MovieChat Forums > Carnivàle (2003) Discussion > My only complaint

My only complaint

posted 10 years ago by dsrtrosy-1
3 replies | jump to latest

I'm finally getting to watch this on Amazon and I think it's some of the best TV ever made.

Throughout season 1, it wasn't always clear which of the two "special" men (ugh) was good and which was evil. You'd think Ben was the "good" one, but giving life--even just healing--came at such a great price, I began to question it. Then he kills Lodz and Ruthie comes back to life? Awesome! And scary and a great closer for the season and a great spur to the ambiguity of his "goodness". On the other hand, it just seemed way too cliche for the pastor to be the "evil" one; I mean, come on...what a cop out. Surely they wouldn't go there.

But season 2 seems to be making that demarcation more clear, which I think is a little disappointing. The ambiguity of it was what made the show so interesting in season 1. I hope there's a surprise in here somewhere.

[–] CyberGhostface-1 10 years ago

I don't think there's supposed to be any doubt which one is which, it's just a matter of having the characters discover it and how they react.

[–] dsrtrosy-1 10 years ago

Hmmm....maybe you're right and I was allowing for more nuance than that.

[–] CyberGhostface-1 10 years ago

Well the nuance is the concept of 'free will vs destiny'. I.E. if you're destined to be evil do you have to act on it. They mention that in the first episode of the second season with Samson's speech.

FWIW the showrunners wanted Justin to be more ambiguous but HBO ordered them to make him more straight-up evil.