Carnivàle

[Halb]

Carnivàle starts on Monday nights in place of Game of Thrones.
Anyone a fan? I know it lasted two series, and had a large mythos that the writer built up and intended to go on for a while...that's what I read on wiki when a mate said I should watch it.

[Mars]

The problem with Carnivàle is that it just started to get going when it ended. There was a lot of build-up and mythology hinted at, you were just starting to appreciate who was going to be the key players and on which side, when it ended.

As a reasonable way to pass an hour a week, yes it was well shot and gave you a hint of life on the road in the 1930s but it's so frustrating when shows are killed off that, knowing that, I saved it until I had a stint in Hotels where I had nothing else to do.

Might have been nice to have seen a movie follow-up, like Serinity was to Firefly, but the writer was adamant he had more story to tell. Truth is, it was a slow build. The 2 series probably could have been told in half a series if they'd wanted to. You may have lost some of the atmosphere but there's "pace" and there's "slow". This was definitely closer to "slow" than the other.

[DamienB]

I must have watched a different series... both series 1 and 2 are pretty decently self-contained stories (though S2 won't make much sense if you haven't watched S1), certainly aren't "slow" and retain your interest throughout. Absolutely fantastic series, and well worth watching. Shame it cost so much to make that they couldn't afford to keep going.

[Mars]

Rregarding the plot, Wikipedia mentions "slow" and "leisurely" in its references a few times.

[Hot Dog Harrigan]

It's just started.. It was & is brilliant like pink floyd but visual... OP, watch it

[hornetrider]

Yep I'm tuning in, great looking production values so far

[Halb]

Yeh it looks rich, like Boadrwalk Empire, money well spent methinks.
Veeeerry Interesschink, so far.
Did Hawkins revive that dead babe in the middle of the first ep?

[hornetrider]

I gave up I'm afraid. Wasn't grabbing me.

[Halb]

Several eps into the second series...getting really good. It is most annoying to know they cancelled it after this.

[Halb]

Last weeks episode was riveting, the last 15 minutes was really unexpected, I hope this gets revisited one day.

[bluebear]

got up to 5 episodes. Just gave up, too slow

[Halb]

It was certainly glacial in it's early bits. But there's a lot of good stuff happening now and it was worth the wait.

[hornetrider]

bluebear said:

got up to 5 episodes. Just gave up, too slow

Same here, without the interestingness of Wire or BWE.

[Mars]

hornetrider said:

bluebear said:

got up to 5 episodes. Just gave up, too slow

Same here, without the interestingness of Wire or BWE.

I watched to the end but if you look on Wikipedia, there's a lot of story that was left untold. There's a lot of mythology that they would have expanded upon over the course of the following seasons which was left untold. As a stand-alone piece of TV, the 2 seasons are a bit of a let down IMO.

Still, I enjoyed the visuals but I'll watch anything a bit out of the ordinary.

[Halb]

Mars said:

I watched to the end but if you look on Wikipedia, there's a lot of story that was left untold. There's a lot of mythology that they would have expanded upon over the course of the following seasons which was left untold.
Still, I enjoyed the visuals but I'll watch anything a bit out of the ordinary.

I did that, and you can see it taking shape in the second series. The writer should have accepted a lower budget.
The visuals of it are one of the best of any show.

[Halb]

OK watched it all now, dangnambit. What an ending, it's criminal it was cancelled.
A real shame.