Other great modern television epics?

Hmm "Babylon 5" is better in all points than DS9 (whicvh I also loved back in the day) but the first 1,5 Seasons are mostzly episodic and the visusals are very dated.

But it has two of the greatest characters ever put on TV or film (Londo + G'Kar) and one of the best and most epic storylines I've seen so far.

So if you are able to sit threw a lot of dated stuff it will pay of (even a second viewing is VERY rewarding, justr try it after you completed the first run)


Ah and a series I like even more today which has much surrel stuff and becomes epic in the late second season is "Farscape".
Again not an easy show to get into but it gets freaking awesome - Season 3 is one of the best seasons on TV I ever saw (other examples Carnivale S.1, Babylon 5 S.4, Six Feet Under S.4, Sopranos S.4)!

Well, to be fair - I like Carnivale ALOT better than "LOST", and agree with you on almost every point (except for the nitpicking of Lost's convoluted plot...which brings up the question how do you know so much about the show - up to the most recent season finale - if you hate it so much?)

I can't even imagine how a fan of Carnivale could actually enjoy something like LOST. It really escapes me.

I agree, I have friends who just love LOST, I simply dont see what all the fuss is about. And comparing it to Carnviale is ridicolous imo. Although I do understand eveyrone has there own opinions and I respect that. I did give LOST a try and watched the first 3 seasons and a bit of season 5, but its just noy my cup of tea. While I dont bug my friends or family for loving lost, I do let them know my personal opinion abotu the show, in that I think its decent but not all that great imo.

For me the Atmosphere, Acting and story in Carnviale is 100times better then that in LOST. The only thing lost might have better in is money to work and more fans imo. Carnivale just has this overall presentation that is just amazing to me, each episode pulls me in without some silly hollywood tactics. Carnvile is a once in a lifetime show to me, while Lost feels like Hollywoods latest cash whore.

Im not dissing fans of lost or saying its terrible, like I said above, its just noy my cup of tea personally. I can see what attracts people to LOST, I just havnt been able to get addicted to it or hoooked it, it just seems a little to cheesy to me as far as the acting goes and some of the story line.

I know this reply is several years too late, but I'd figured I would chime in anyway. No one, of course, is expected to like one show just because they like another. But as someone in one of the other responses said, no one should be expected to dislike one show just because they like another, either. Being a fan of "Carnivale" doesn't automatically preclude someone from liking a show such as LOST. I'm an equal fan of both, and know plenty of other people who are the same.

And the idea that the two series have nothing in common and that it's absurd to mention them in the same sentence . . . well, the two series have quite a bit in common, actually. Both deal with an apocalyptic conflict between good/evil or light/darkness, and both also examine science vs. faith or reason vs. magic, it's just that "Carnivale" does it as a historical fantasy and LOST does it with a more sci-fi adventure sheen (though it too does eventually dwell into the realm of the full-on supernatural/magical/mystical).

And as for direct similarities between the series (spoilers for those who have not watched LOST):

Each series features miraculous healings; both shows involve a mysterious leader figure who seems to be invisible but may or may not actually exist, and who will only commune with certain people (Jacob on LOST, Management in "Carnivale"); both shows involve a mythology which stems back thousands of years; nuclear testing plays a climactic role in both stories; people who do things like see the future, control the weather, and communicate with the dead are common to both stories (Walt from LOST is all but an Avatar); and both series involve the cosmic conflict between a healing figure who represents light and a demonic person who represents darkness (Jacob and the Man in Black, Ben and Brother Justin). Locke on LOST is a man who is slowly devoured by a demon without realizing it, and Justin is a man who has a demon slowly awaken within him. The two shows are not the same, but they are similar, and they deal with similar themes and trade in similar iconography. When LOST first revealed the existence of the conflict between Jacon and the Man in Black, many people I know just went, "holy crap, LOST is 'Carnivale'!"

So I don't think it's absurd to mention the shows together. LOST is a bit more of a soap opera and also more sentimental in its storytelling (and the actors are more conventionally attractive), whereas "Carnivale" is less pop art and more esoteric (and the girls are hotter, at least to me). But they share some common ground. I actually think LOST could have helped "Carnivale" boost its popularity a little bit, but sadly there was no third season to find out if that theory is true.

These are my favorite shows and they are all mostly arc driven and unepisodic:

- Carnivale
- Six Feet Under
- Firefly
- Twin Peaks
- In Treatment (S.1)

- Babylon 5
- Farscape
- The Sopranos
- Star Trek: Enterprise
- Battlestar Galactica (2003)
- Rome (S.1)
- Lost
- The Wire
- Deadwood
- Breaking Bad
- Dexter