Hi everyone, here’s another recommendation for a great new streaming series worth catching up with. My wife and I loved season 1 of Amazon Prime’s Carnival Row, and I’m already enjoying season 2 just as much.
For those who haven’t gotten into the series yet, this review will be spoiler-free. The series takes place in a fictional Victorian era city of Burgue, where “Critch,” fae refugees from a continental war, have taken uneasy refuge. The resulting racial and class tensions are further inflamed by a series of gruesome murders, with much of the action centred on the Critch slums of Carnival Row.
Caught up in this city-wide tension are Philo, an ex-soldier who now works as an inspector for the Burgue police, and Vignette, a fairy-like Critch who has been romantically estranged from Philo and has joined the Critch rebel group the Black Raven.
Season 1 was a bit of a whirlwind, trying to fill in multiple backstories at once, as well as sketch out the stakes for both the political elite of Burgue and the discriminated inhabitants of Carnival Row. If I have a criticism, and it’s only a minor one, it’s that there are too many characters in Season 1, particularly too many minor characters that are being dragged along with events rather than being active within them. In season 2 it looks like the showrunners got the memo, as the opening episode focuses squarely on Philo and Vignette, with only a couple of small scenes to highlight the growing threat from both the ongoing war and the murders gripping the city.
The visual design of this world is stunning, with each group distinct in visuals and characterisation. I also love that Burgue feels “lived in,” from the pitted, ancient buildings to the grimy streets of Carnival Row.
The central theme of racism and class discrimination is front and centre throughout the series, however the show does a good job of showing the heroes and villains of each side. More importantly, the show manages to demonstrate the range of negative effects from this discrimination without ever descending into sermonising. There are also some genuinely creepy moments throughout the story as the heroes get closer to the true reason behind the grisly murders.
I’ll give another wrap-up of this show when I get to the end of season 2, but in the meantime, please check this series out and leave a comment below!
Leave a Reply