Carnival Row

Prime Video | Amazon Prime Video | Release Date: August 30, 2019

7.4	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 168 Ratings

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User Reviews

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hroark314Sep 13, 2019

The Good: I very much enjoyed mystery central to the story.
The Bad: The world building just didn't work. There was never a clear reason for the Burgue and the Pact to fight over the fairy land. There was also no real attempt to build aThe Good: I very much enjoyed mystery central to the story.
The Bad: The world building just didn't work. There was never a clear reason for the Burgue and the Pact to fight over the fairy land. There was also no real attempt to build a history for either the fae or the humans. The Pact is left completely un-described. They could have fleshed out the world a great deal more.
The Ugly: The heavy handed moral messaging just destroyed the story. Obviously, the fae are meant to represent minorities in the U.S. and Europe and the humans are meant to represent white people. The messaging gets even more heavy handed because there are numerous black humans and fae and nobody ever comments on their different skin colors. I freely admit "woke" sermonizing in an era when virtually nobody thinks racial discrimination is acceptable bores me to tears. However, the cardinal sin of this sermonizing is that it takes away from the actual sermonizing. A relationship between a black faun and a rich white woman, that has only a tangential relationship to the main plot, takes up a good 20% of the run time. In the final episode, we learn the outcome of the central mystery during the first 20 minutes. What follows is approximately 40 minutes of hackneyed portrayals of politicians taking advantage of racial hatred to gain power for themselves.

Verdict: This could have been a lot better. In their effort to ram home a droll racial equality message, the writers let the show suffer. Amazon and Netflix would do well to hire more conservatives for their creative staff. Working only with like-minded liberals has lead their current writers to tendentious, boring sermonizing that takes away from good story-telling.… Expand

7 of 8 users found this helpful71

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TheDiAug 31, 2019

Cara "One face" Delevingne make this show one tone type. Literally you see many great professionals (costumes, atmospheres, Orlando etc.) And Cara with her impression broke all atmosphere. Despite happy, bad, anxiety - it's still one face.Cara "One face" Delevingne make this show one tone type. Literally you see many great professionals (costumes, atmospheres, Orlando etc.) And Cara with her impression broke all atmosphere. Despite happy, bad, anxiety - it's still one face. Check it out ;)… Expand

9 of 18 users found this helpful99

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JeffreyFMar 21, 2023

Very bad acting and plot, dialogues are boring and nothing makes any sense, not worth watching !

3 of 6 users found this helpful33

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AthanasiosTSep 1, 2019

A very good production, sfx and steam punk atmosphere, doomed by an overdose of political correctness, cliche anti racism and feminist awareness. Orlando is a bit bored and that's exactly how I felt, after the first episode.

10 of 21 users found this helpful1011

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Nobilis1984Sep 14, 2019

In itself a decent series. But wouldn't it be the fact that you break off almost every storyline after a short time. Where else does the action make sense???
A second minus point is the female main role. Where did the actors learn??

4 of 11 users found this helpful47

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slim_trimSep 3, 2019

This show is garbage. Crap writing. Crap acting. Crap ... cara del ... whatever her name is ... is not an actress. from the beginning when they announce that the bombs coming at them from shore are the coastal battery ... groan! yeah, weThis show is garbage. Crap writing. Crap acting. Crap ... cara del ... whatever her name is ... is not an actress. from the beginning when they announce that the bombs coming at them from shore are the coastal battery ... groan! yeah, we know. we don't need you to tell us. then on to the forced diversity of shoving more "POC" characters into the 19th century english setting than freaking english. and onto orlando blooms embarrassing tough-guy entrance. it's embarrassingly bad. it is insulting. and it sucks. more crap from amazon. seriously. nothing amazon does now is worth a damn. all they do now is forced diversity and star fu@@ing. thumbs down.… Expand

