The Great Depression, the Dust Cauldron, the American Outback, the wandering circus... The world of eerie secrets, romance and memories, like the revived early stories of Bradbury. Strange characters, bizarre visions, distorted fates - like scattered Tarot cards in the screensaver. Someone plays mystical cards in an ancient game – and it is not known what each player carries to people. At least not yet known.
The screensaver, by the way, also largely adjusts the viewer to the perception of this difficult film. A bizarre psychedelic musical composition composed of intertwined and returning motifs complements the postmodernism of the video series, where historical scenes turn into masterpieces of painting, and paintings into drawings on those very maps. Disturbing footage newsreels - Mussolini, Ku Klux Klan - remind us that we are facing the 30s of the twentieth century. A world frozen in the choice between good and evil is on the verge of the worst war in history.
A fugitive convict and a priest - what can unite them and the missing magician Henry Scudder? Why do they both have the same nightmares? Gradually, the viewer receives the keys to understanding what is happening – but these hints are contradictory. What seems to be justice harbors the seeds of a fascist threat. And few people will see the light of true good in the dark soul of a lonely murderer who no longer wants anything from this life. As usual, everything is not what it seems, and from the outside it is so difficult to distinguish a hero from a villain, madman from a saint.
Ben Hawkins wants to do good to people, but the fact is that everything requires sacrifice. Life always devours someone or something, and light is the product of burning. Ben’s soul is meant to light up and warm up – but it needs fuel. The tragic essence of the world, where life and death are always together, are two sides of the same phenomenon.
Is there any light in the soul of Justin's brother? Did human or demonic make him who he is? During the series, you have to make up your opinion - and do not rush to conclusions.
Among the other characters, it is worth highlighting
Samsona - a dwarf who manages the Carnival circus. It seems like such a sign – if there is a dwarf in the HBO series, then this is a wonderful image created by a genius actor. Suffice it to say that “Game of Thrones” I still did not give up watching because of Tyrion performed by Dinklage. Samson is an ordinary man, but he looks at the world with open eyes and tries to bring justice to the best of his modest strength. But against his background, all these prophets, sorcerers, messiahs and antichrists sometimes seem pathetic psychopaths.
HBO would, alas, not be HBO if it didn’t have a brothel storyline designed to execute the channel’s erotic scene plan. However, screenwriters and directors in their right – “Carnival” is not a film adaptation, but a completely independent phenomenon. And in comparison with “Game of Thrones” the level of unbridledness here is much lower. In addition, the somewhat perverse Dreyfuss family is interesting in its own way - very unhealthy relations between them.
The series also has a bigger flaw. The channel, alas, did not give the go-ahead for the planned six seasons, so it cost two. And although the writers knew about the closure of the series after the second season in advance; and despite the fact that the seasons were supposed to be combined in pairs and not have a strict through story, the second season turned out to be simpler and more crumpled. The solution was found as follows: the season of questions – the season of answers (about as in the anime “When the Cicadas Cry”). Therefore, in the second season, everything, alas, came close to the classic “Beaver fight with a donkey”, as in a typical fantasy. To the credit of the creators of the series - even reducing the plot to banal, they were able to present it with dignity, without losing the originality of images, impressive video series, and, ultimately, the atmosphere. However, a particularly complex and ambiguous outcome, given the mythological basis of the plot, did not have to wait.
Still, the show is cool. Motives of Christian apocrypha in half with Indian mythology, symbolism of Tarot cards, allusions to the role of secret societies in the history of mankind, magic – all this is very well understood and felt by the authors and does not look like an attempt to cut down money on archetypes.
Result: for lovers of real mysticism. If you at the same time love the work of Bradbury, Stephen King and Borges, respect the genre of road Movie, are not alien to the dark romance of noir detectives about the 30s. and do not consider the films of David Lynch a dull mind - then this series is for you. 9 out of 10
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