The show was multileveled, incorporated bits and pieces of actual, historically correct music, clothing, authentic carnival terms/acts/behavior, mixed in with old mystery/fantasy/horror genres, which tickled me and a lot of others. I'm a BIG fan of Browning's movies; "FREAKS" being just one of them.
CARNAVALE was sort of like TWIN PEAKS meets FREAKS meets tinfoil...stir well, and show.
The upshot is that I'm into that kind of stuff, but Carnivale just didn't hook me.