Ranking Every Major Performance In Carnival Row

Amazon Prime’s new series Carnival Row boasts an impressive cast, and was renewed for a second season before the first one aired. That, plus the fact it was heavily marketed by the streaming giant, suggests Amazon had a lot of faith in its success.

The final result is a mixed bag, but so it goes for most first seasons. Led by Cara Delevingne and Orlando Bloom, the fantasy detective show managed to get a lot right on its first outing. There’s some missteps, sure, but in general it’s a fairly solid first series.

There’s heavy symbolism throughout, linking the fantasy Fae/Critch Carnival Row dwellers to modern day immigrants and asylum seekers. Though they focus on the ground level stuff, there is some politics, though it avoids any Trump/Johnson/Farage level stereotyping.

Dependant on your political leanings, you may find its messaging timely, heavy handed, pandering, a straw man, or any combination thereof.

Regardless, as an ensemble show there’s plenty of performances to sink your teeth into. This list tackles all of the major stars and rates just which ones make a trip to Carnival Row most worthwhile.

Andrew Gower’s performance as Ezra Spurnrose comes bottom of the list here, but there may be a few mitigating circumstances at play. Ezra’s screen time dips in the middle of the series, before the finale sees him gain a major story arc back, but there’s more than just screen time limiting him here.

He’s an utter drip of a villain, one so pathetic we neither hate nor pity him. His attempted rape of Vignette destroys any goodwill the audience might have had for him, but Gower doesn’t go on from there to solidify Ezra as a hateful man. He still drifts in and out of scenes, there for plot but not much else.

He’s not helped by the script, which sees him constantly in his sister’s shadow. Considering his sister is played by Tamzin Merchant, the original casting choice for Daenerys Targaryen, the comparison between Gower’s Ezra and Harry Lloyd’s Viserys is invited, and Gower is a distant second best.

He does his part, but not much more besides that. The second season has set him on a more outwardly villainous route, which might give Gower a bit more room to cut loose in the role.