Review: Carnival Row

I’m going to be less formal with these reviews from now on, I think.

I really enjoyed Carnival Row. If you don’t know, it’s an Amazon Prime Original. It has Orlando Bloom and Cara Delavigne. Delevigne. Delevingne. I have to look it up. I like her.

You know, she has quite the opposite personality in real life as she has in all the roles she plays. Everything she plays is quite serious and intense, but she, herself is actually pretty goofy and fun.

Anyway, the show is a murder mystery that takes place in a fantasy version of Britain in the industrial revolution — Oliver Twist times.

It’s got fairies and some other races, who seem to be an allegorical representation of, basically, Irish & Scottish immigrants. I like the fantasy elements. I thought the fairies, the ram/goat people and the werewolves, all those sort of British Isles fairy tale elements were played to good effect.

I liked the overall visual look of the show. Typically scenes kind of pop visually because the setting itself is so gray and beige overall, whereas the characters are very colorful.

I thought the performances were quite good, obviously from the named cast, but also including the performances from the other characters. The ones I especially remember were the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister’s son, but overall I think the acting from top to bottom ranged from pretty good to very good.

I enjoyed the plot, which weaves together a nice romance, a sort of “obviously they should be together, but they won’t because they’re stubborn and have baggage” romance, with a murder mystery that all comes together pretty well. Feels a bit like a Sherlock Holmes story, which is appropriate for the setting I suppose.

I’d certainly be down to watch another season of this show. I think it got pretty mediocre reviews, like a 6/10 average or something. I think it’s better than that. I thought it was solid.