Amazon, which started to increase its weight in the TV business, took a serious job in partnership with Legendary. When we look at the content, we can understand that Amazon spent a lot of money and effort on Carnival Row. But the result that comes out with effort is not always parallel. No matter how hard you force your creativity, if the story of your work is weak, the result will, unfortunately, be bad. While it could have been a great job, Carnival Row is a series that sadly fell into a weak screenplay. It has a fairy-tale world, but the situation is not a fairy-tale at all.
Let’s briefly touch on its subject… Carnival Row takes place in a world where fairies, Minotaurs, Centaurs, and various other creatures live. But these creatures from the magical worlds are in a not-so-magical place. It is a city where the streets are full of dirt and the days are always dark and rainy. Creatures are not allowed to live freely here. Most of them live miserably. These creatures that live with humans have adapted to situations. But this harmony begins to deteriorate with the deaths of people and creatures that begin in the city. While Detective Philo is trying to solve the case, Vignette, who involuntarily comes to the city, will find herself in this story somehow.
Carnival Row features fantasy creatures that take us to a Victorian city, where they go shopping and participate in auctions. These creatures, who struggle to survive every day in a dark city like Birmingham at the time, are sometimes despised and sometimes forced to work in jobs they do not want. Vignette is someone who was forcibly brought from where she lived. After all, where there are people, there is no peace. The series shows us the mythological beings known for their brilliance and splendor in a difficult, shabby situation. In this regard, the series is successful in terms of the environment it creates. It is an excellent drama to tell about the legendary beings living in impossibilities like immigrants. But the series loses its foundation after a point.
The series starts off like The Alienist. We follow the story of a detective investigating brutal deaths in the city. But over time, the series is separated from these deaths and becomes a drama that will not look like quality jobs. If the series focused on detective work and immigration, it would have made us watch a better fiction course. But especially after the middle, the series loses its purpose, and we cannot predict where we are going in the final. It blurs in the middle of what exactly the series is trying to convey. As a matter of fact, this situation is getting mediocre in a series that has been put into the such effort.
I love Cara Delevingne, but the projects she takes part in are mostly bad. Unfortunately, Orlando Bloom could not save the series with his excellent acting. Although it is a good job in terms of design and acting, the series ends badly because the course is ambiguous, and the finale does not fill the foundation. If you ask me, it may not see the second season.
To sum it up… Carnival Row starts as a period drama where mythological beings, the subject of legends, live in disgrace with people, adding a murderer who haunts the city. In fact, despite making a successful start, over time, it slips into absurd directions and breaks from its foundation. And after a while, we can’t predict “what we will see” in the final. Because things are getting blurry. While it can be a successful business, it remains mediocre.
Cast & Crew
creator: Travis Beacham, René Echevarria
starring: Jamie Harris, Orlando Bloom, Cara Delevingne
USA | 2019 | 8 EPISODES |