Carnival Row

This was absolutely splendid. I had no expectations when I started watching it and knew nothing about it, thinking it would be Ripper Street with a touch of fantasy. First couple of episodes I was still thinking that but soon after I was utterly hooked by the believable world building and strong acting from the leads especially Orlando Bloom who shakes free of the last remaining vestiges of Legolas and gives a commanding tragic performance. The Victorian steam punk vibe is excellently bought to life and the underlying story of a displaced people struggling against prejudice and violence in a dark and hostile capital is superbly done. Clearly there are metaphors in this depiction for our own times but they are not so heavy handed as to distract from the main murder investigation that has reflections of the Ripper hunt. The answer to the murder mystery is apparent to the audience some way before the actual denouement and if there is a criticism it would be the stretch on credulity that gets us to the end in a rather hurried and over played final episode. A minor criticism though in gem of a show and I hope we will see more.

The Amazon series is easier to follow even as it introduces initially-unconnected characters in multiple social classes. This gives "Carnival Row" plenty of areas to explore. It seems the time is right for audiences to become invested in this magical world, even if it's a far darker and nastier place than they might have otherwise imagined.

I don't know what the professional critics had against this series. The production values are fabulous, the world building is impressive, the acting is decent, the story is interesting.

Like Game Of Thrones, it's a fantasy series, grounded in reality. Although the scenario is more Steampunk. With violence, nudity, intrigue, blasphemies, etc.

At the heart of the series are serious topics such as refugees\migration. Perhaps critics didn't like the way this topic was handled. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm enjoying it. I give 8 stars out of 10.

Whilst there are many television series that are deserving of a second, third or fourth season. Carnival Row is one that has been cleared cut down in its prime. The 1st season set up this Magical Victorian style world. With allegories to imperialism, christianity, antisemitism, and so much more. Amazon Prime has seen fit to label season 2 as "The Final Season". As a way of saying they will not renew the program under any circumstances. Suffice to say, fans of the show have waited 3 years for a second series. And as one of them I think that it is a shame seeing how such care is taken in to the production quality of this program. Second only to Game of Thrones in world building/production design. It's painful to watch the second series as each episode is released. Because even though the creators know the show is not going to be renewed they still have put in massive effort to keep adding to this world.

I didn't really know what to expect from Carnival Row but I gotta say that I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. You can tell they spent a lot of money on this as the world they put together is really impressive! For any fans of fantasy this is a must watch and even if you're not into fantasy that much it's still a good watch!