As you can see, my carnie-talent is the ability to make a post with absolutely no content.
Weird stuff, damn hamsters.
Basically, I thought the show was good. It’ll probably get better once we know who the characters are.
I’m too lazy to recollect my thoughts on the hour.
Okay, let me clarify:
I wrote an actual coherent and topical OP that was actually relevant to the show Carnivale that airs on HBO. I did actually watch the show and I used my brain and writing capabilities to express my reaction to the show.
When I posted, it disappered. When I posted a reply to explain that I posted and it got eaten by the hamsters, it came across like my pathetic second post was a pathetic first post that makes it seem like I am a moron. I promise you that I did watch the show and I wanted to say something semi-intelligent about it.
I am not psychotic.
Or delusional.
Or stupid.
Carry on.
I went back and forth between “wow, this is really interesting” and “wow, this is trying too hard to be Twin Peaks.” There wasn’t a lot of plot that wasn’t in the previews so I was more focusing on the characters. They seem a bit on the stereotypical side just at the moment but presumably they will get fleshed out as the series progresses.
One thing I didn’t quite get. In the opening exposition the Man From Another Place, I mean, the little person carny, said that into each generation there was born one person of darkness and one of light who would engage in the eternal war. The opening credits seemed to me to indicate that the warring parties were Hitler and FDR. So is the series saying that this little carny vs preacher battle is of a greater significance in the war of good and evil that WW2?
It was Twin Peaks meets The Stand for me. I think the opening monologue was referring to the young guy who had healing powers and the creepy preacher guy. I think they are somehow related and something significant happened to someone in WW1 that relates to both of them that will result in a big showdown in the show’s finale.
Or something.
I rather enjoyed it but I defintely thought the plot was trying a bit too hard in spots. I will watch it next week and see if it improves. I give it the benefit of the doubt this week because it had to set up the entire premise of the show in one hour.
I found it very interesting and quite cinematic. I’ll be back for ep 2 at least. I especially liked that a preacher standing before an American flag appears to be the greatest evil born to men. Bold move by HBO in George Bush’s America.
Interesting, but a little weak I felt for a season premiere. I’ll be checking it out again though, next episode looks more interesting.
Anyone else here really looking forward to Deadwood?
It looked alright. I wasn’t blown away but it has potential. I think that they started in on the weird stuff too early and didn’t use it all that well. I did like the death of plants that came with the healing. I hope it picks up because I think it’ll be really cool if it hits a good stride.
That’s what I thought, too.
I liked it a lot, and I think it will improve as the season goes on–it seemed a little unsure of itself.
It could have been a lot worse. I kept looking for stuff that would have been cliched, and they didn’t do any of it, so that’s a plus.
I like that it was explained why he didn’t heal his mother.
I did get a Stand feel out of it – but the only part that reminded me of Twin Peaks was the dwarf. Nice to see he’s still around.
I never watched Twin Peaks so can’t compare it to Carnivale; the show does seem to have a great deal of potential but also a lot of weirdness! I’ll have to re-watch it to catch stuff I’m sure I missed (esp. the first ten minutes or so); I get that it’s an epic GOOD vs EVIL thing going on, but I’m still not sure which forces represent GOOD and which EVIL! And maybe it’s supposed to be ambiguous like that, I don’t know. The carnie folks are often looked upon as fringe-types and may therefore be more associated with the Darkness/Evil than Good–but are they? The boy (Hawkins?) seems to have healing abilities–didn’t Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead after three days?! There’s definitely a lot to this show–we’ll just have to see how they’re going to deal with it. I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Wasn’t there a big evil looking guy whose back you see running through the corn? Maybe the dreams have to do with reincarnation and good vs. evil in an earlier life.
The hurling of the coins was certainly an attention getter!
She was a regular slot machine.
:rolleyes:
Oh yeah, HBO personnel are probably steeling themselves
for their office doors to be kicked in by the Ashcroftinistas.
An evil preacher & the Flag- SO original! So daring! So hackneyed.
Gotta admit- I’ll totally be amazed if he does turn out to be the good guy. L (I taped it for later watching & I will be tuning in for most if not all of the series).
Not one review has mentioned another inspiration for all this-
Flannery O’Connor.
I found it fascinating that the real horrors of the series - the dead baby, the attempted rape in the garage - come from mundane reality, and that the supernatural abilities are seen as being commonplace, everyday, normal occurrences.
Interesting that the opening monologue referred to the moment the atom bomb was detonated as the death of wonder, and the dawn of reason. I’ve never seen the period between the wars handled this way; as the last holdout of magic in the world.
Overall, I loved it. Dense, strange, hypnotic, and horrifying. I can’t wait for next week.
No offense, guys, but is the first fantsy shpow any of you have ever seen? To me, it seemed as if the creators of Carnivale assembled the show from a shopping list of magical realism cliches:
Cosmic battle between Good (note the capital letters) and Evil? Check.
Religion and patriotism used to depict the dark underbelly of American society? Check.
The plot of upcoming episodes foreshadowed in prophetic dreams? Check.
A dwarf? Check.
And how much does it suck for little people that their few chances of being cast in films or television is as the embodiment of magic or the subconscious?
Frankly, if you put David Lynch, Clive Barker, and Peter Straub in a blender and hit frappe, you’d have Carnivale.
From Living in Oblivion:
Managed to struggle through it, but just. It wasn’t bad enough to be funny—just bad enough to be annoying and pretentious and dull. Will not be watching again.
I can’t offhand think of many other examples. Could you cite a few?
I’ve endured episodes of Buffy and Angel - my husband likes them. I found the writing and dialogue to be so bad I wanted to scream. So, for me, at least, this is the first fantasy show I’ve looked forward to watching.
I liked it but found it a bit tedious at times. I agree that next week’s ep looks great. I especially like the catatonic telekenetic - she’s creepy!
Having looked at IMDB’s external reviews and user comments along with the earlier posts here, I get the feeling that HBO’s banking on its viewership to forget the bad taste left by Twin Peaks and to hope the same sort of thing won’t happen again here. The parallels are significant (mainly by way of the Samson character and the dream sequences) but it remains to be seen if the Grapes Of Wrath parallels will do anything for the way the series is perceived. Right now, I’m in a “wait and see” mode since there’s little else on in that slot to compete.
From the reviews I read I gather that little will be revealed in any one episode (nor even one season – they’re shooting for FIVE!) so that expectations along the lines of Twin Peaks will surely come into play before too long. For me it took the last episode of TP to finally convince me I’d been had, so I guess I can allow another round of “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on you…” to upset my life.
Elmer Gantry, All The King’s Men (governor, not preacher, but close enough), Wise Blood and so on.