current and lifelong Republican and I see the story from The Circus as being a very interesting and unbiased look back at the recent political past.

There's not much meat on the bones here. It's like watching the evening news only with a 'Whose, Who' cast and guests. Listening to an in depth podcast or reading a good in print article will cover much more ground on major topics. This is like texting which, by nature, doesn't convey context or factual information well. Better than nothing I guess if one can't spare the time but not a replacement for more lengthy sources. Ultimately this brevity leads to shallow thinking and exacerbates the political divisions in our country. For those issues that are important to us personally, we should take some of the time we spend on nonessential indulgences and do a deeper dive into the bigger picture.