Sunday Nights on Pay Cable
Posted on | March 1, 2005 at 6:08 pm | 1 Comment
It took a long time to get going, but HBO’s Carnivà le has actually become riveting, midway through its second season. My initial thoughts on the show was that it was all style and no substance, exemplified by the extremely slow pace of the narrative. It was like a slower Deadwood with a little less profanity and not-as-interesting characters. It was like a long Stephen King novel, but with the payoffs few and far between. The two main characters still have not met each other, but at least now they know of each other’s existence and are on a collision course. The storytelling has gotten tighter and zippier, and less prone to digressions away from the main arc. And the revelations are coming fast and furious now. The cliffhangers in the last couple of episodes have been very suspenseful. This week’s ending, with the reveal of Sofie’s (Clea Duvall) new job, was one of those “wow” moments that I should’ve seen coming but didn’t.
I’m hesitant to recommend the show to new people, since there’s a lot of backstory. But if you’re someone who gave it up at the end of the first season (which is out on DVD), and if you have Comcast On Demand or something that will help you catch up with this season, then by all means go for it.
I’m looking forward to the second season of Deadwood starting next week, and pairing it with Carniv??le makes Sunday nights on HBO interesting again. But y’know, I was apparently one of the few people who enjoyed Unscripted, which got better as the season went on.
Speaking of second seasons, Showtime’s The L Word began its sophmore season two weeks ago, and I have to say that the new beginning title/credit sequence is one of the most impressive on TV right now. Good mixture of music and sexy, innovative visuals (especially impressive in HiDef). You can watch it on the website, but it’s not as cool streamed. Or maybe my PC is just too slow (soon to be rectified), as the video is very choppy. Okay, it’s supposed to be choppy, but not quite that way.
Latre.
Comments
One Response to “Sunday Nights on Pay Cable”
March 2nd, 2005 @ 8:38 am
Yah, I’m really into Carnivale this season too. Last year it was one of my nice to watch shows, now it’s a must see, sometimes twice if it’s a denser episode. I’ve also been watching Deadwood repeats to remind myself of the story. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but if you’re in the mood to splurge, “The Wire” is also on DVD, and it’s been one of my favorites the last few years.