Carnivale - Season 1-2 DVD Boxset

Season 1
Like a cross between TWIN PEAKS and THE GRAPES OF WRATH, HBO's acclaimed television drama CARNIVALE fashions an allegorical fable about the mythic battle of good and evil set against the surreal backdrop of a Depression-era travelling circus. Having lost both his farm and family to the 1930s Dust Bowl, recent prison escapee Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl, IN THE BEDROOM, BULLY) joins an itinerant carnival in a desperate bid to escape poverty, the police, and his own discomfort with his miraculous healing powers. Ben's story is juxtaposed with that of California preacher Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), whose evangelical ministries with sister Iris (Amy Madigan) take on increasingly sinister overtones and hint at an eventual confrontation between himself and young Hawkins--whose fate seems somehow intertwined with his own through the mysterious figure of former circus showman Henry Scudder (John Savage). As the series leisurely builds to this apocalyptic showdown, there is much drama to be found in the daily goings-on of the carnival denizens. Lorded over by the pint-sized Samson (TWIN PEAKS' Michael J. Anderson) and the strangely unseen Management, the ragtag collection of sideshow freaks features blind soothsayer Lodz (Patrick Bauchau); his bearded-lady companion Lila (Debra Christofferson); matronly snake charmer Ruthie (Adrienne Barbeau); her strongman son Gabriel (Brian Turk); Siamese twins Alexandria and Caledonia (Karyne and Sarah Steben); the lizard-man Gecko (notorious NEA Four performance artist John Fleck); and, most intriguingly, catatonic tarot-card reader Apollonia (Diane Salinger), who communicates telepathically with her sensitive but troubled daughter Sophie (Clea DuVall). Rounding out the eccentric troupe are wounded former baseball-player-turned-roustabout Jonesy (Tim DeKay) and a family of strippers and prostitutes comprised of mother Rita Sue (Cynthia Ettinger); her daughters Libby (Carla Gallo) and Dora Mae (Amanda Aday); and their pimpish father Stumpy (Toby Huss). Creator Daniel Knauf surrounds this impressive cast with impeccable period-piece production design, a rotating roster of directorial talent that includes Alison Maclean (JESUS' SON) and Rodrigo Garcia (fittingly, son of magical-realist writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez), and innovative storytelling that is at once supremely creepy, intellectually provocative, and emotionally gripping. This collection includes all 12 episodes of the series' highly addictive first season.

Season 2
After a leisurely debut season, HBO's stunningly creative cable-television series CARNIVALE stepped up the pace in round two of its mythic tale of good and evil set against the surreal backdrop of a Depression-era travelling circus. By the beginning of the second season, carnival roustie-cum-Christ-figure Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) has grudgingly accepted his destiny as a "creature of light" while continuing to search for his godlike father, Henry Scudder (John Savage), in a Homeric odyssey that takes him from his demented backwoods clan to an eerily cloying maker of death masks. Meanwhile, Ben's nemesis, the evil preacher Brother Justin (Clancy Brown), does his best to instigate an apocalyptic showdown via an increasingly powerful right-wing political campaign. When polar-opposite avatars Ben and Justin finally meet in the season's final moments, the result is one of the most powerfully emotional, profound, and shocking climaxes in television history. Though it was unduly cancelled after this season (the show was conceived by creator Daniel Knauf as a six-season story arc), CARNIVALE is an ephemeral gem that will undoubtedly be considered as groundbreaking as that other benchmark of the dark and bizarre, TWIN PEAKS.

Details:
Name: Carnivale - Seasons 1-2 DVD Boxset 
Audio: Original English
Menu: English / Chinese
Subtitles: English / Chinese (Can be hidden)
Number of DVD’s: 12
Format: Compatible on All region DVD players
Official Foreign Release
Brand New & Factory Sealed
Actors: Guy Chapman (II)
Classification: Unrated
Studio: HBO Home Video
DVD Release Date: 18 Jul 2006
Run Time: 1440 minutes