Discussion of episodes (beware spoilers).

Episode 1: Milfay

"Before the beginning,
After the great war between heaven and hell,
God created the earth and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called man.
And to each generation was born a creature of light and a creature of darkness,
And great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between good and evil.
There was magic then,
Nobility,
And unimaginable cruelty.
And so it was until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity,
And man forever traded away wonder for reason."

Carnivale opens with a close-up of Michael J. Anderson delivering the lines given above. Anderson, you will probably remember, played the Little Man From Another Place in Twin Peaks, adding to the Lynchian feel right from the start. The reference to Trinity indicates that the setting of the series in the 1930s means that it takes place at a time when wonder is still present in the world and the ancient war between good and evil is still ongoing. This raises the central question of who the creatures of light and darkness are amongst the characters we subsequently meet. Regardless, magic and miracles are still present in the world, and in the opening episode there is evidence of - at least - telepathy, prophetic knowledge, visions, miracles, healing and resurrection. We also see dream sequences that not only seem to be a mix of past and future events, but have the hint that they are shared by more than one person. More than a little magical, then.

This narration is followed by a series of images, which are intriguing, disturbing and a bit bewildering. I found they made much more delightful sense when I watched them again after seeing all of the first three episodes. Many of the shots are taken from or repeated in succeeding episodes, when they mean a lot more.
These images turn out to be a dream. It is 1934 in Oklahoma and on a farm laid waste in the dust bowl, a fugitive from a chain gang watches his mother die. Significantly, she rejects him, not letting him touch her or even come near her. Ostensibly, this might seem that she is reacting to the fact that he is on the run from the law (he has a shackle on one ankle), but later events in the episode change the interpretation of this. This play with narrative and the order in which knowledge is given to the viewer greatly adds to the sense of mystery in the episode and shows a great skill and confidence in the writing. It contrasts strongly (and wonderfully) with the formula of much American (and British) television which makes everything clear and explains most things twice. It sends out a message that the makers of the series trust their audience and respect the viewer's intelligence.

Whilst the epsiode itself is anything but action packed and the story progresses very little, it is never boring or slow. There is a lot of information put over, and it builds a potential (and potentially difficult) relationship between Sofie and Hawkins, as well as between Hawkins and the Carnivale. It reaches a climax in the scene where she reads his tarot cards and this initiates a memory that Hawkins has of his dead cat when he was a boy and his mother's reaction to what he does with the body. It's a rather creepy scene to say the least and adds a great deal of depth to Hawkins' character (and explains in another way entirely his mother's earlier response to him). What happens next is an incredibly powerful, poignant and eerie scene which ends the episode. There is a sense that a very long fuse is burning down excrutiatingly slowly. It builds a really strong desire to want to see more (though, I don't know, that may just turn some people off or even confuse them).

The setting of the carnival also adds a sense of wonder and perverseness. True, the freak show has been replaced by Jerry Springer and reality TV, but there is nothing exploitative or voyeuristic about the 'freaks' as they are presented here. In fact, it is very refreshing to watch a television series which isn't full of perfect, beautiful, skinny and expensively dressed people. It's just dust and grime and threadbear clothes in the main, and the characters simply shine through that. As with any freak show of the period, there is a strong man, 'siamese' twins, a lizard man, a bearded lady and even some 'women of the night'. In a twist that mirrors Clive Barker's themes of ambiguous characters and the monsters being 'good' whilst the humans are 'bad', the characters outside the carnival are just as complex and even strange. This is focussed, in particular, on Brother Justin who gives every impression in this first episode that he might not be a straightforward preacher. Furthermore, there is a strong sense of realism in the depiction of the homeless and destitute poor in America in this period. Morbidly fascinating Carnivale may be, sensationalist it isn't.

Incidentally, the titles came at the end of this episode (and there were no end credits). I'm not sure whether the episode will be broadcast like this (it's doubtful). However, the titles themselves are beautifully framed and edited into a complex montage. The images shown during the titles centre around a series of tarot cards (Sofie, of course, is a tarot reader in the Carnivale). The paintings on the faces of the cards themselves are taken from classical paintings; I haven't identified them yet, but think I may have spotted examples of Breughal and Michelangelo. The camera zooms in and actually enters the cards; other images thus intercut include archive footage of various events from the 1930s including baseball, the Ku Klux Klan, a zeppelin airship, the dust bowl and Hitler.

Images in the opening dream sequence:

 A man running through a cornfield in a storm, the back of a running man stripped bare to the waist, a soldier in a trench during the great war, a signet ring bearing a cross, the soldier in formal evening dress (seen again in episode two), tarot cards, a funeral procession with coffin (from the opening of episode three), a woman with a snake, a reprise of running through corn, a dead sheep(?), a photograph of a group of miners one of whom is the soldier, second reprise of cornfield, a gun, a two digit deformed hand like a claw, Hawkins waking up in a bed, reprise of the trench, the gun firing, a group of people standing under a tree, a tree tattooed on a naked back.
Hawkins' second dream (which Lodz spys in on) contains several of the same inages but there are several more shots of the World War I scenes.
Several key images are also repeated in the third dream sequence (this time it is Brother Justin who is dreaming). There are several key additions: a foetus in a preserving jar opening its eyes (this is seen again in episode 2); a shot of Iris; a boy and a girl holding hands; a clock with the pendulum swinging very fast; a rather demonic looking boy; a girl with a 'Exorcist-y' look; the neon sign outside Chin's.

[PS These are approximate and I apologise if I have mis-interpreted or missed any shots. Send corrections if you want to the address below and I will give you a name check on this page.]

Sofie's tarot reading of Hawkins' past:

 The Moon (confusion and exposure);

Death (not a harbinger of bad fortune but of transformation);

The Magician reversed (great talent and ability that has been wasted or unfulfilled, a gift that has been hidden from others).

 Dream/Vision Quotient:
5

  • Hawkins' dream in the farmhouse as his mother lays dying.
  • Hawkins' dream which Lodz 'reads'.
  • Brother Justin's dream, which echoes both of Hawkins'.
  • Brother Justin's vision on the street outside Chin's.
  • Hawkins sees Brother Justin, who shouts "Tell me!", after Sofie has read his cards.
  

 Miracle Quotient:
3 (1 of which in a flashback)

  • Eleanor, one of the migrants, coughs up coins when Brother Justin accuses her of stealing money from the collection plate.
  • Hawkins, when a child, brings his dead kitten back to life.
  • Hawkins heals a crippled girl who was at the carnival the night before. The crops growing in the field around her die.

Also watch out for:
The reference to Tod Browning's 1932 film Freaks.


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