History Series / Carnivale

* DeliveryGuyInfiltration: You'd think security would be tighter at New Canaan/Crowe House/[[FanNickname Casa de Creepy]], but Ben manages to get all the way up to the house and into Justin's bedroom before Iris catches him.

* TheHerosJourney: Both the Hero and the Villain go through many of the steps of the journey, cluing the audience into the fact that they're NotSoDifferent. Even one of Campbell's original terms ("The Boon") is name-dropped in the official guide to the series' mythology.

* 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's.]]

A semi-surreal drama set in 1930s Depression-stricken US, Carnivale casts the epic battle between Good and Evil against a background of the traveling circus and the revival tent. One story line involves an escaped convict with the ability to heal the afflicted and resurrect the dead as he follows a carnival troupe across the country and slowly discovers clues to his MysteriousPast. The other story line focuses on a Methodist [[SinisterMinister minister]] in California who heeds a call from God to start his own church, awakening his own supernatural ability to manipulate others' thoughts and read their souls. Gradually, the two plots converge for a confrontation on a cataclysmic scale.

* OnlyChildSyndrome: A justified case, as outlined in [[SeriesBible the Gospel of Knauf]]. According to this universe's rules, only the eldest male child of an Avataric family can become his generation's Avatar, but giving birth to an Avatar is such a traumatic experience that it renders the mother permanently infertile and irrevocably insane, whether their lovers are Light or Dark. Hence, Avatars can only have older female siblings, and they have a disproportionately high chance of being only children.

* AdoptiveNameChange: Carnivàle: When Father Norman Balthus finds and adopts two lost Russian orphans, he names them Justin and Iris Crowe. [[spoiler:They are actually Alexi and Irina Belyakov, the presumed dead children of Lucius Belyakov, AKA Management.]]

* PreApprovedSermon: The Methodist Church tries to do this to Justin. It doesn't go well.

* GoryDiscretionShot: At one point, someone makes Henry Scudder angry. Henry Scudder then proceeds to rip their intestines out. You don't see the tearing, but you do see the bits being tossed about.

* AutoErotica: Ben and Sofie get it on in the cab of Ben's truck during a rainstorm.
* AxeCrazy: Ben's grandmother, upon birthing Scudder (the Child of Darkness), took an axe to the rest of her children, then gouged out her own eyes.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: All of human history from before the Flood onward has been heavily infuenced by various Avatars. Jesus? Oh yeah. Alexander the Great? You betcha.

** Ben has the power to give life, but at the cost of taking it from others.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* RussianNamingConvention: Mostly averted, as siblings Alexei and Irina do not call each other by the diminutives of their names except once, when Alexei says, ''"Privyet, Ira."''

* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Justin and Iris. It seems to be more sexual in nature on Justin's end, when he spies on Iris in the shower and later forces a kiss from her, but Iris certainly demonstrates her devotion to Justin, as well as her jealousy of any woman Justin pays attention to.]]

* ThePigPen: The Depression isn't far enough in the past to qualify as an example of {{TheDungAges}}, but many of the working class (particularly the carnies and the attendees at various functions) are covered in dirt and grime, due to living in the "dust bowl," in extreme poverty, without indoor plumbing. At least two minor characters also die of "dust pneumonia."

* ThePigPen: The Depression isn't far enough in the past to qualify as an example of {{TheDungAges}, but many of the working class (particularly the carnies and the attendees at various functions) are covered in dirt and grime, due to living in the "dust bowl," in extreme poverty, without indoor plumbing. At least two minor characters also die of "dust pneumonia."

* SexyPriest: Justin. Sinister, popular with the ladies, and after the events of "Alamagordo, NM", just about on the level of Messiah-hood.

** When he goes full bore evil, Justin's fairly affable ("Blessed are the meek? Hah, how banal."). Unless he's angry, when he barely changes his tone or expression yet is suddenly ''terrifying.''

* OnlyChildSyndrome: A justified case, as outlined in [[SeriesBible the Gospel of Knauf]]. According to this universe's rules, only the eldest male child of an Avataric family can become his generation's Avatar, but giving birth to an Avatar is such a traumatic experience that it renders the mother permanently infertile. Hence, Avatars can only have older female siblings, and they have a disproportionately high chance of being only children.

* ThePigPen: The Depression isn't far enough in the past to qualify as an example of TheDungAges , but many of the working class (particularly the carnies and the attendees at various functions) are covered in dirt and grime, due to living in the "dust bowl," in extreme poverty, without indoor plumbing. At least two minor characters also die of "dust pneumonia."

*** According to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_Carniv%C3%A0le#Season_2_finale_and_character_fates The Other Wiki]], Jonesy survived his gunshot wound, having been saved by Iris. Sofie's intent in shooting Jonesy was to stop him from taking her back to the carnival, not to kill him.