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smashc, I was able to watch two more Carnivale episodes. Lo, I wanted more Justin and Iris, and behold, The River provided. Okay, I figured out that the little girl and boy were Iris and Justin as children early on, but I didn’t know their accent was supposed to be Russian until that got spelled out. Am trying not to read too much into the fact that Justin is Russian and Ben is American, as the nice shades of grey continue.
The image of Ben healing Gabriel and the dead fish turning up in the water was genuinely eerie, and illustrates the excellent gambit the show has come up with – i.e. that his healing powers always come at the expense of life of some kind – very well. (It’s the old storytelling problem of having characters with superpowers – one always has to explain just why, if they can do X, they don’t just solve problem of the world Y.) Justin’s powers seem to be connected to death as well, but not exclusively – the migrant lady whom he made throw up coins in the first episode was alive and well afterwards, after all. “The left hand of God” expression from Lonnegan, Texas immediately reminded me of the Neil Gaiman short story Murder Mysteries and the angel – what was his name again – whose function it was to dispense judgment and death (but not always both at the same time).
I’m less enamoured of the ring turning up, because really, I’m a bit tired of the free masons and the templars. Too many books and films using them, I suppose. I hope this won’t get overemphasized here.
Justin and Iris as Russian imigrant children originally named Alexej and Irina, and little Iris’ insistence they can only trust a priest, made me wonder ever so briefly about another overexposed topos as well – the Anastasia story. And ever so briefly, I wondered whether we were supposed to deal with two escaped children of the Czar here. But none of the daughters was called Irina, so that’s that. (Still, I wonder whether there is a Rasputin connection?)
And then there is the ongoing WWI imagery. It’s fascinating that they use it so intensely, because it’s more apart of the European collective consciousness than of the American one, due to terms of involvement. Also, WWI as opposed to WWII can’t be read in a classic fantasy good versus evil manner. It’s the war that has come to epitomize complete senselessness of war aims and mass slaughter, the first one with modern weapons. So if WWI is a kind of model here, than not only do we not aim for a good versus evil conflict but then also Management might stand for the “old men” vilified by poets and writers across the lines and held responsible for turning Europe into a slaughterhouse. Note the blind Lodz offering himself as guide to Ben repeatedly and then stunning Samson by talking with Management directly. Blindness of ambition? Who knows, the show might go with Ben and Justin both ultimately creating their version of the legendary WWI Christmas truce only then going further and rejecting the Old Men for good?
Meanwhile, I detect distinct Edward Albee vibes from Rita and Felix, only Rita is far more assured and together than Martha, and Felix far weaker than George. Right now, my sympathies are more with Rita. As for Libby and Sofie, I’m not just wondering whether they get slashed, I wonder whether this actually will become text. The first two eps seemed to set up Sofie and Ben, but I’m ever so relieved that they go with the more interesting Sofie/Libby in terms of screentime and storytelling instead.
As I didn’t remark on it before: I love the music in this show. When hearing It’s only a Papermoon in episode 8, I had massive Peter Bogdanovich flashbacks, of course, which reminds me that one of these days I must write a post of why Papermoon is such a charming film.
smashc, I was able to watch two more Carnivale episodes. Lo, I wanted more Justin and Iris, and behold, The River provided. Okay, I figured out that the little girl and boy were Iris and Justin as children early on, but I didn’t know their accent was supposed to be Russian until that got spelled out. Am trying not to read too much into the fact that Justin is Russian and Ben is American, as the nice shades of grey continue. The image of Ben healing Gabriel and the dead fish turning up in the water was genuinely eerie, and illustrates the excellent gambit the show has come up with – i.e. that his healing powers always come at the expense of life of some kind – very well. (It’s the old storytelling problem of having characters with superpowers – one always has to explain just why, if they can do X, they don’t just solve problem of the world Y.) Justin’s powers seem to be connected to death as well, but not exclusively – the migrant lady whom he made throw up coins in the first episode was alive and well afterwards, after all. “The left hand of God” expression from Lonnegan, Texas immediately reminded me of the Neil Gaiman short story Murder Mysteries and the angel – what was his name again – whose function it was to dispense judgment and death (but not always both at the same time).
I’m less enamoured of the ring turning up, because really, I’m a bit tired of the free masons and the templars. Too many books and films using them, I suppose. I hope this won’t get overemphasized here.
Justin and Iris as Russian imigrant children originally named Alexej and Irina, and little Iris’ insistence they can only trust a priest, made me wonder ever so briefly about another overexposed topos as well – the Anastasia story. And ever so briefly, I wondered whether we were supposed to deal with two escaped children of the Czar here. But none of the daughters was called Irina, so that’s that. (Still, I wonder whether there is a Rasputin connection?)
And then there is the ongoing WWI imagery. It’s fascinating that they use it so intensely, because it’s more apart of the European collective consciousness than of the American one, due to terms of involvement. Also, WWI as opposed to WWII can’t be read in a classic fantasy good versus evil manner. It’s the war that has come to epitomize complete senselessness of war aims and mass slaughter, the first one with modern weapons. So if WWI is a kind of model here, than not only do we not aim for a good versus evil conflict but then also Management might stand for the “old men” vilified by poets and writers across the lines and held responsible for turning Europe into a slaughterhouse. Note the blind Lodz offering himself as guide to Ben repeatedly and then stunning Samson by talking with Management directly. Blindness of ambition? Who knows, the show might go with Ben and Justin both ultimately creating their version of the legendary WWI Christmas truce only then going further and rejecting the Old Men for good?
Meanwhile, I detect distinct Edward Albee vibes from Rita and Felix, only Rita is far more assured and together than Martha, and Felix far weaker than George. Right now, my sympathies are more with Rita. As for Libby and Sofie, I’m not just wondering whether they get slashed, I wonder whether this actually will become text. The first two eps seemed to set up Sofie and Ben, but I’m ever so relieved that they go with the more interesting Sofie/Libby in terms of screentime and storytelling instead.
As I didn’t remark on it before: I love the music in this show. When hearing It’s only a Papermoon in episode 8, I had massive Peter Bogdanovich flashbacks, of course, which reminds me that one of these days I must write a post of why Papermoon is such a charming film.
