Four years have passed between the first and second seasons of "Carnival Row", not in the story, rather in real life. Partially covid related, of course, but that's a long time to remember what happened in that first season. Looking back on my review of that season, I wasn't particularly wild about it at the time, and it was only the last couple of episodes that kept me on board. I feel fairly similar about this second run.
The Row is now established as a ghetto, with wire across the top to the fae flying away and with crime and disease on the rise. Vignette (Cara Delevingne) has committed to the Black Raven's and tries to smuggle medicines back in. Murders are taking place in the city and whilst the inhabitants of the Row are blamed, a much more dangerous party is behind them. Elsewhere, the New Dawn revolutionary forces prevail in their current uprising and set their sights on The Burgue.
Carnival Row's real problem is that, much like the first season, it manages to take all these amazing fantasy elements and somehow churn out a show I'm (on the whole) not that bothered about. It's fairly apparent that this season was written as the final one, so it has to decide which of the plot points to wrap up and how. It quickly (though not perhaps quickly enough) jettisons the internal politics of the Burgue and focuses on the external threat of the liberating New Dawn, led by Leonora, played by Joanne Whalley, who seems to be making up for her years in smaller projects by being in everything. At the start I really struggled to remember that was going on in this politics of this one, as there's a glut of shows that involve politics in a fantasy world and I'm not sure I'm always able to remember what's going on where.
Performances were alright though, and the special effects were often really good - particular the creature that's involved in the murder this time, which was a memorable and fairly horrific effect.
It picked up again towards the conclusion, as the main plots came to a head but if you were to ask me whether or not I'd recommend the series to you, having seen it all, I'd say that unless you're really into steampunk fantasy, it's not worth your time.