Carnivale-Complete First Season (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Synopsis-Episode Synopses Notes-Series Index Audio Commentary-Director/ Creator/ Exec. Producer - Episodes 1, 2, and 10 Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	607:07 (Case: 606)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Todd Field Dan Lerner Jack Bender Rodrigo García
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Michael J. Anderson Adrienne Barbeau Patrick Bauchau Clancy Brown Debra Christofferson Tim DeKay Clea DuVall Cynthia Ettinger John Fleck Carla Gallo Toby Huss Amy Madigan Diane Salinger
Case	?
RPI	$89.95	Music	Jeff Beal Lisa Coleman Jon Ernst

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Hungarian Dutch Arabic Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Carnivale is an odd slow burn of a show. It starts out strong, with a pilot episode that raises far more questions than answers, and really scares the senses out of you. The next couple of episodes are likewise strong and engaging. Thereafter it seems to die off a little, which left this reviewer asking - What happened?

    Set in Depression-era 1920s America, the show follows loner and escaped convict Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl), who after watching his mother die on the family farm that has been turned into a dustbowl by vicious winds is rescued by the crew of a travelling carnival run by the enigmatic midget Samson (Michael J. Anderson). Hawkins is no ordinary boy – he has the power to heal just by putting his hands on someone. But the power is more like a curse, because for everything he heals, something else has to die.

    In opposition to Hawkins is the highly religious Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown), an evangelistic preacher who has dark and mysterious powers which he often uses to further his religious aims. However, despite all his good intentions, his plans for charity and redemption are consistently destroyed. These two – Hawkins and Crowe – are set pieces in a much larger war of good and evil about which neither of them has any clue.

    Carnivale is very much like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, full of nightmare imagery and a constant underlying mystery with both psychological and supernatural elements – how much is real, how much is fantasy? Unfortunately, after the initial few episodes, it takes a long time for the story to develop, bogging itself down in minor subplots that do not really add much to character development or story development. Some later episodes are still very effective, and if you can stick with it, it is rewarding. But it does travel a little slowly sometimes for my liking, and I’m a fan of The Sopranos and Deadwood, which are not exactly high-paced adrenalin-fuelled shows like the early seasons of E.R..

    The following is a breakdown of how these episodes are distributed across the 5 discs of this season. For those of you who need a complete episode summary, you can get one at TV.com.

Disc 1

• 1. Milfay (55:21)
• 2. After The Ball Is Over (54:11)

Disc 2

• 3. Tipton (47:45)
• 4. Black Blizzard (44:52)

Disc 3

• 5. Babylon (46:46)
• 6. Pick A Number (53:48)

Disc 4

• 7. The River (49:32)
• 8. Lonnigan, Texas (55:38)

Disc 5

• 9. Insomnia (43:56)
• 10. Hot And Bothered (50:40)

Disc 6

• 11. The Day Of The Dead (51:51)
• 12. The Day That Was The Day (52:47)

    There are a lot of Twin Peaks overtones here, although it definitely lacks the quirky humour, instead opting for a dark and serious undertone. But the air of mystery, the dark characters, the surrealist nightmares – it’s all there in spades. And despite its slow middle, it does deliver well with its final two episodes - The Day Of The Dead and The Day That Was The Day.

    Although Carnivale would only last two seasons, I think there’s a lot to be said for shows like this for viewers like me who do not generally appreciate the mainstream, and if you were at all a fan of Twin Peaks I highly recommend that you check this out. I have not yet seen the final episodes from Season 2, but I am looking forward to them. While this show would have been almost unbearable on TV given its slow burn pace, on DVD it is a winner.

Video

    Shot on Super 35 in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, mastered in High Definition and broadcast on ABC HD in 576p, this transfer is stunningly good, and probably only a little below par compared with transfers such as Star Trek: Enterprise – Season 4 and Band Of Brothers.

    The picture is quite sharp and well defined. Colour saturation is excellent, and balance is also well maintained.

    Shadow detail is good, with some overall graininess in lower lit scenes which I think has to do with the film stock used. The graininess is never excessive.

    There are no MPEG artefacts or distracting film-to-video transfer artefacts. My only quibble is some extremely minor background aliasing.

    Dirt is pretty much non-existent.

    Subtitles are available in an extensive range as set out above. They are white with a black border, clear and easy to read, and the English subtitles follow the dialogue fairly closely.

    The tops of these discs claim that they are all dual layer discs, but I didn’t spot any dual layer pauses. Chances are the layer change falls in between the episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in English in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (384Kb/s), and in English, French and Hungarian in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround (192Kb/s). The other tracks, while passable and presenting no problems, were certainly thinner.

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand (during the times it is meant to be well understood).

    There was some excellent use of surrounds here (check out some of the blizzard scenes in Black Blizzard), as well as good use of atmospherics from the surrounds during ordinary non-intensive surround scenes.

    The score by Jeff Beal, Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin is given an excellent mix here. Haunting and oddly whimsical, it suits this show to the core, although I did notice that they borrowed some of Hans Zimmer’s epic score from Terence Malick’s masterpiece The Thin Red Line in a few places. Got to say I’m not much of a fan of “borrowing” music from movies.

    The English 5.1 Dolby Digital track has some outstanding subwoofer use, particularly for surround effects and in some of those awful (in a good way) surrealist nightmares. Creepy.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    The main menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with a short lead in of Tarot Cards, each with a character’s face on them. The main menu itself shows several cuts from the series, but nothing that really gives anything away. The main menus have a 2.0 Dolby Stereo audio track. The other menus are static and silent.

Episode Audio Commentaries

    Presented in 2.0 Dolby Surround, the following episodes have audio commentaries:

• 1. Milfay (Disc 1)
• 2. After The Ball (Disc 1)
• 10. Hot And Bothered (Disc 5)

Series Index (All Discs)

    This is a set of stills with episode summaries.

Featurette – “The Making Of Carnivale” (12:51) (Disc 6)

    Presented in 1.78:1 letterboxed in a 1.33:1 frame, 2.0 Dolby Surround, this is a fairly promotional “making of” featurette, but has some decent interviews with the creators.

    The R1 release looks to be identical in content except for:

• Region coding and picture format (NTSC vs PAL),
• Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital Surround audio instead of Hungarian, and
• ”Old Book” style Digi-Pack inside Slipcase packaging.

    Packaging is much of a muchness for me, so I’m calling it a draw. Buy whichever is cheapest.

    Carnivale is a slow burn that would have been arduous and painful on TV, but on DVD is highly rewarding despite a slow middle. Scary, intriguing, and full of haunting imagery.

    The DVD transfer is excellent, and has just the right balance of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall