09 June 2005

Carnivale - Review After Finishing It

I watched the final of series two last night. Really good show. Pity they cancelled it, the ending (i.e. setup for series three) looked really interesting.

That said, some really nasty stuff happens and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone easily disturbed by, for example, sexual violence or dismemberment. However, if you're prepared to handle some violent and freaky stuff, it's well worth it.

The way the magic is portrayed is really neat, reminiscent of Tim Powers novels to me. It feels like it has a logic to it, but it's not a very nice logic in most cases. The acting is universally good and the scriptwriting too. The characters are interesting and are forced to deal with situations that have no good way out, which makes some powerful scenes.

The direction tends to include a lot of dark scenes where you can't see what's going on, but aside from that there's little to complain about.

Why does it seem like every TV show this good gets cancelled?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have just received my season one, DVD box set (so I have only seen up to s1 ep9). And was saying the same thing to the guys last night.

Whether English or American series, every time I really get into something they cancel it.

Scotty

Anonymous said...

Cool, huh?
What's your take on how it'd play out with Sophie? I have no idea what happened to her, in terms of what she now is and what that means - but I love the ending like crazy.

Unknown said...

r. u. serious: I guess I should watch Deadwood, too, then?

morgue: Agreed on the ending, it looked like series three would be great... I won't discuss Sofie, though, because it's too spoilery for anyone reading this as a review.

Anonymous said...

I've only watched 2 episodes of Carnivale so far but it was good - interesting and intriguing sort of good.

I really like the magic in Tim Powers novels, the whoel wierd logical sympathetic magic thing. It makes your head spin and the ideas are great.

Deadwood, while fantastic, is about as far from Carnivale as you can get. The production values seemed a lot higher, it is filmed with contrast, not flat colour and feels more like a film than a TV show. Storywise it resembles The Sopranos a lot. A slow moving saga. It captures the Western genre well, but also mixes a more historical feel of what it was actually like way back then. A lot of westerns are glamourized but Deadwood is just downright gritty.

Carnivale seemed like sensical Twin Peaks, though that could change I've only wtached 2 episodes so far.

Geekery said...

I've ordered Season 1 on DVD - just waiting for it to arrive. Sounded like an ineteresting plot. As for all the great TV programmes being canned - it because no on watches good tv any more, people are too easily entertained by mindless 'reality' TV or apparently funny sitcoms to be bothered with really good programmes - add to that the fact that most of the decent stuff gets bumped to late at night and what do you know, its not making enough money so it gets canned.