I am quite addicted to series box sets at the moment, I got carnivale as a christmas present and from the moment i put the first disk in i was hooked!
The plan was to make quite a few more series of Carnivale but it was cancelled :( but I was satisfied by the end of series 2 that the story was complete.
Wonderful and superb televsion that makes you think about it for ages after.

Reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', Carnivale will quickly become compulsive viewing. Though only two out of the three series were actually made it is still very much worth watching. The acting is superb, the atmosphere increasingly dark, the plot twists and turns with satisfying intrique. The attention to detail, coupled with clever camera work really do show the thirties 'dustbowl' era.
Warning : these are definately adult only DVD's, NOT for children, but don't let that put you off.
One of the most outstanding series to come out of the USA (which probably explains why they axed series three!) 10 out of 10

I was lead to rent this series by the enticing promotional strap-line: "where Twin Peaks meets PJ Barnum". I was absolutely spellbound by david Lynch's Twin Peaks but found Carnivale serie 1, less than satisfying. The recreation of the period sets, are brilliant and conveyed a plausible visual representation of John Steinbeck's classic, Grapes of Wrath. However, I found the plot meandering and the story-line often obscure with too many detours into byways that seemed to have little bearing on the particular scene. It did not help that I found Ben the central character's mumbling inarticulacy, irritating. On the other hand I thought Michael J Anderson's performance (Samson the dwarf), thoroughly engaging. As a story, there were too many false leads for my liking and too many loose ends and unanswered questions by the end of the series. The series undoubtedly grows on one with each episode but on the whole would have benefitted from a tighter script and a firmer directorial hand. I will not be rushing to view series 2.

My rating may seem poor to those who watched it but I agree with Rolo. It is a great show that does largely seem to be made up as it went along (after the inital idea). It looks great, is well acted and is creepy, funny and totally engrossing at times. It does get less believable and more confusing in the 2nd seris but I could live with that. Look at Lost. In Lost half the episodes have absolutely no bearing on the overall story but its entertaining and its a massive hit. But the old American habit of cancelling shows at will (or due to money I suspect) is its biggest problem. This has happened to several shows I enjoyed [...]. However, (good but) formulaic cop shows go on forever [...]. I like to be able to get into a story and a seris is better than a movie for doing that but its a bit like reading half a book and you find out the author hasn't bothered to finish it, or rather their publisher has stopped publishing halfway through. I would recommend it if you like to read books with the last chapter ripped out!

any series that can add that much detail to an era, but leave the viewer desperate for more knowledge about the series, in my view, is well made and worth getting interested in

i love this series, even though, even by the end i didn't know what was going on.
i love watching it again and again and i get more from it with every viewing

if u like an easy to follow plot and normal characters this isn't really foe u