If you’ve been using any platform with ads, there’s a high chance you’ve seen some sort of advertisement for Amazon’s Carnival Row. There has been a huge marketing campaign for the show, focused primarily on its two lead actors (Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne) and its wide world of magic. I binged the eight episode show in a day, as per my brand, and I’ve got to say: it needed more episodes.
Stay with me. I’m not being greedy, just wanting more content. Carnival Row had a lot of world building to do, between having to tell the history of the war between the Burgue (the human world), the Pact (the evil Faerie), and the Faerie (the…good Faerie, I guess), while also having to tell the history of our main characters, Vignette (Delevingne) and Philo (Bloom). That’s… a lot. Not too much for a story, no way, not if properly done. Worldbuilding can make or break a story and they did some really great world building. It was, however, at the expense of the plot.
We spend the first two episodes just getting the ground under our feet, understanding the world. The third episode is entirely flashback of Vignette and Philo’s history during the war against the Pact seven years ago. This leaves us with only five episodes, admittedly around an hour long, to deal with the actual plot and problem of the show, on top of a side plot or two. Actually, more like four and a half episodes, because of course we lose at least half of the final episode to setting up the next season.
To its credit, the actual main problem of Carnival Row is super intriguing, and the reveals at the end had my roommate and I gasping, but it could have been dragged out longer. There was no middle point of the story that lets you get settled into the world and really try to puzzle out the mystery. Carnival Row felt like it went from exposition to final battle exceptionally quickly. And while their worldbuilding was immense, there were some things that weren’t explained very well (like what exactly is the Pact and how are they different from faeries?)
Now the world building and very-not-subtle metaphors for current racial tensions are reason enough to watch the show. That, and it’s a quick binge, which was maybe Amazon’s game plan. That being said, while the show was fun, I finished the final episode feeling slightly cheated after all of their grand promises. So if the world intrigues you, go for it and enjoy it, but I hope next season has more room for story to breathe.