A Bit of a Mixed Bag: A Review of Carnival Row

I first heard about Carnival Row from literally one million twelve second ads in promoted tweets on my twitter feed and while intrigued, didn’t really think much of it. Then I discovered it had Orlando Bloom (happy sigh) and Cara Delevingne (another happy sigh) as star-crossed lovers, and I got a hell of a lot more invested. No spoilers, I promise.

In late August on a mini vacation to shores of Lake Michigan, I sat down and watched all eight episodes in one sitting and friends. I really don’t have many regrets. In a time when I am desperate for original content, the premise itself was certainly original, if not all of the tropes explored. (I mean, star-crossed lovers is literally a tale as old as time.)

A land of fairy folk (fauns, actual fairies, other fae folk as needed) is the battleground for two rival countries. As one country retreats and the other takes over, the retreating country becomes a haven for the fairy folk who are brutally murdered under the new regime. Unfortunately, life isn’t exactly awesome in the new country either.

I have several reservations about this show, and the biggest is that it tries to do way, way too much. I think it’s probably a sign of the times, as shows and movies are desperate to keep the attention spans of people increasingly interested in getting entire story lines out of minute long videos on Tik Tok, but this show could certainly have benefited from some trimming. There’s the star-crossed lovers storyline, the one about the war, the one about prejudice in the new country, a politician and his kidnapped child, two socialites who have to deal with a wealthy faun who purchases the house next door, and a series of brutal murders of fae folk. I think that might be it but honestly, it’s hard to count. 

With this many story lines, nothing really gets enough time. We’re sold a bill of goods on this love story, and I think Bloom and Delevingne do an admirable job selling it, but there are entire episodes in an 8 episode season that don’t even feature one or the other. The socialites’ storyline could also have used a lot more development, given where it begins and where it ends, but saying too much more would be spoiling. 

The prejudice faced by the fae folk in their new country is heavy handed, at best, as an allegory for immigrants in the US, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a detractor. Science fiction and fantasy have long been used to talk about modern problems and at least it’s a metaphor that makes sense in the storyline. 

There were a lot of bright spots. David Gyasi as the well-to-do faun who moves into the socialites’ neighborhood is brilliant, an understated clear note in an otherwise incredibly busy show. The love story between Bloom and Delevingne’s characters (which I’ve now brought up three times, so y’all, they made an impression) was very much relevant to my interests, and will definitely keep me coming back for more. I was also really excited that Delevingne’s character, the fairy Vignette, is revealed to be bisexual. 

The production itself is beautiful, with the color saturation and the costuming. I really enjoyed the way the world was put together. 

This is probably not going to become something that I regularly rewatch, but I’ll definitely come back for future seasons, if only to see where this crazy ride takes us.