Running Time 720 Min
Format: DVD MOVIE
Amazon.com
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
Customer Reviews:
HBO at it's Finest.........2007-08-17
I bought Season I and Season II. I see a Carnivale marathon in my future.
Carnivale - The Complete First Season........2007-05-13
I can't recommend this series enough to people. This is where the whole bizzare journey bagan. Unfortuanally it only lasted two seasons and left so much open at the end of #2. I won't give anything away though if you have never seen it. HBO was crazy to only do the two seasons. Jump on the band wagon. Check out the first season, I promise you will go back and get the second after you watch it (#1). " Let's shake some dust"
Exceptional, enjoyable television.......2007-04-26
If you like the work of Jean Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children, Delicatessin), or Francois Ozon, films like Dark City, Brazil, and European films with quirky faces and off beat stories, you will enjoy this as much as I do.
This is beautifully produced with stylish visual effects and vistas. It is HBO so it is a little heavy on overly sexualized fantasy sequences, but the essential story mixes these lush visuals with timeless themes of poverty, religion, and the disenfranchized.
The time period and the odd family of the Carnivale make this infinitley more captivating than other HBO shows with large following.
From the first two episodes, I'm not sure it has depth, it unfolds slowly, but the surface is very engaging and 100% more off beat/interesting than standard televison or movie fare. I allready know I want to buy the series for my DVD library.
Some of the best dark fantasy on video.......2007-04-23
I don't have cable and only recently discovered this series when looking for some good dark fantasy. For dark fantasy video that began on the small screen within the last ten years (at least!), this is the mother lode. It has been a long time since anything this original and ambitious was made for television.
There is so much good dark fantasy in books and so little of it on the screen. Video fantasy tends to be simplified and dumbed down. This isn't.
One of the reasons networks are reluctant to try anything this rich and complicated is that so many viewers, accustomed to story arcs measured in double-digit minutes, bore easily. See some of the reviews of people who didn't care for the program. (Sesame Street, for all its virtues, has a lot to answer for in terms of what it has done to American attention spans.)
Yes, it does take a while to figure out what the heck is going on. Yes, it isn't instantly obvious who the good and bad guys are. And, yes, even after you do, it turns out that even angels, fallen or otherwise, have personal agendas that blur that nice, sharp dichotomy of Good and Evil. Life, and good stories, are often messy and complicated and morally ambiguous.
If this were a very long dark fantasy novel or a series of novels -- with the last chapters ripped out by the publishing house version of the network idiots who cancelled the series after the second season-- it would read like a re-write of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath done by a collaboration between Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes) and Stephen King (The Stand) -- with more development of the female characters than either writer usually does. (Come on, guys, we buy more books than men do!).
For fans of this kind of multi-episode dark fantasy in a video format, it doesn't get any better than this!
Boring and slow.......2007-04-20
Hi..
I can see why HBO pulled the plug on this awful show, I mean i really wanted to like it and enjoy it, but it was really bad and boring.
People keep saying how amazing and deep this show is, but i found the opposite, the show started very very slow and never picked up pace,at least in this first season, i mean really boring where nothing really happens and we are just left with some ridiculous subplots and never understanding the major plot.
I especially hated the scenes and segments of brother Justin, we as audience had to endure his boring repetitive speeches he gave in church ! and nothing important ever happens in his storylines.
I was waiting patiently for the so called Good vs Evil battle, but nothing of that sort ever happend, again i was just stuck with an endless plotless show, just poor cliched relationships and love triangles we saw in many many other shows.
On the positive side, the show had some good actors, good performances, but other actors where just terrible ( the bearded lady actress was awful so was the guy playing Lodz ).
The setting was the best part of the show, it was creepy and dark, and the scenes of the carnivale settings in the deserts were nice to watch, but that alone could not save this terrible show from sinking,
I never saw the 2nd season and i don't plan to, im not sure this show will get better in the 2nd season, but even if it does, im not planning to give it a try, i mean how good will it be having watched this awful slow first season,
My advice for people who haven't seen it, rent the first 2 dvds first before rushhing into buying it, because in my opinion this show is a complete failure, slow and boring.
Customer Reviews:
Cancellation of series a loss for viewers and HBO.......2007-08-10
I agree with the other reviewers. Cancellation of this series will be seen later as a loss for HBO. It was easily one of the finest they have ever backed in terms of both storyline and acting. I hated being left hanging with the relationships and storyline unresolved. Hopefully a company with some sense will pick up this wonderful show and finish it. Even if it went straight to dvd, I would not hesitate to buy the rest of the series if it was done as well as the first two seasons.
One of THEE best HBO Series!!!!!!.......2007-06-24
Why HBO didn't renew this series, I'll never know. It's based back in the "dust bowl" era of America with a boy in a traveling circus and a preacher gone evil. It deals with the power to heal, good vs evil, and more. Carnivable was based in a time of nobility. However man created wonder for reason. And the show takes you back to that time of wonder and after each episode you think back to that time of nobility.
A very well made series! But why didn't HBO keep going with it????
