Martin Carr reviews the penultimate episode of Carnival Row…
Amongst the human sacrifice, stark brutality and interracial coupling there is something uplifting about this penultimate episode, which brings everything into sharp relief. A love of the new, an exploration into the unknown and a casting off of traditional approaches is tangible. Both in political circles behind closed doors and elsewhere. What this does more than anything is give Carnival Row some dramatic breathing space from the more serious elements threatening to dominate.
With Vignette and Philo now under arrest and extremist groups plotting to overthrow public order the row is closer to implosion than ever. Matters between Agreus and Imogen are coming to a head while her brother spies with ever increasing concern upon their private affairs. Both Andrew Gower, David Gyasi and Tamzin Merchant deserve a mention here as it is this relationship triangle which is creating the most heat. Reserved yet forthright with a touch of the forbidden all three walk the dramatic line with care, being sure not to push it over into caricature.
Elsewhere Bloom and Delevingne share solid yet fleeting screen time as threats are voiced, feelings tempered and beatings administered. Between the Breakspear and Longerbane clans there is something considerably more rotten at work. Much of this has to be attributed to Caroline Ford as Sophie Longerbane who is both temptress, manipulator and conniving villainess. Alongside Arty Froushan’s Jonah Breakspear and Jared Harris’s patriarch we have a troupe that adds essential gravitas to this Shakespearian tragedy. However moments between Piety Breakspear as the matriarch are somehow less effective due to the transparency of her motives, clichéd characterisation and limited screen time.
What hits home more than anything beyond that is the immediacy between Mr Agreus and Imogen Spurnrose. Although equally copybook in approach it the handling of the material and interaction between actors which transforms it into something engaging. Quiet moments of contemplation and shared silences over artwork say more than any amount of dialogue. Adaptations can sometimes fall into the trap of foregoing character progression in lieu of wordy exposition, something which Carnival Row has managed to steer clear of so far. What Prime have managed to do here is provide not a benchmark season worthy of renewal, but instead a world full of flaws, packed with potential and in need of further exploration. For that reason a second season is not only inevitable but mandatory.
Martin Carr
