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Carnivàle - Overview

Carnivàle - Overview: Encyclopedia II - Carnivàle - Overview

At the beginning of the first episode, the carnival's manager (a dwarf named Samson) says: "Before the beginning, after the great war between heaven and hell, God created the earth and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called man … And to each generation was born a creature of light and a creature of darkness...and great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between good and evil. … There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty. … So it was, until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity and man forever traded away wonder for reason." This quotation offers a glimpse into t ...

Carnivàle: Encyclopedia II - Carnivàle - Overview

Carnivàle - Overview

At the beginning of the first episode, the carnival's manager (a dwarf named Samson) says:

"Before the beginning, after the great war between heaven and hell, God created the earth and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called man … And to each generation was born a creature of light and a creature of darkness...and great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between good and evil. … There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty. … So it was, until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity and man forever traded away wonder for reason."

This quotation offers a glimpse into the show's subject matter and framework.

The show consists of two plot lines that are slowly converging. The first involves a young man named Ben Hawkins, the "creature of light," who joins a travelling carnival when it passes near his Dust Bowl home. The carnival consists mainly of a freak show and a strip show (known as the "cootch show"), but it also has a few rides such as a Tilt-A-Whirl and Ferris wheel.

Ben has quickly come to learn that his nemesis must be stopped by any means, and is learning the full extent of his powers to stop the nuclear holocaust he keeps seeing in his mind if his nemesis succeeds.

The second plot line revolves around a Methodist minister named Brother Justin Crowe, the "creature of darkness", who, along with the guidance of his sister Iris in their fictional town of Mintern, California, is also learning the extent of his powers, and his visions regarding the farm boy he keeps seeing, who is his nemesis. He has gathered a strong following of Okies who have flocked to hear him and his Father Coughlin-like (minus the anti-Semitism) sermons going out over the airwaves.

As the story progresses, the carnival travels west toward California and a confrontation seems inevitable. The westward movement parallels the movement of the Okies from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl years.

Hawkins and Crowe are linked by mysterious events in the past (specifically during World War I, involving their fathers), and they have been appearing in each other's dreams regularly from the first season onward, finally confronting each other at the end of the second season. The show mixes much Christian theology and Gnostic lore together with concepts of classical Greek mythology and Masonic lore, particularly that of the Knights Templar.