The Cutprice Guignol

When I think of TV’s great tragedies, Carnivàle is one of the first things that comes to mind.

A dense fantasy show set in a travelling carnival in the 1930s US Dustbowl, Carnivàle revolves around Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) and Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown); the former a member of the travelling carnival who joins it after it rolls through his town after the death of his mother, the latter a Methodist preacher while living with his sister Iris (my beloved Amy Madigan). Despite the apparent gulf between their life experiences and goals, bizarre powers and inexplicable visions start to plague both men, and eventually, their paths cross and they’re forced to contend with the forces that have drawn them together.

And I really, really love Carnivàle. I understand that some people find the pacing a bit slow and the lore a bit inpenetrable, but I find it kind of hypnotic, in a way – the slow build, that inexorable draw of these two men towards each other, the strange rolling backdrop of the carnival behind it all. The cast of characters has always been one of my favourite ensembles, from Tim DeKay to Tobias Huss (who I have been seeing in way more movies recently, which makes me incredibly happy) to Cynthia Ettinger, there are so many compelling stories swirling around beneath the immediate high fantasy centrepiece.

Broadcast between 2003-2005, creator Daniel Knauf originally envisioned the show to run for six seasons; in the end, though, after a drop-off in ratings over the course of the second season, it was cut down to just twenty-four episodes. While I think Knauf did a decent job bringing it all together with the limited time he had, there’s always a sense of hurry in those last few episodes, no matter which way you slice it, and it’s clear there’s so much more the show could have given in the right circumstances.

And I honestly think the right circumstances might just have been a release date that happened to come five to ten years later. While fandom spaces have been a thing since the dawn of Star Trek, they hadn’t come into full fruition by the time that Carnivàle was broadcast, and I really believe this show was made for the fandom spaces we see so many of today. The forums dedicated to breaking down every detail, pausing every frame and picking out every little clue that nods towards the lore, coming together to guess at and discuss what’s coming next and how it might unfold – Carnivàle is exactly the kind of dense, rich show that would fit perfectly into that context. The success of shows like Game of Thrones have shown how much of a zeitgeist high fantasy shows can be with a fandom passionate about dissecting and discussing them, and I really believe Carnivàle could have found a similair audience if it had been released a few years later, when the fandom spaces were more equipped for and enthusiastic about something like this.

So, for that reason, Carnivàle is a great TV tragedy; I truly think it could have been a beloved classic instead of just the cult side-note to great TV of the 2000s if it had come out a little later, when I’m pretty certain fandom spaces would have welcomed it’s dense, intricate story and character work with open arms.

If you’d like to read more of my writing or support this blog, please consider checking out my Patreon or buying my books!

(header image via Rotten Tomatos)