Television Review

Carnival Row: Season One

A human detective and a fairy rekindle a dangerous affair in a Victorian fantasy world…

A unique take on the fantasy genre featuring a complex world mixing magic with steampunk. Carnival Row is the most ambitious series yet from Amazon Studios and, while it’s marked with imperfections, there’s enough substance here to draw in even the most sceptical of viewers.

Carnival Row is crime neo-noir fantasy focused on a series of brutal killings, against the backdrop of major urban centre ‘the Burgue’ (the great city of mankind) that has the feel of the early Victorian era. The series takes place there following a great war between several civilizations. At the core of the conflict was a land of untapped riches populated by fairy-like creatures called the Fae. Despite their apparent abundance of resources, the Fae haven’t chosen a path toward urbanisation and instead live a simple life marked by music and spirituality.