Carnivale

Whatever problems you may have had with "Carnivale" last season, give it a pass for, let's say, five episodes. That's more than enough time to figure out if the magic has returned. [7 Jan 2005]

Until "Carnivale" fulfills more of its promise, my enthusiasm is restrained. [3 Jan 2005]

Judging from the first two episodes, the series remains both visually compelling and dramatically impenetrable, likely to attract ongoing fans but too confusing at this stage to attract new ones. [7 Jan 2005]

"Carnivale" is beautiful to look at, but it drags. ... To watch "Carnivale" is to feel you have purchased a moody Tom Waits concept album, where he's banging on trash can lids and mumbling about Satan into a megaphone. [7 Jan 2005]

It's still as detailed, opaque and confusing as ever. [8 Jan 2005]

The new season of "Carnivale" continues to showcase the series' potential, but it still doesn't live up to the show's enormous promise. It's a cryptic series full of mysteries and that should suck viewers in. But I've yet to feel the full effects of its gravitational pull, which is disappointing because, as they said so often on "The X-Files," I want to believe. [7 Jan 2005]

The series is again intriguing but less than satisfying --- a concept more notable for the unusual time and space the show occupies than what it achieves dramatically. [7 Jan 2005]

The writing and direction are uneven as ever, lurching clumsily from intriguing to annoying. [8 Jan 2005]

Occasionally hypnotic but too often implausible or incomprehensible. [9 Jan 2005]