This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I've been watching Carnivàle at least once a year since I borrowed the DVD box from a friend in 2007. I'm a mood junkie, and to me art is something that makes you feel. So far only a few TV series have been able to take me to another world. Carnivàle does it every time. The atmosphere is fantastic: every picture is beautifully shot, every sound is perfect. I love the soundtrack. The writers did an excellent job and the language the characters use is authentic and really funny. The costumes, the locations, everything is just perfection. The acting, casting and directing are superb. Every single character is well developed and I can honestly say that I think they're all great, even the small supporting roles. The storyline is also excellent. It was written in its whole like a novel with 3 volumes. The TV series covers the first volume. There were supposed to be 6 seasons until HBO decided not to make the next chapters. Funnily enough, on the DVD special features is an interview from after the first season where Dan Knauf explains that it's a novel and he points out that it would be awful to start reading a novel and someone takes it out of your hands when you've only read half of it, and he jokes and says how lucky he is that HBO wants to tell his whole story. Tragic! However, at this point, if you surf a bit, it's possible to find information on how the story was supposed to unfold, so that gives some kind of closure after all these years.One more thing there is to say about Carnivàle, if you haven't seen it yet, it needs to be watched several times because it's so multi-layered. And it builds up slowly, but this really pays off for the depth of the story and characters later on, something that is very rare to see on a screen. And of course, it's unfinished but it's still very much worth it and a beautiful experience.

I watched the two seasons of this show in one of those weekend marathon viewing sessions. There are a lot of interesting characters that play very small parts, but each one manages to be interesting. The MVP of this show is Clancy Brown, who is outstanding. I was already a fan of his and this show really let him show his teeth. The pacing of the story was off. Too much time was spent in the two seasons wading around and then when the crap hit the fan, it was a little too rushed. They could have give the dry parts a little more oomph and smoothed it out. They certainly had the acting talent to make this a 5- year series. But you take the two seasons for what they're worth, and it's a solid 8. Don't quit when it drags early in the first season.

I do not understand why this show is not brought back. Just look at arrested development. they are making new episodes now I think. I think HBO made a huge mistake by cutting Carnivale and Deadwood short.It is strange how some horrible TV shows can go on forever while masterpieces like this one get canned by some corporate executive who knows nothing about brilliant productions and only the bottom line.So sad, but I will always cherish this show.I would say that the entire cast of this show was great, but more important than anything else was the writing and the production (most specifically the imagery used to tell the tale) that made it so special.

Did they ever finish the story off?They never did the 3rd series or did they finally make it?If not did they do a one off film to tie up loose ends or are they going to?The series itself is excellent and a gripping story line.It was a disappointment though not to know the outcome.Would love to know how it all ends.We really enjoyed watching series one and two.We have bought these on DVD and have been hoping that funds would become available to finish the story line.We keep looking and hoping.We were very surprised when they said they had run out of funds to complete the series.I should imagine it was very popular.As it is it is like reading a really good book with the last pages missing.Please finish the story off for all the fans.