While one criminally underrated HBO fantasy show from the ‘00s remains a cult classic, this spiritual successor to Twin Peaks arrived at the wrong time in TV history. David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks is more than just a small-town murder mystery. The ABC series is also one of the most influential TV shows of all time, thanks to its unique blend of soapy character drama, police procedural elements, and dark psychological horror. Without Twin Peaks pioneering this unique mix, viewers might never have gotten classic ‘90s TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files.
Of course, that doesn’t make the show’s popularity any less of an anomaly. Twin Peaks is, without a doubt, the weirdest show to ever gain broad, mainstream acclaim on US network TV, something that was highlighted when the classic animated sitcom The Simpsons mocked the show’s bizarre, impenetrable symbolism on more than one occasion. Sadly, most shows that were this ambitiously weird never won over mainstream audiences, as was the case with comic book writer/ show runner Daniel Knauf’s two-season masterpiece Carnivalé.
Running from 2003 until 2005, Carnivalé was a bizarre blend of fantasy, historical drama, religious horror, and dark comedy. The show followed two story strands. The first focused on Nick Stahl’s Ben, a young man who join the titular carnival and starts to display unexplained healing powers, but also begins to simultaneously start experiencing terrifying, inexplicable visions.
The second plot centred on Clancy Brown’s bombastic Methodist preacher Brother Justin Crowe, whose own prophetic dreams convince him that he is destined to someday meet Ben and the titular carnival. While this plot might sound a little like one of Stephen King’s stranger books, it is important to note that Carnivalé was consistently even weirder than the oddest output from the It author.
The show’s setting, the Depression Era Dust Bowl, and its strange cast of carnival members and assorted other oddballs from across America all reinforced its eerie, bizarre atmosphere. This often viewers and critics unsure of its intended tone. Carnivalé was heavily inspired by Twin Peaks, and like the earlier show, it was often hard to tell if the show was intentionally being funny or creepy from scene to scene.
None of this should have held the series back from success. If anything, Carnivalé’s audacious weirdness could have made the show a hit. While never quite as disturbing as David Lynch’s iconic breakout hit Eraserhead, Carnivalé was one of the most bracingly odd offerings in all of early ‘00s cable TV.
Thus, it is hard not to feel like the series would have fared far better if it had been released only a few years later. By then, some major mainstream shows with surreal elements had made this trippy style more palatable. One obvious example would be Lost, which was about as weird as any network TV show short of Twin Peaks, but also American Horror Story, which borrowed from Carnivalé in season 4’s “Freak Show.”
Fringe, Wayward Pines, The Leftovers, and, later, FX’s Fargo and Netflix’s time travel mystery Dark all also boasted the same unapologetic weirdness that doomed this HBO show to obscurity. However, like Twin Peaks, they were embraced by mainstream viewers, whereas Carnivalé was largely unfairly forgotten.
