Carnivàle

Carnivàle

2003
★★★★☆ 7.9/10
📺 2 Seasons
🎬 24 Episodes
📅 Canceled
🌐 EN
⏱️ 54 min/episode
Sci-Fi & FantasyMysteryDrama
Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes Christian theology with gnosticism and Masonic lore, particularly that of the Knights Templar.

Where to Watch (US)

Stream

HBO Max
HBO Max Amazon Channel

Buy

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Fandango At Home

Seasons

Season 1
2003 • 12 Episodes
Ben reluctantly joins the carnival after the bank forecloses on his family's Oklahoma farm. Brother Justin has a bizarre encounter with a poor parishioner. Sofie has a run-in at a small-town gas station.
Season 2
2005 • 12 Episodes
The Dust Bowl circus troupe deals with the fallout from a fatal fire and, in California, Brother Justin reaches new converts on the radio. Lila wonders what happened to Lodz. Ben takes off to find Scudder.

User Reviews

tsdenizen
★ 7/10
This show was insanely cool and had the potential to be one of HBO's best ever shows. Seriously, I'd take these two seasons over just about anything the premium channel has put out. There's a level of creativity and thoughtfulness that is near unheard of in TV. Unfortunately, these seasons amount to god-tier set-up for shit-hits-the-fan moments that we never got to see. As soon as we were going to get some big pay-offs, Carnivàle was cancelled. Nobody watched it: it was too slow, too smart, too weird for its time. This is one of the biggest creative what-ifs ever in my opinion. I still love these seasons, but rewatching them know that the story doesn't get its proper end isn't too appealing. Still can't rate it lower though: what we got was way too good.
August 26, 2023

Crew

Producer
Howard Klein, Ronald D. Moore

Network

HBO

Production

3 Arts Entertainment, HBO

Keywords

tarot cardscarnivalstripteasegreat depressionsurrealismperiod dramacarnydust bowlreverendcircus freak