9 of 25 users found this helpful916

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cterryr2Sep 25, 2019

The writing is aloof. I like the CGI concepts but it looks too clean and perfect. Hard to believe IMO. This is a strange world as they don't tell you enough about it in the 1st 20 minutes. It unravels as it goes and that's not a compliment.The writing is aloof. I like the CGI concepts but it looks too clean and perfect. Hard to believe IMO. This is a strange world as they don't tell you enough about it in the 1st 20 minutes. It unravels as it goes and that's not a compliment. Also, another detective story? Seriously? Blade Runner and Altered Carbon, although set in another type of universe, is the same thing! Yawn. Need writers with a better imagination and willing to risk much more! The highlight I saw was a pixie sex scene. I though that was pretty good. The rest can go. I'm done. The war it's self would have made a much better show. Not the refugees of it.… Expand

4 of 12 users found this helpful48

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Satanski666Feb 22, 2021

Wouldn't be that bad, if it was not so full of anti white propaganda. You can make very good movie, showing real problems, like Amistad or Twelve Years a Slave, which serves a good purpose, or you can create fantasy world where every whiteWouldn't be that bad, if it was not so full of anti white propaganda. You can make very good movie, showing real problems, like Amistad or Twelve Years a Slave, which serves a good purpose, or you can create fantasy world where every white person is an racist, and for what purpose? Authors just spat whole race in the face for what? To show how they care about people? Apparently they don't, so maybe it's about money.… Expand

2 of 6 users found this helpful24

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DeralacFeb 17, 2023

Season one wasn't too bad. The world building was interesting (unless you are inclined to read propaganda into everything), the characters had a little depth and the plot was decent (again, unless you see SJW behind every tree). This storySeason one wasn't too bad. The world building was interesting (unless you are inclined to read propaganda into everything), the characters had a little depth and the plot was decent (again, unless you see SJW behind every tree). This story isn’t taking place in our world, so I did not project our world onto it. I'm not saying season one was excellent, but it was watchable. Sadly, season two is horrible. It shifted from a character driven story with some action, to an action driven story with cardboard characters. It's disappointing because there is so little on these days worth watching I was looking forward to this show starting up again. Instead, I lowered my rating and will not be watching any more of this show. Amazon is really bad at making entertainment.… Expand

2 of 6 users found this helpful24

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MrMordenFeb 16, 2023

Only gets a 1 for sex scene. Rest anti white pro immigration woke propaganda. Shame Shame Shame

2 of 6 users found this helpful24

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mikomidoMay 16, 2021

This is all blatant Leftist Propaganda, by Hollywood. In particular this is in support for Open Borders propaganda.

1 of 12 users found this helpful111

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PavchrisFeb 16, 2021

Cara is surprisingly good for once, rest of the show is predictable. The sets show where the money went.

0 of 4 users found this helpful04

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KamamuraJul 22, 2023

This is really a story of how entertainment industry is murdered by hamfisted propaganda. I still remember that the same thing happened to the Soviet film industry, where mediocre writers were given preference just because they doubled downThis is really a story of how entertainment industry is murdered by hamfisted propaganda. I still remember that the same thing happened to the Soviet film industry, where mediocre writers were given preference just because they doubled down hard on the propaganda. Carnival Row started quite strongly, but the season 2 is a complete atrocity. There is no coherent story, just a megalomania with clay feet of really clumsy and mediocre writing. The characters don't make much sense, because they must stop and become a loudspeaker for the ever-present oppresive propaganda - feminist, anti-communist, anti-racism, everything is there, in one, ugly package. The tragedy is that I am a very left-leaning person myself, but do you really need to build a fantasy world just to inhabit him with a communist uprising staffed by fake Russians and Arabs? They even speak Czech (Na Zdrav), because CR was filmed in the Czech Republic, but most lines are English with fake Russian accent - but to American audience, it's all the same. Pathetic. The Machiavelist schemer Leonora turning a whining feminist the last moment ("the Patriachy made me do it all, men understand only violence, blablabla") was really just unwanted satire of modern feminism at its worst. Well, I managed to watch the whole second season in the free seven days on Amazon Prime, but it was one of the worst pieces of TV I saw recently. It's good the show is dead and buried.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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