The circus is in town

HBO is always a regular feature on lists of The Greatest TV Shows of All Time, with The Wire and The Sopranos being talked of with the kind of reverence usually reserved for Nobel Prize winners. But the one HBO show that sits in the corner gathering dust is also possibly it’s most accomplished: Carnivàle.

Cancelled after only two series’ and 24 episodes, Carnivàle was a difficult sell right from the beginning, almost impossible to classify. It was a supernatural drama, running with the unfortunately Buffy-esque tagline “Into each generation is born a creature of light and a creature of dark”. But it was also a period drama, presenting an authentic and unflinching portrayal of the American Dustbowl at the height of the Great Depression in 1934. And then, on top of all that, it is telling two consecutive stories: one of Evangelist preacher Brother Justin in California, and one of a travelling carnival, populated with a rich cast of freaks, rousties and cootch dancers. No one element is given prominence – the show was just as concerned with the ins and outs of familial relationships as it was with a battle of good and evil. Frankly, with that convoluted pitch it’s a miracle it made it to the screen at all.

Thankfully, HBO have always been in a position to take risks, and they took a huge one on untested writer Daniel Knauf when his script for Carnivàle landed on their desk. They teamed Knauf with experienced Executive Producers Howard Klein and Ronald D. Moore (who left after series one to launch Battlestar Galactica), and rounded up a brilliant cast led by one-time John Connor Nick Stahl in the lead role of Ben, a young, scared convict with incredible powers of healing who joins the carnival, and Highlander and The Shawshank Redemption actor Clancy Brown, who towers as Brother Justin, the preacher who discovers the ability to punish people with the worst sins they have ever committed. Also in the cast were Girl, Interrupted actress Clea Duvall, Twin Peaks actor Michael J. Anderson, and, in an excellent two-parter, John Hannah.

The multi-award winning look of the show is worth the price of the DVD alone. Each frame is like looking at a work of art, with the period detail replicated to the tiniest speck of dust and with over 5000 costumed extras appearing in the first series alone. Each episode cost a rumoured $4million to make, and each penny of that is on the screen for all to see, watched over by the towering, iconic image of the Ferris wheel.

Carnivàle was a show that demanded – and rewarded – patience. Mysteries were richly layered and answers were rarely forthcoming, but the show never fell into the trap Lost languished in, leaving viewers with the impression that answers weren’t coming because the writers didn’t have them. With Carnivàle, the viewers were always in the safe hands of Daniel Knauf and his six-year plan, and there was more than enough perfectly-observed human drama and gorgeous intricacies to pass the time before the next Big Reveal. Every tiny look, hint and line of dialogue was paid off ten-fold for the loyal viewer, and the series built up into richly satisfying tapestry. It is most frequently compared to Twin Peaks, but it is more human than that show, grounded in a harsh time period, with the supernatural elements taking on a grubby realism.

Unfortunately, the notoriously fickle American audiences were not willing to give it the time to develop, and ratings dropped. When the cancellation was announced, HBO received 50,000 complaints in a single weekend, but it was not enough to save the show. We can only imagine what would have happened if it had been granted a full run. The show picked up pace dramatically in series two, with revelations, scares and the final, inevitable show-down between Ben and Brother Justin coming thick and fast.

As it stands, Carnivàle is a near-perfect specimen of television – stunning, thrilling, scary, touching, beautifully acted by an extraordinarily talented cast, and endlessly rewarding. Perhaps the cancellation was a blessing, allowing the show to go out on a flawless high and leaving behind two perfectly-formed DVD boxsets. It is certainly one of my Greatest Shows of all Time, and deserves to be counted in the same breath as those other HBO flagships. I am fiercely jealous of those people who catch a glimpse of the eye-catching DVD cover and decide to give this obscure show a go – they have no idea how much of a treat they are in for.

By Abigail Chandler