Fairies and witches, angels and demons, wizards and monsters. A good fantasy story takes you to another world where magic is not always light and gentle.
Carnival Row – Amazon
One of the rare fantasy shows not based on a book or a videogame, Carnival Row takes place in a world where fairies and other mythical creatures are at war with humans invading their territories. As a refugee of that war, Vignette Stonemoss, a fairy soldier, arrives in the Burgue, a city not unlike Victorian England, where she finds work as a servant with a rich human family.
Going to Carnival Row, she finds out from her friend Tourmaline that her lover Philo, whom she believed to have died in war, is still alive. Philo is working as a detective for the Burgue police force and on the hunt for a serial killer.
The characters evolve in a universe created with loving detail, the costumes and special effects building a gorgeous background to a plot that is at once a love story, a crime mystery and a political thriller.
The parallels to the refugee crisis are sometimes a bit on the nose and Orlando Bloom’s acting as Philo is indifferent, while Cara Delevigne comes across as trying too hard, yet overall their characters are engaging enough to make one want to see more of them when the eight episodes are done.
Carnival Row is available on Amazon.