Carnivale review
Jan. 11th, 2005 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhCarnivale (there should be an accent thingy over the second 'a', but it's been too long since I took a French class, and I forget how to do that) Season Two started last night. I adore Carnivale. It's beautifully shot, but more than that, the concept hits nearly every single one of my story kinks: traveling circus, epic battle of good vs evil, confusion over what constitutes good and evil, creepy priest, canon femslash, strippers, a freak show, baddirtywrong incest, a historical setting with neat, little-known details, ghosts, characters refusing to accept destiny, backstories of tremendous angst, slowly building romances, snake charming... everything. If it had a manic depressive, self-sacrificing hero with short-tempered but protective friend, I would never watch anything else.
Which is my long way of saying that, if you aren't already watching it, you totally should be.
Quick notes:
Wow. We actually learn things in this episode! Is that allowed?
Sophie yelling about being able to hear her mother screaming in the fire: so very, very creepy.
Why does Management's voice sound like an old woman's?
Justin in China Town is going to be something other than the obvious. I'm calling it right now- he's not whoring around, he's, I don't know, eating babies and starting an opium drug ring.
Ben's new shirt makes him look pretty damn hot. And hello, lesbian saying this. Although maybe it's just the relief of not seeing him encrusted in dirt.
What's with the blue ink instead of blood? Is that some sort of symbol I didn't get?
Longer things:
So... if the Russian and Scudder are the previous generation's Ben and Justin, and Scudder is Ben's father, and Management is the Russian (Christ, this show is confusing)... do we think Management might be Justin's father? Justin and Iris are Russian, after all, and we've never seen them mention their father. Just that their mother was killed in that train crash. *shrugs* It's my new theory for the season, anyway, though I'm probably wrong.
The show seems to be pretty clearly presenting Justin as the bad guy in this episode. I'm a bit disappointed; I was still rooting for him to be the good guy. Though from the plot and the information we know, I think it still makes logical sense for him to be good, the show's used such creepy music and imagery to accompany him that it'd feel too much like a cheap trick if he wasn't bad. However, I think a cool twist would be to have Justin as a bad guy, but doing God's work, while Ben, even though good, does Satan's. And it seems like that might be where the show is going; when Ben has the dream/hallucination/vision of the nuclear bomb, Justin says, "Ye offspring of serpents, who ordered ye to flee from the wrath to come?" Serpents, I'm sure I need to tell no one, are not generally used as a symbol for all that's good and true and sweet. It's an interesting line: if God for some reason wanted nuclear weapons to be developed, obviously it would be in the Devil's interest to subvert that plan, just like Management is trying to convince Ben to do. Although I'm not sure how the writers plan on presenting a God that supports atom bombs. I can come up with a few things: a situation in which the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (ie, if it stopped the war, it doesn't matter how many people were killed), or a reasoning along the lines of "God gave man brains in order to use them", and this is just the latest in a long line of scientific discoveries. *bounces* I can't wait to see how this plays out.
Another line that I thought was curious was "By the hand of the prince the prophet dies. Upon his death the prince shall rise" which supposedly is a quote from 'the Gospel of Matthias'. Now, Justin and the scholar guy both believe that this applies to Justin and Scudder, but what if it doesn't? In the final last season, Lodz called Management 'my prince'. And then Lodz, who can read people's mind and arguably could be called a prophet, gets killed by the actions of Management. And, judging from next week's preview, Management will soon walk again. So I think it's not about Justin at all.
Tee. I adore this show.
Which is my long way of saying that, if you aren't already watching it, you totally should be.
Quick notes:
Wow. We actually learn things in this episode! Is that allowed?
Sophie yelling about being able to hear her mother screaming in the fire: so very, very creepy.
Why does Management's voice sound like an old woman's?
Justin in China Town is going to be something other than the obvious. I'm calling it right now- he's not whoring around, he's, I don't know, eating babies and starting an opium drug ring.
Ben's new shirt makes him look pretty damn hot. And hello, lesbian saying this. Although maybe it's just the relief of not seeing him encrusted in dirt.
What's with the blue ink instead of blood? Is that some sort of symbol I didn't get?
Longer things:
So... if the Russian and Scudder are the previous generation's Ben and Justin, and Scudder is Ben's father, and Management is the Russian (Christ, this show is confusing)... do we think Management might be Justin's father? Justin and Iris are Russian, after all, and we've never seen them mention their father. Just that their mother was killed in that train crash. *shrugs* It's my new theory for the season, anyway, though I'm probably wrong.
The show seems to be pretty clearly presenting Justin as the bad guy in this episode. I'm a bit disappointed; I was still rooting for him to be the good guy. Though from the plot and the information we know, I think it still makes logical sense for him to be good, the show's used such creepy music and imagery to accompany him that it'd feel too much like a cheap trick if he wasn't bad. However, I think a cool twist would be to have Justin as a bad guy, but doing God's work, while Ben, even though good, does Satan's. And it seems like that might be where the show is going; when Ben has the dream/hallucination/vision of the nuclear bomb, Justin says, "Ye offspring of serpents, who ordered ye to flee from the wrath to come?" Serpents, I'm sure I need to tell no one, are not generally used as a symbol for all that's good and true and sweet. It's an interesting line: if God for some reason wanted nuclear weapons to be developed, obviously it would be in the Devil's interest to subvert that plan, just like Management is trying to convince Ben to do. Although I'm not sure how the writers plan on presenting a God that supports atom bombs. I can come up with a few things: a situation in which the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (ie, if it stopped the war, it doesn't matter how many people were killed), or a reasoning along the lines of "God gave man brains in order to use them", and this is just the latest in a long line of scientific discoveries. *bounces* I can't wait to see how this plays out.
Another line that I thought was curious was "By the hand of the prince the prophet dies. Upon his death the prince shall rise" which supposedly is a quote from 'the Gospel of Matthias'. Now, Justin and the scholar guy both believe that this applies to Justin and Scudder, but what if it doesn't? In the final last season, Lodz called Management 'my prince'. And then Lodz, who can read people's mind and arguably could be called a prophet, gets killed by the actions of Management. And, judging from next week's preview, Management will soon walk again. So I think it's not about Justin at all.
Tee. I adore this show.
