Carnival Row season 2 review: Orlando Bloom’s fantasy series flames out

The first season of Prime Video’s gritty fantasy series Carnival RowIt felt small in a larger world. Not every decision had crystal-clear logic to it, but there was always more below the surface — a fae in a refugee village wore Eastern European-influenced clothes, more distinctive than your typical TV fantasy robes. Season 1 was a mystery that ended. The entire world surrounding it appeared to be simply existing, with all its conundrums and conflicts. The drama did go a bit off-track towards the end but that didn’t matter because it was there.

In its second — and, crucially, final — season, it feels like the world isn’t being tempered at all. The first episode was a disappointment. Vignette and Philo, played by Orlando Bloom, are back together and rebelling against the Carnival Row ghetto. Jonah Breakspear is Arty Froushan’s acting chancellor at the Burgue. She tries to retain power, and works with Sophie Longerbane (“Caroline Ford”) to advance their political agenda. You can also find Imogen (Tamzin Market) and Agreus(David Gyasi), who are still running from their brother. They now face something more deadly: The Pact. This is a frightening alliance of nations at war with each other.

The first episode of season 2 feels a little too stuffed with information and goalless, as the two main characters attempt to create a new world. Carnival Row. Following the season 1 finale’s annexation of the fae and faun creatures to the Row, Tensions are high and everyone wants to fight. But there’s not much sense of where the writers will funnel that energy, either from what the characters are up to or where the plot is going. Season 1 was built on a sturdy framework, while the new batch of episodes is paced like it’s being dreamt up as the story goes along. Even The Pact’s long-awaited debut feels rushed. There is an ending. Carnival RowIt is covering all the shows possible, and its actors as far as they are able to.

Photo: Julie Vrabelova/Prime Video

If there is no procedural framework, then the seams are not secure. Carnival Row feel apparent. Philo’s arc always had one foot in a passing narrative and the other in a “Chosen One” archetype, and the mishmash of them certainly confused his storyline by the end of season 1. The balance between fantasy and reality is in trouble during the first season of season 2. However, with a grimdark environment and no investigations driving him in episodes 1, and 2, he returns to his roots as a fantasy revolutionary. He casts around for bigger purposes, and the elements that made his tale unique from other fantasy stories are eroded. He has become more familiar with the fae, making his struggle feel much less personal. That is when it becomes apparent that the vastness of Carnival Row season 2’s expanded world, it threatens to swallow Philo whole.

With everyone beginning from their own Burgue corner, sprawl doesn’t work. Carnival Row. No doubt as the season goes on their stories will become more intertwined, but the first two episodes don’t flicker with the friction of an incoming story collision, or how much world there actually is between the players. What once felt like just a representative cut of the world now feels like it’s potentially a sinkhole for the show to fall into. It seemed that the first season could go on for many years. The show was slowly building up the larger world of Burgue and the rest of the universe. It was reduced to two episodes. Carnival Row feels like it’s buckling under the weight of that world.

Two episodes from the initial two seasons of Carnival RowThe second season is available on Amazon Prime Video. New episodes drop every Friday.