Great Series.......2007-06-16
Wow, my wife and I just came across this series and have been excited to see the second season. It's a shame that we find out now that it was cancelled before it was resolved. The acting is great and the storylines have great depth and are interwoven nicely. I haven't seen a show this introspective since Northern Exposure. Too bad there aren't more thoughtful, engrossing shows out there such as this. I suppose most people don't like to get involved with their televisions, just want to be entertained. Hope something comes of this series and there is resolution, a la Firefly and Serenity.
Stands in testimony to the stupidity of the folks at HBO........2007-01-14
To me this was the absolute finest production ever made for television/cable and because "only" several million totally devoted viewers could not get HBO to finish the four or five year series, we are left with two and will never know where this journey could have taken us all. It is magnificent but it is painful to watch because you know that it is unfinished "business." I for one have never watched HBO again because to make the time and emotional investment in Carnivale that so many of us made only to hear we didn't count, says to me that they can and most likely will do the same thing again.
HBO seems to thrive on super violent material that is laced with meaningless four letter words. The actors on _The Sopranos_ certainly have a payroll that out does the production costs of Carnivale yet maybe there is no room even on cable for works of complexity that demand that viewers think.
So buy it and yes, HBO owns it and will profit - but just this one last time. They abused their trust and far be it from me to ever again add to their coffers.
"To each generation...born a creature of light and a creature of darkness".........2006-09-04
Easily as eliptic, complex and mysterious as "Twin Peaks" with more magic in its soul "Carnivale" only lasted two seasons on HBO because the witless suits didn't have the imagination to see the value the series added to their schedule. Keep in mind these are the same folks that also cancelled their second most watched series "Deadwood" after having already renewed if for a third.
Set during the 1934 dustbowl we first meet the ragtag members of the Carnivale as they pass through Oklahoma. Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) mother has just died. His home is about to be bulldozed and the dust storms that struck the midwest rage incessantly. Jonesy (Tim DeKay)the head roustabout stands up to those about to destroy Hawkins home and helps him bury his mom as do the other members of the carnival. Suddenly their family whether Hawkins likes it or not.
It seems Hawkins has the ability to heal others and perform miracles. He's a lost soul in denial of his abilities and focused on discovering who he is. Across the U.S. in California Preacher Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown "The Shawshank Redemption" and Mr. Crabs in "Spongebobsquarepants")discovers he has a similar gift but through circumstances beyond his control this fire and brimstone preacher who wants to do good loses his faith in God and finds himself on a very different path from the uncommunicative, uncertain Hawkins. The two men are linked both by their abilities and a series of dreams. "Carnivale" gives us their stories as they discover whether they are good or evil and find a place in the world for who they are as well as who they become.
Featuring an excellent cast (Michael J. Anderson from "Twin Peaks" as Samson, Clea DuVall, Patrick Bauchau of "The Pretender", Adrienne Barbeau, Amy Madigan, Ralph Waite and others)the thoughtful well written stories always manage to examine the darkness and light in each of these characters as they face their struggle tod discover to exist in a harsh world.
The show was designed as a six year experience. Unfortuantely HBO cancelled it after two. Although the ratings fell during the first set they began to pick up again during the end of the second season. The network elected to cancel the show and cut their losses. It's a pity as this was one of the most ambitious fantasy shows on TV and had a great storyline that I would have loved to see resolved. Hopefully one day creator David Knauf will have that opportunity in a movie.
The boxed set has some terrific extras for both seasons with commentary tracks, production featurettes and all of it is nicely packaged. It's a pity that HBO didn't give this show the same opportunity as "Deadwood" with a series of TV movies to close out the show. I've lost faith in the network's ability to recognize great programming and they've become just as bad as the other networks (if not worse because you're paying for it so you don't have to put up with the ads).
This twofer is definitely worth getting making the show much more affordable.
Average customer rating:
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carnivale: The Complete First Season (VOL. 2 ONLY)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
 General
| 1990s and Newer
| By Decade
| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Carnivàle
| C
| TV Series, A-Z
| TV Series
| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
ASIN: B000Q3BLJ0 |
Average customer rating:
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Carnivale: The Complete First Season (VOL. 5 ONLY)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
| 1990s and Newer
| By Decade
| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Carnivàle
| C
| TV Series, A-Z
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| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
ASIN: B000Q3BK32 |
Average customer rating:
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Carnivale: The Complete First Season (VOL. 6 ONLY)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
| 1990s and Newer
| By Decade
| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Carnivàle
| C
| TV Series, A-Z
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| Television
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| DVD
| Video
ASIN: B000Q3BKEG |
Average customer rating:
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Carnivale: The Complete First Season (VOL. 3 ONLY)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
| 1990s and Newer
| By Decade
| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Carnivàle
| C
| TV Series, A-Z
| TV Series
| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
ASIN: B000Q3BLUE |
Average customer rating:
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Carnivale: The Complete First Season (VOL. 4 ONLY)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
| 1990s and Newer
| By Decade
| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Carnivàle
| C
| TV Series, A-Z
| TV Series
| Television
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
ASIN: B000Q34P5C |
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