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DVD Carnivale - The Complete First Season
Carnivàle doesn't waste any time making its--wildly ambitious--aims clear. As carnival manager Samson (Michael J. Anderson, Twin Peaks' diminutive backwards-talker) notes in pilot episode "Milfay," directed by Rodrigo García (son of Gabriel García Marquez), "To each generation [is] born a creature of light and a creature of darkness." With that the story begins. The year is 1934, the setting the Oklahoma dustbowl. In short order, Ben Hawkins (In the Bedroom's Nick Stahl) loses his mother and his home. He's poor, he's alone--he needs a job. So he joins Samson's carnival, en route to the West. Hawkins, naturally, is the good guy. Waiting for him in California is the not so good Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown, The Shawshank Redemption), a fire and brimstone preacher with supernatural powers and a fiercely loyal sister (Amy Madigan). Hawkins, as it turns out, has similar powers....
Created by Daniel Knauf (Wolf Lake), Carnivàle feels like David Lynch (weird, slow, occasionally kinky), plays like American Gothic (Shaun Cassidy's cult series about a good kid and an evil sheriff), and looks like John Ford's Grapes of Wrath. It features one of television's most colorful casts of characters. They include Sophie (Clea DuVall), who reads fortunes--with her comatose mother's assistance, the vaguely sinister Lodz (Patrick Bauchau), blind absinthe-drinker and mentalist (he can see both the future and the past), and Ruthie (Adrienne Barbeau), snake charmer, strongman's mother, and all-around maternal figure. By the final episode of the season ("The Day That Was the Day"), also directed by García, one of these characters will be dead. Carnivàle won five richly deserved technical Emmys for its first year, including awards for cinematography and art direction. Like HBO's edgy Deadwood, it's period drama for people who don't normally like period drama. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Review(s): DVD Carnivale - The Complete First Season
Carnivale Season 1 Review
Carnivale Season 1 tells the story of Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl),a young man with no family and a shady secret lurking in his closet. Ben is rescued from the end of his road by the Carnivale, a rag tag bunch of circus folk, as they make their way acorss the western US during the dust Bowl years of the thirties. Along the way you get a roller coaster ride as you discover more about the Carnies and the reason why they were passing through that way in the first place. Carnivale is a rich series set in a poignant era when hope and despair were fighting in every heart. Add in lots of dark noir style and some mystical dilemmas and you have a great first season that will have you wishing you already had the second one in your collection.
Every aspect of Carnivale was sheer genius down to the minutest detail. The writing was fascinating and haunting and the actors were all brilliant. It never felt like watching "acting", it felt like watching truth. Each actor created a character with pasts, futures, fears, lost opportunities, aspirations, etc. that all came out in their performances. Michael J. Anderson's performance, in particular, was poignant and unforgettable. I wish HBO would bring the show back, preferably for four more seasons to give Daniel Knauf the chance to bring his story to completion, but at least for one movie - with the same actors - to try to bring some sort of conclusion to the story. Failing that, I wish Daniel Knauf would write a book taking over where Season 2 ended. But, since Seasons 1 and 2 are all we have, I highly recommend them to everyone who appreciates outstanding creativity.
About Carnivale
1. Beautyfully filmed
2. Incredible plot
3. Captivating
4. Wide range of personalities
5. Classic Good against evil.
I hope they continue to make more seasons soon!
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