TV: Carnivale

I finished watching the first season of Carnivale on DVD yesterday. I was blown away with this series from beginning to end. Damn it, yet another reason I have to get HBO!

"Into each generation is born a creature of light and a creature of darkness." Nick Stahl plays Ben Hawkins, the light part of that equation*. Stahl is kind of like Joaquin Phoenix, or Eric Stoltz, in that I always think I'm going to hate him, but usually wind up liking him. The whole season is about him learning about his powers and his destiny, mostly via dreams which show him his long-lost father, Hack Scudder, who also had (has? Is he dead or alive?) powers. Ben is interesting so far, stubborn, naive, and haunted, but he'll probably become even more interesting when he begins to gain more knowledge and control (in the season finale, he seems to have taken his first big step in that direction by resurrecting a woman from the dead -- but only by taking another man's life to do so).

The other main figure in Ben's dreams is Brother Justin, the "creature of darkness", played powerfully and with frightening charisma by Clancy Brown. Ben and Justin seem destined to meet in conflict sometime down the line, but this series sets a most uniquely deliberate pace; the two don't meet (outside of dreams, and there infrequently), don't even set foot in the same state for the entire first season. Justin's storyline plays out completely separate from Ben and the Carnivale. I like that the show seems to know exactly where it's going, and feels no need to rush.

It's the Carnivale where the real excitement happens. It's populated with one of the most original and impressive casts of characters I've ever seen -- in personality as well as profession. There's Lodz, the blind mystic, who shacks up with Lila, the bearded lady, who is every bit as deceptive and ambitious as he is. There's Apollonia, the catatonic fortune-teller, and Sofie, her daughter, who is the only one who can "hear" her mother; their one-sided conversations often leave Sofie devastated by her mother's manipulations and cruelty. Jonesy is the foreman, an ex-baseball pitcher, crippled in one leg, and in love with Sofie. But he's hooking up with Rita Sue, a "cooch dance"** performer, behind her husband Stumpy's back. Stumpy is the barker for the cooch show populated by his wife and their two daughters, Libby (who is also in love with Sofie) and Dora Mae (who meets a terrible fate). Adrienne Barbeau plays Ruthie, the snake charmer who is smitten with the much younger Ben, and who also has a history with Ben's missing father; her simple son is the circus strong man. And Michael J. Anderson (who once danced in dreams on Twin Peaks) is Samson, the dwarf manager of the Carnivale; he reports only to the dangerous but never-seen "Management".

There's a lot about good vs. evil, often played out in grand scale, via dreams, magic, and visions, but just as often it plays out in human nature, in the most banal situations. In one memorable episode, Samson and a prostitute play mind games with each other; they degenerate from happy hooker and longtime satisfied customer into two bitter, petty, spiteful people, each trying to hurt the other as much as possible. Or there's the poor, out-of-luck father whose family is stranded due to a car with a flat tire; Ben shows him kindness and pays for the repairs, but the man has no qualms about reporting Ben to the police in the hopes of collecting the reward on a wanted poster. And the whole show plays out against the backdrop of the Great Depression, which turned many honest citizens into liars, thieves, and worse, out of necessity and desperation.

It's a totally enthralling show, terrifically written and acted. I'm sorry I don't have any more DVDs to rent; I'm dying to find out what's happening in season two, currently airing on HBO. Well, at least the video store has the new Deadwood DVDs to occupy my time. And Penn & Teller's Bullshit! -- damn, now I want to get Showtime, too!

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*G = CoL + CoD.

**AKA the "Hootchy-Kootchy". Entertaining and educational, that's Tom the Dog's You Know What I Like? in a nutshell.