Carnivàle
I’ve never seen an episode of HBO’s short-lived Depression-era series, but after watching this dazzling title sequence, perhaps the show was doomed to succeed because the drama could never live up to the opening. The title sequence is perfect for a show that blends the fantastic and mystical with the despair of the period it hopes to depict. We float in and out of tarot cards, as their colorful exteriors quickly morph into realistic news footage of hardship and struggle – the Dust Bowl, Stalinist revolution, marches on Washington. Similar to the opening from The Americans, the show seamlessly blends noted iconography from eras of history with the themes of the show it introduces.
HBO is a network that has done a lot of noteworthy period pieces – Deadwood and Boardwalk Empire were among the more successful, and both also had good opening titles. Like those other series, Carnivàle blends the majestic with the miserable. Filled with haunting symbolism from Renaissance art to captivating news footage, these titles are dense and complex, ones that require a few watches to grasp all of its power.
The sequence, which won an Emmy for its creators (A52), ends with two tarot cards of the Moon and the Sun, emblems of God and the Devil that shows the opposite poles of the Manichean struggle depicted on the program. As the cards express, there is a little monster and a little hero in all of us. With superb visual effects work and fascinating allusions to art and history, the stunning title sequence could entice those who missed the show the first time to catch up on old episodes.
