History Series / Carnivale

** In one episode, a man tries to pimp his daughter (who is implied to have Down syndrome) to Ben Hawkins, telling him "she don't complain". Ben ''does not'' stand for it.

** "Let's shake some dust!"

** The garrulous and agreeable contract killer Varlyn Stroud.

* TearOffYourFace: In what is likely an homage to ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', Brother Justin has a hallucination in which he tears off his own face to reveal [[spoiler:that of Ben.]]

* AbortedArc: A number of subplots in the second season were cut thanks to HBO's ExecutiveMeddling. In particular, Lodz was going to have a bigger role. Lodz's line to Lila about seeing her again "in the flesh" was supposed to refer to the Carnivale coming across his mummified corpse in another traveling freak show.

** In the pilot, Ben saves Sofie from this. Jonesy [[ValuesDissonance implies she'd asked for it]].

* CainAndAbel: WordOfGod states that the first two Avatara were brothers, with popular conjecture theorizing they were Cain and Abel.

* CutShort: Hope you weren't too invested in finding out what happened in Season 3. Or seasons 4, 5, and 6.

* EvilIsBigger: Justin, as the Avatar of Dark, can influence minds, create illusions, gains superhuman strength when enraged, displays acts of telekinesis, in addition to his main ability of showing people their greatest sins. He had most of these abilities even before gaining his boon. On the other, you've got Ben, who as the Avatar of Light, can just heal others, with the added limitation of taking it from somewhere else. Even after [[spoiler: gaining his boon from the previous avatar]], this limitation is still in effect and Ben doesn't appear to gain any new or further abilities.

* ForegoneConclusion: From the moments of the opening monologue, you know everything ends with the atomic bomb. [[spoiler: And at the beginning of season 2, you learn the whole story has a DownerEnding because of this]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The only foreshadowing we get of [[spoiler:Tommy Dolan being tricked into taking the fall for the Ministry fire]] occurs in season 1 at the end of Justin's stay at the asylum where [[spoiler:he tricks his doctor into writing things in his notes.]]

* HistoricalFantasy: Set in the Great Depression, and would have continued through World War II had it not been ScrewedByTheNetwork.

* HourglassPlot: Brother Justin is a preacher who slowly turns to the dark side upon the realization that he is TheAntichrist, and also suffers from an unfortunate case of BadPowersBadPeople. Ben, an escaped criminal on the lam from the law, makes a parallel journey as he comes into his own powers as the Messiah. WordOfGod states that, in the third season, both men would have been recovering from the events of the finale, which would make Ben more paranoid and DarkMessiah-ish and Justin more reluctant to use his powers.

* LostInTheMaize: The season two finale, which has appeared in Ben's visions throughout the series.

* TheManBehindTheCurtain: Management, a.k.a [[spoiler: Lucius Belyakov]], hides in a baggage car and speaks only through a curtain.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Done quite intentionally. In the beginning, we're aware that Ben has healing powers and that Justin possesses some kind of mind control, but as the series goes on, it's gradually made clear that Avatars may not have any real limits on their powers. By the end of Season 2, we've seen various Avatars [[spoiler: exhibit telekinetic powers, create scarily lifelike illusions, control the weather, turn water into blood, raise the dead, receive prophetic visions, and travel using astral projection]]. Had the series continued, it's safe to assume that we would have seen new abilities emerge.

* SinsOfOurFathers: What with his dad was an (unwilling) Avatar of Darkness, it's not surprising Ben runs into this a lot. Since Lucius Belyakov has a major case of LightIsNotGood, Iris and Justin probably apply, too.

%%* SupernaturalSoapOpera

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: WordOfGod says this is the fate of anyone born of Avataric blood who isn't an actual Avatar. It's certainly proving true in the case of Iris.

** Jonesy's fate at the end of season 2 is left uncertain. [[spoiler: Did he die from his gunshot wound or did he recover, assuming the Carnivale found him later off-screen?]]

* WorkingOnTheChainGang: Ben escaped from a chain gang before the beginning of the series and, in the first episode, is still wearing a broken iron manacle around his ankle. What he did to get there is [[NoodleIncident never revealed to the audience]], other than that he's wanted for murder. WordOfGod is that [[spoiler: he assaulted a bank teller after his farm was foreclosed, and later killed one of the guards when he made his escape from the chain gang]].
* {{Yandere}}: Iris. So genteel and pleasant on the surface, so "crazier than a shithouse rat" (in the words of [[WordOfGod Dan Knauf]]) when it comes to her brother underneath.