Amazon Studios has a fantasy problem.
On three separate occasions, they have churned out visually stunning television shows, filled with fantastic sets, costumes, and VFX. Carnival Row, The Rings of Power, and The Wheel of Time are all shows that had limitless potential, and it's clear that Amazon has been desperate for them all to be big hits (just look at how big the budgets are for these shows). The problem is, in spite of being technical and visual behemoths, each of these three shows is soulless; they are bland, and they are boring. These shows lack charm, they lack joy, and they lack any sort of hook that makes me eager to keep on watching.
It's difficult for me to call any of these shows 'bad', because honestly, I don't think they really are 'bad'. When I watch an episode of any of these shows I've mentioned, I don't see anything 'bad' on screen. There are almost no technical issues, no awful visuals, and no bad acting. The dialogue is fine, and the plot is just fine too. Yet, despite nothing being bad, I can't help but find it an utter chore to watch an entire episode of any of these shows. They genuinely sap me of my energy, making me feel like I'd rather be doing anything else, or maybe even having a snooze.
Amazon is churning out some of the most boring, generic fantasy television I've ever seen, but people seem to be eating it up based on visuals, cast, and technical achievement. That stuff is all cool if what you're interested in is taking some screenshots and getting a nice desktop wallpaper; but if you're interested in engaging television, it's simply not enough. Amazon NEEDS to do better. I no longer have any faith in them to produce fantasy content.
UPDATE: I just finished season two and I think it was even more captivating than Season One. I give the whole series a 10 (captivating) out of 10.
[Season One] Initially, I abandoned the series 3/4 of the way through the first episode. Cable and streaming services have fallen into a habit of front loading their series with salacious content and unnecessary nudity to grab an audience rather than relying on their audiences' higher functions to engage with their premise for a story. This definitely did the former. However, three months later, I decided to push past the inauspicious beginning to see if there was anything worthy of attention. I'm pleased to say I found it. Fantasy is a favourite genre of mine and this series has great world building using some archetypes from folk lore. The characters were interesting. I don't agree with the reviews that say Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne gave poor performances. I believe that the intensity they brought to their characters was confused with wooden portrayals. These character had internal motivation to be intense. The social commentary is obviously paralleled to prejudices, pitfalls and conflicts of the socio-political climate of our day and our history. No matter whether you agree with the views of the writers, it open a point of comparison. The CGI and ambient effects were captivating. Prague brought all the right architectural undertones to house the series. The mystery was intriguing. The production was well resourced. I give this series a 9 (superb) out of 10 and can't wait for the next season. [Fantasy, Steampunk, Crime, Thriller]
I watched the first three episodes, and quite frankly this show is a complete mess.
It can't decide whether it wants to be a period drama, a detective show, urban fantasy, a war story... The dichotomies between these genres are too big, and the writer makes a crap job of marrying them together. They're not mixed well enough for the flow of the story to be smooth. It's like watching a show with multiple personalities disorder.
The dialogue isn't all that great, the timeframe of events is unclear, and there's no spark between the lead couple in the slightest. They have some type of chemistry, but it is definitely not of the romantic kind. Also the pacing is all wrong. There are way too many scenes so unnecessarily long. It made for a very boring watching experience.
As for the cast, they're not the best of actors, but they're not the worst either. However, I need Cara to just pick a freking accent and stick to it. I've seen her in interviews and I know that's not what she sounds like, so why have an Irish accent for some scenes and not for others? The accent wasn't necessary in the slightest. So why even add it if you're not gonna be great at it? So pointless.
If you wanna watch an Amazon Prime show about a wartime love story with fantasy elements, just go watch The Man in the High Castle. The first season is infinitely better, I promise.
Review by HoundCatBlockedParent2023-03-18T07:22:14Z
It's rare that I feel satisfied after a show I've enjoyed has ended, and even more so when a show has ended after only two seasons. There are some stories that require several seasons and big budgets to convey an idea and adequately represent the whole of the story by the time it is to wrap, often either being cancelled, which often results in an unfinished story leaving the viewers with the dissatisfaction that anything unfinished might cause, or running the course of the originally planned seasons and extending a show far past its time to end simply to make more money. Carnival Row is one of the few shows I've seen that was ended because the story was told in the allotted timeframe leaving me with a feeling of satisfaction of watching an idea brought forth with a beginning, middle, and end tying up loose ends to make a well rounded conclusion. I, for one, have always been against bigotry and prejudice (not sure if this is a spoiler, but didn't want to blow it for anyone in case it is) so I really enjoyed the closing scene of Fae and Humans alike, sharing drink, music, and The Row leaving the human's sordid past behind. Even though it seemed that everyone found a way to get along so well overnight instead of the generations that it would have more realistically taken to heal and get past the years of oppression, it was still a nice conclusion of the story. The amount of time it would have taken to heal would have just been a pretty boring story in comparison, as growth of the human spirit is usually a slow process. For that, I liked the story ending on how it should be, which always leaves us with hope for the future, or at least mankind's part in making it.