Join the circus

CARNIVÀLE CRUISES Iris, Brother Justin, Libby, Rita Sue, Stubby, Ben and Sofie (from left) take their show on the road.

Sweat-streaked filth, revivalism and rural blight as far as the eye can see: It’s not an obvious setting for an HBO drama, but it’s exactly there that we find Carnivàle, a show that magically blends a gorgeous historical drama (it’s set in the Dust Bowl), a soapy character drama (plenty of heartache on the road with a traveling carnival) and an elaborate epic about the battle between good and evil (it’s complicated).

“And so it was that the fate of all mankind came to rest on the trembling shoulders of the most reluctant of saviors,” goes the introduction to the second and, unfairly, final season of the show. The trembling shoulders are those of Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl), a carnie slowly discovering just how powerful and important he is. Now that the second season is finally coming out on DVD, we can appreciate the season as a whole. At the core of this often confusing and frustrating show is a wonderful, artistic and deeply interesting story.

Carnivàle can drive you crazy because its guiding mythology was never fully explained—hell, it was barely mentioned—on the show. “I just don’t get it,” is a common complaint among first-time viewers. But creator Daniel Knauf widely circulated the framework on message boards and fan sites. These are the basics: There are two “houses,” one light and one dark. Good and evil, if you will. In every generation, there is one avatar per house. Only men can be avatars, and it runs in the family, but light avatars can sire dark ones and vice versa. The oldest avatar in the house is the prophet. An usher is an avatar who brings with him the end of days, at which point the omega—who’s a woman—avatar crops up to put an end to everything.

Still with us? In the current generation for the show, Brother Justin (a mesmerizing Clancy Brown) is the dark avatar and Ben is the light one. Justin is the usher, and Sofie (Clea Duvall) is the omega. Management (voice of Linda Hunt) was the light avatar of his generation and is Justin’s father. Justin is Sofie’s father; Henry Scudder (John Savage) is Ben’s father. Scudder, Justin and Sofie are dark, and Management and Ben are light. When really evil shit goes down, dark avatars’ eyes go completely—and terrifyingly—black. It’s not to be watched alone.

If an avatar kills another avatar from his house, he absorbs the deceased’s abilities. That’s why Management manipulates Ben into killing him: so Ben can take over Management’s power. That’s also why Brother Justin sends a hired goon to find Scudder and deliver him: Justin needs to kill Scudder himself. But Carnivàle has so much more going on than pseudoreligious posturing. It’s a show that’s passionately invested in its characters, many of whom aren’t contributing to the good versus evil, end times, apocalypse stuff. Rita Sue (Cynthia Ettinger), Stumpy (Toby Huss) and Libby (Carla Gallo), who operate the burlesque show known as the “cootch tent,” provide more than enough drama and intrigue—no mysticism necessary. Libby in particular is untouched with the supernatural abilities and responsibilities of those around her, and that gives her emotions more impact. Unlike Ben—yeah, he’s kinda sad, but he’s responsible for humanity so that makes sense—we can’t write Libby off.

Broadly speaking, Carnivàle is a show about contrast. Who fits in and who doesn’t in a society? What’s the outside and what’s the inside? Some of us have supernatural abilities; some of us don’t. Some of us are men of God; some of us false prophets. We wear masks, some of us literally, to protect the inside us from the outside us. The light/dark motif is everywhere, starting at the opening credits when the sun, moon and judgment tarot cards turn up. The logo for the carnival is a half-night, half-day icon. Lights play a huge role in the imagery and cinematography of the series. Brother Justin falls to his knees in front of a flickering neon sign, and the most iconic element of the carnival is the brightly luminous Ferris wheel contrasted with the black night sky.

Carnivàle - The Complete Second Season comes to town Tuesday 18 from HBO Home Video ($99.98).