Carnivàle revisited: is this HBO’s strangest show?
Carnivàle premiered on HBO in 2003 and was cancelled after only two seasons,In the immediate aftermath, this decision was protested by the small but dedicated cult following the show had amassed (to the tune of 50,000 emails),But in the years since, as the television canon has expanded and the taste for mystery-box TV has waned, Carnivàle now seems little more than a minor curio in HBO’s ever-expanding back catalogue,So what is this curio about?Carnivàle follows the exploits of its titular carnival as they travel across the American dust bowl in the 1930s,At the beginning of the series, these nomadic showpeople pick up Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl), an ex-con with a mysterious past (and inexplicable powers).
Interwoven into the show is the contrasting story of Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown), a preacher who finds himself on the receiving end of nightmarish, foreboding visions which convince him he is God’s messenger: a man with divine purpose.Throughout much of the series, these two storylines never physically intersect, except within the confines of dreams shared by both Hawkins and Crowe.Their contrasting tales make tangible the existential, mythic battle between good and evil resting beneath Carnivàle’s literal narrative.It’s reminiscent of the broad, pulpy scope of early Stephen King novels – or, perhaps more relevant to Carnivàle, Twin Peaks’ surreal lore.The viewer knows the worlds of Hawkins and Crowe will eventually collide, and when they do, the effects will be cosmic.
What makes the show special is the way this otherworldly tone is welded on to what is, at its core, a very traditional ensemble piece.Screenwriter Ronald D Moore helmed much of Carnivàle’s first season before leaving to create Battlestar Galactica, and his sensibility – one deeply attuned to character, fascinated by human folly – informs much of the season’s slow burn.The show luxuriates in the texture of the carnival itself and the small human drama of its troupe.Also worth noting is just how handsome the production is.Many of the show’s regular directors – the likes of Jeremy Podeswa, Jack Bender and John Patterson – cut their teeth working on The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, and would later go on to helm landmark episodes of television on series such as Lost and Game of Thrones; there is also a late episode directed by Tár’s Todd Field.
As a result, the visual style of Carnivàle is consistently hypnotic – and, yes, Lynchian.There are the bizarre conversations between different members of the carnival and “Management”, an unseen, all-seeing character whom we only know through their reedy, strained voice residing in the shadows behind a curtain.Then there are the show’s many dream sequences, which move from the ethereal to the outright horrific, presenting us with images of war, of blood raining down on a tortured preacher, of nuclear explosion.Discovering the show afresh this year, it has already found its place among my own TV canon.Carnivàle’s sideshow of bizarro characters; the dense, theological mysteries which sit at its centre; its refined cinematic style: all these elements come together to create a singular experience.
A word of warning: its premature cancellation will leave you aching for more.Carnivàle is available to stream on HBO Max in Australia and the US, and on Now in the UK.For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
‘I don’t distance myself from the IRA’: Gerry Adams brings his ‘dead true’ denials to court | Esther Addley
“A very happy St Patrick’s Day,” said Gerry Adams, as he took his seat in the stand of court 16 in the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday. Mr Justice Smith hadn’t quite caught what the defendant said, and asked him to repeat himself.“Oh that’s very kind of you,” the judge stammered when he finally worked it out. The green tie and small sprig of shamrock in Adams’s lapel – worn alongside a Palestinian flag pin – ought perhaps to have been a clue.Adams used to spend 17 March at the White House, glad-handing a succession of thematically dressed presidents and supportive senators of Irish extraction
Zelenskyy says Europe is a ‘global force’ that can stand against any other power in address to MPs – as it happened
Zelenskyy suggests Ukraine is also protected by its values.We believe in people, in their rights and freedom. We believe in culture and we want nations to live in real peace, strong peace and communities in respect together.double quotation markEurope is a global force – one the world cannot do without and that no one can stand against.Zelenskyy says European leaders must protect it so “that the future generations will say these leaders acted when it mattered and that people lived in safety
Nige and Honest Bob want to turn politics into a downmarket reality gameshow
Nige and Honest Bob. Honest Bob and Nige. Reform’s answer to the Chuckle Brothers. Robert Jenrick is just about the only other member of Reform UK that Nige will be seen dead with now. Apart from Richard Tice, everyone’s favourite fake-tanned beta male
Was Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ on right or left? | Letters
Your editorial (11 March) is correct in insisting that the economist and philosopher Adam Smith used “invisible hand” only once in The Wealth of Nations: to discuss investing at home or abroad, not as a general description of economic structure.If the capital is invested at home, the decision to do that being purely a selfish and personal one, then, as if led by an invisible hand, this benefits the domestic economy.Which is true, so we’d better be careful about deterring investment at home through the confiscatory taxation of either the wealth or the profits from having benefited the society by investing at home. Tim WorstallSenior fellow, Adam Smith Institute, London You address one popular legend with evidence from another; the idea that Marx was an advocate of the “iron law of wages”. In reality, Marx, like Smith, believed that growth could lift wages and living standards in a society defined by wage labour and capital; but he also believed that the transcendence of the wages system was desirable, or else workers would be temporarily “encrusting their chains with gold”
UK nationals fleeing Middle East reach 100,000 as evacuation efforts continue
The number of UK nationals flown back from the Middle East since the start of the conflict with Iran reached 100,000 on Tuesday, Britain’s foreign secretary has said.Yvette Cooper told parliament this is a third of the 300,000 who were in the region at the outset of hostilities, many of whom were stuck when airspace was closed. The figure included tourists and Gulf residents who have temporarily left.Fellow MPs urged Cooper to help many British citizens who were still stuck in the region and those who were said to be struggling to get extensions for visas in the countries where they had gone on holiday before the US and Israeli strikes on Iran.Cooper also provided an update on Britain’s part in discussions that could see an international coalition involved in opening the strait of Hormuz, adding that this was “separate from the conflict”
Being in Sinn Féin not the same as being in the IRA, Gerry Adams tells high court
Gerry Adams has told the high court that opponents of Sinn Féin have repeatedly sought to conflate the political party he led with the IRA, as he denied ever being a member of the Irish Republican Army.Giving evidence in London watched by victims of IRA bombings, the 77-year-old, credited with helping to bring about the peace process that ended the Troubles, also rejected accusations that he had ever led the paramilitary organisation or sat on its army council.Adams is being sued for symbolic “vindicatory” damages of £1 each by John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock. They claim he was an IRA member, sat on its army council and was culpable for the 1973 Old Bailey bombing, and the London Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996 in which they were respectively injured.Adams, who entered the witness box wearing a shamrock and a badge of the Palestinian flag, said in his witness statement: “To be clear, membership of the political party, Sinn Féin, does not equate to membership of the IRA
‘It’s like Covid II’: Canterbury’s student hangouts left empty by meningitis scare
Meningitis B: what are the symptoms, how is it spread and is there a vaccine?
Sally Berry obituary
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I help people with psychosis off the streets. Sometimes, their minds won’t let them leave
Tell us: how is the meningitis outbreak in Canterbury being handled?