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Vanity Period Drama Review: Amazon’s Carnival Row Season Two
Amazon ^ | February 21, 2023 | Me

Posted on 02/21/2023 1:21:34 AM PST by C19fan

After a long hiatus from the first season of this steampunk series set in an alternative Late Victorian, set in the 1870s/1880s based on the ladies' fashions, world where humans live with sentient creatures from our mythology, for example, faeries, and magic is real, Amazon has been releasing episodes from season two. This review is based on a viewing of episodes one and two.

I have noticed two big tonal changes from season one. Perhaps the showrunner or writer read my Freeper review of season one. So far there have been no gratuitous sex scenes. The second is the use of expletives has been severely curtailed. I found the excessive use of both elements from season one taking one out of the period setting. I hope this improvement continues throughout the season.

The season takes off where season one ended. Invoking the Warsaw Ghetto, the non-humans, called the pejorative Critchs, living in the Burg, a London on the Danube, have been driven into a ghetto centered on Carnival Row. Taking the Warsaw Ghetto analogy, a step further, a disease has been ravaging the faeries. Among the residents of the ghetto are former inspector and half-human/half-faerie Rycroft Philostrate, played by Orlando Bloom, and the faerie Vignette Stonemoss, played by the way overrated Cara Delevingne.

Outside the Carnival Row, the liberal Oxbridge equivalent educated former street performer turned principal advisor to the Chancellor Runyan Millworthy is trying to open the eyes of his patron Chancellor Jonah Breakspear of the consequences of his policies and the suffering they are causing. To the credit of the writers, Chancellor Breakspear is not an Adolph Hitler throwing the non-humans into a ghetto based on some idea that humans are the superior sentient species and the Critchs are a source of societal contagion. So far he seems to be just a naïve gear in a larger machine.

Outside the Burg, the Loving v. Virginia interspecies couple find themselves in an area of the other human great power The Pact that has been taken over by a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movement called the New Dawn. This is where I do give some credit to the creative talent for a nuanced approach. The initial scene appears to show a utopia where humans and Critchs live in harmony. But later the officer crew of the steamship The Swan is mowed down by the New Dawn with a Maxim machine gun on the charge they are class enemies. It appears the dubious past of the non-human male of the Loving couple is about to catch up with him.

One does learn more about The Pact. As hinted at from season one, they are this world’s equivalent of the Russian Empire.

Season two does not ignore the magical aspects of this world. A faerie has been possessed by the soul of a dead practitioner of the dark arts. The faerie has committed gruesome murders of both humans and Critchs. The faerie is another gear in the machine that seems intent on increasing human v. Critchs tensions to the breaking point.

At the center of this potential maelstrom is Miss Sophie Longerbane, the leader of the opposition and half-brother and lover of Chancellor Breakspear. She is the puppet master of Chancellor Breakspear. To what specific end she is pulling all these different levers and pushing Burg society to the breaking point is not clear.

Overall, I find season two an improvement over season one. One complaint I have there was one scene that should have had a much larger body count due to a head scratching lack of security. I gave season one three bonnets out of five so I will give season 2 a rating of four bonnets.


TOPICS: History; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: drama; victorian

1 posted on 02/21/2023 1:21:34 AM PST by C19fan
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To: C19fan

I agree; I watched the first season, and though the premise and plot is interesting, the writing wasn’t what it should have been. Still, not a disaster, unlike some other series recently.

And thankfully not pushing some variety of Satanic immorality, which should count for something.

And that in spite of the swearing and nudity.

Cara Delevigne is pretty enough, but she lacks personality, or charm, or some “it” factor.


2 posted on 02/21/2023 2:45:22 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: C19fan

I stopped buying from amazon years ago.


3 posted on 02/21/2023 3:46:44 AM PST by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: joma89
I stopped buying from amazon years ago.

How brave!

4 posted on 02/21/2023 3:55:55 AM PST by IncPen ("Inside of every progressive is a Totalitarian screaming to get out" ~ David Horowitz)
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To: buwaya
"Cara Delevigne is pretty enough, but she lacks personality, or charm, or some “it” factor."

Ironic that you mention "it", as I was watching that 1927 movie just yesterday. :)

5 posted on 02/21/2023 4:01:42 AM PST by The Duke (Never Retreat, Never Surrender!)
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To: joma89

What do you shave with?


6 posted on 02/21/2023 4:55:59 AM PST by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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To: buwaya
not a disaster, unlike some other series recently.

I binge watched "Madmen" recently. By the third episode I was fast forwarding through all scenes dealing with the dramas of the women. Boring.

But the ending was worse than anticlimactic. It was stupid. And trite. And lazy.

7 posted on 02/21/2023 5:00:26 AM PST by LouAvul (Daniel 4:17: "..the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.." )
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To: C19fan

I watched one episode. Couldn’t stomach it. Fairy prostitutes? Lord, save us.


8 posted on 02/21/2023 6:50:18 AM PST by jagusafr ( )
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To: buwaya

I watched one episode of the first season and I’m not going to sit through an entire season of endless swearing to get to some better writing.
It’s a shame, I think the staging and the premise were quite good. But I’m fed up with script writers that think four letter words are the ultimate adjectives, adverbs and fill in words


9 posted on 02/21/2023 6:50:44 AM PST by ChildOfThe60s ( If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there..)
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To: LouAvul
But the ending was worse than anticlimactic. It was stupid. And trite. And lazy.

I find that with many 'finale' episodes of TV series. It is as if the money men told them to wrap it up by a certain date because no one gets paid after that.

Of course, with many series, a majority of the staff have already moved on to other projects by the time the series is ending. Thus, continuity suffers.

10 posted on 02/21/2023 6:59:10 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: C19fan

I would give it a whirl. Season 2 preview looks better than season 1.


11 posted on 02/21/2023 7:04:51 AM PST by M_Continuum
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To: C19fan

Couldn’t even make it thru the pilot episode. IMO it was an old story that they thought making it about mythical creatures would somehow jazz it up.


12 posted on 02/21/2023 7:05:46 AM PST by DejaJude (I'll be back, again.)
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To: joma89

Lol. I just got an Amazon package an hour ago. What’s your beef with Amazon? I know there’s always one in the crowd.


13 posted on 02/21/2023 7:55:32 AM PST by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country!)
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To: buwaya

She is “non-nonary/bi-sexual” is the problem with her.


14 posted on 02/21/2023 11:39:00 AM PST by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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