Customer Reviews
fantastic a real 'must see' - By: Emmery Pemmery, 03 Mar 2008 
I am quite addicted to series box sets at the moment, I got carnivale as a christmas present & from the moment i put the first disk in i was hooked!
The plan was to make quite a few more series of Carnivale but it was cancelled :( but I was satisfied by the end of series 2 that the story was complete.
Wonderful & superb televsion that makes you think about it for ages after.
Something wicked this way comes... - By: C. Jones, 31 May 2007 Reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', Carnivale will quickly become compulsive viewing. Though only two out of the three series were actuallly made it is still very much worth watching. The acting is superb, the atmosphere increasingly dark, the plot twists & turns with satisfying intrique. The attention to detail, coupled with clever camera work reallly do show the thirties 'dustbowl' era.
Warning : these are definately adult only DVD's, NOT for children, but don't let that put you off.
One of the most outstanding series to come out of the USA (which probably explains why they axed series three!) 10 out of 10
An affecting but ambiguous tale - By: Dr. W. Onyeama, 05 Feb 2007 
I was lead to rent this series by the enticing promotional strap-line: "where Twin Peaks meets PJ Barnum". I was absolutely spellbound by david Lynch's Twin Peaks but found Carnivale serie 1, less than satisfying. The recreation of the period sets, are brilliant & conveyed a plausible visual representation of John Steinbeck's classic, Grapes of Wrath. However, I found the plot meandering & the story-line often obscure with too many detours into byways that seemed to have little bearing on the particular scene. It did not help that I found Ben the central character's mumbling inarticulacy, irritating. On the other hand I thought Michael J Anderson's performance (Samson the dwarf), thoroughly engaging. As a story, there were too many false leads for my liking & too many loose ends & unanswered questions by the end of the series. The series undoubtedly grows on one with each episode but on the whole would have benefitted from a tighter script & a firmer directorial hand. I will not be rushing to view series 2.
Good Show But No Ending - By: Leven1, 02 Feb 2007 My rating may seem poor to those who watched it but I agree with Rolo. It is a great show that does largely seem to be made up as it went along (after the inital idea). It looks great, is well acted & is creepy, funny & totallly engrossing at times. It does get less believable & more confusing in the 2nd seris but I could live with that. Look at Lost. In Lost half the episodes have absolutely no bearing on the overalll story but its entertaining & its a massive hit. But the old American habit of cancelling shows at will (or due to money I suspect) is its biggest problem. This has happened to several shows I enjoyed [...]. However, (good but) formulaic cop shows go on forever [...]. I like to be able to get into a story & a seris is better than a movie for doing that but its a bit like reading half a book & you find out the author hasn't bothered to finish it, or rather their publisher has stopped publishing halfway through. I would recommend it if you like to read books with the last chapter ripped out!
original and weird - By: mentally unbalanced, 24 Jan 2007 any series that can add that much detail to an era, but leave the viewer desperate for more knowledge about the series, in my view, is well made & worth getting interested in
i love this series, even though, even by the end i didn't know what was going on.
i love watching it again & again & i get more from it with every viewing
if u like an easy to follow plot & normal characters this isn't reallly foe u
