I think that 2010 is a much more interesting time to watch Carnivale than when it originally premiered back in 2003. Taking place in the early 1930's when America was withering in the grip of the Great Depression, the show is full of disturbingly familiar images and themes. In the first episode alone, protagonist Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) loses his home to financial collapse, various characters express a deep distrust for banks and the whole episode is punctuated with the echoes of an old war all while a new one brews off camera. Carnivale takes place in a time when religious zeal tore as many or more people apart as it saved from the horrors of an uncaring society all while a sense of apocalypse, both spiritual and secular, hangs over every moment. It's an intense projection of the ills of people living in a troubled era. Every character in Carnivale is so wretched that it's hard to have sympathy for them, but they're compelling nonetheless because it's clear that they're at the center of something important.

Carnivale has a reputation for being weird and confusing, though the supernatural elements of the show don't really take center stage. The first episode, "Milfay", spends a good twenty minutes establishing the Depression dustbowl setting and the relentless bleakness experienced by folks like Hawkins before it jumps into the surreal magic that made the show infamous. While moments like Brother Justin Crowe's parishioner coughing up silver dollars in his rectory are stirring and excellently shot, Carnivale thrives on more realistic, human moments such as when Hawkins convinces a bereaved mother to relinquish her dead baby. Those long, lingering scenes of great emotional weight are so well-played that they serve as a necessary foundation on which to balance the stranger aspects of the show.

The cast of Carnivale is a mix of great character actors and people who have more or less been selected for their unusual looks. The latter half lend an air of authenticity to the traveling sideshow aesthetic of the series, even if the whole thing comes off as a slightly disingenuous attraction that essentially turns the viewer into one of the "sleepwalking" townies who just come to the carnival to gawk. All of the real dramatic work is given to the considerably prettier people wandering with Samson's caravan, with the exception of Samson himself. He's played by Michael J. Anderson, the dwarf actor who broke into the weirder end of the mainstream as the backward-talking host of Agent Cooper's dream in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

The supporting cast is really pretty excellent. Clancy Brown plays Brother Justin with an intensity and drive he's rarely afforded in his considerably smaller movie parts, Tim DeKay (who really ought to have a part in everything HBO does) is excellent as always as crippled carny Jonesy, and Clea DuVall's tarot reader Sofie does cagey and on-edge rather well. Even the carnival barkers who don't get to do much dramatic heavy lifting add to the show's overall atmosphere of lurid dreaminess.

Best Moment: Hawkins with the dustbowl mother. I was expecting something supernatural to happen, especially since the second half of the episode revolves around Hawkins's latent ability to heal with his hands, but I'm happy that it stayed firmly grounded.

Notes: Brother Justin spends the entire episode experiencing potentially imaginary miracles and plagues but he only skirts the edges of the main plot. It's good that he wasn't tossed into the mix right from the start.

Episode Rating: 5/5- Carnivale asks a lot from its viewers in terms of suspension of disbelief, but it does such a nice job of cementing the setting and the tone that it's not hard to accept the magic when it pops into frame. Like any good debut episode, "Milfay" opens up a lot of mysteries and surrounds them with interesting characters who will make solving them fun.