As I write, it’s Thursday in pretty much every part of the world (sorry, Alaska and Hawaii), which means that the second season of Carnival Row, which will also be its final season, is airing tomorrow. The question on every coomer’s lips is, of course, “will there be nudity?” And if you’re like me, you were probably also wondering at exactly what time Carnival Row Season 2 airs, so we’ll get to that as well in a bit.
I’m not going to waste too much time talking about the first season of the show except to say that we got a number of nude scenes out of it, and that includes from much of the main cast. Maeve Dermody as Portia Fyfe gave us the very first nude scene of the show. That was in the pilot episode, and later in that very same first episode, we got a nude scene in a fae brothel from Karla Crome as Tourmaline Larou. Cara Delevingne plays one half of the show’s lead duo with the role of Vignette Stonemoss, and she appears nude twice in the first season – once in the sex scene with Orlando Bloom from the third episode that everyone knows and then once more in the fourth episode, wherein she’s topless as part of a hallucination that Ridecart Philistine has. The last shots of nudity in the show are courtesy of Tamzin Merchant in her role as Imogen Spurnrose, who has a pair of nude scenes in the seventh and eighth episodes of the first season.
But will any of those characters be getting naked in the finale of Carnival Row?
Well, information has been scant, so let’s see what we’ve got. If you’re content with turning the clock back almost two years, we’ve got this article from the Daily Mail with some lewd shots of Cara Delevingne on the set of this upcoming season. She also appears to be mid-makeup in many of the photos, so the nudity might be a backstage thing more than a harbinger of any skin we’re to see on screen. Really, the only thing I can find that’s both more recent and more concrete than that is the “Content advisory” on Amazon Prime’s page specifically for Season 2, which lists the following: “Nudity, violence, frightening scenes, alcohol use, smoking, foul language, sexual content.”
That’s a good sign, but if a lot of more recent shows are anything to go by (cough, House of the Dragon, cough), then we risk getting a whole lot of nude scenes from unnamed extras and very little from the main actresses, the celebrities that we’re here for. What even are the possibilities? As far as the official trailer shows us, we know that Cara Delevingne, Tamzin Merchant, and Karla Crome, of the actresses that had nude scenes in the first season, are in the second season. We also got a number of shots of Caroline Ford as Sophie Longerbane, who did not appear naked in the first season. Is there any chance that we’ll finally see Caroline Ford nude in Carnival Row? I certainly hope so. Maeve Dermody does not appear in the trailer, so hopefully that doesn’t mean we’ve lost another potential.
AmazonAdviser posted only yesterday that Season 2’s official rating is TV-MA, which is on par with an R-rating for films. You might have caught something else in that piece, though, which is that some people will actually get to watch the first two episodes of Carnival Row tonight, on Thursday, February 16. What gives? Nothing abnormal, it turns out. It’s a time zone issue. Yahoo reported the same thing, noting that the episodes air on the American East Coast at midnight (Eastern Time) as Friday, February 17 kicks in and at 9pm (Pacific Time) on Thursday night on the West Coast. A piece by Tom’s Guide adds a 5am (British Standard Time) air time for the United Kingdom and a 3pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time) air for our friends in the southeast of Australia.
But what can you do if those times don’t work for you or you just cannot be assed to give the second season of Carnival Row a go unless you know there are going to be nude scenes featuring your favorite actresses? Well, fear not, for I plan to do here exactly what I did with House of the Dragon and (rather more disappointingly) Rings of Power.
That’s right. All you have to do is check back on this page every Friday – or even more frequently, for the freshest news – to catch up with the updated nudity report on every newly-released episode from the series finale of Carnival Row. All updates will be added to the bottom of the document, so just scroll down to the end for a quick glimpse into whether there have been any updates. All updates will be labelled with a date and possibly even a timestamp if it’s a very eventful day.
I know these walls of text don’t really get anyone’s rocks off, so as we wait for the next 20 hours to pass, I’ll leave you with the seminal moment from Season 1:
UPDATE – Feb 17
I just finished watching the first two episodes of the second season of Carnival Row. Titled Fight and Flight and New Dawn, neither of these episodes had any nudity.
The first episode had a “nudity” advisory and the second episode didn’t, but it did have a “sexual content” advisory. The latter is technically true in the tamest possible sense, but as to the former, unless a pair of titties flashed on screen while I blinked, I have no idea what that’s about.
There were a pair of close calls, though.
In the first episode, Cara Delevingne prepares to have a bath and teases her lover, Drivethru Overpass, to help her out before stripping down… the last of which happens off-screen.
In the second episode, Cara and Orlando Bloom have a sex scene, but this again happens off-screen. We see the build-up, we see the aftermath (during which the apparently now shy Vignette Stonemoss is wearing some sort of nightie), but we do not see the act itself nor any nudity associated with it.
Two episodes down and eight to go.
Make sure to check back next week.
UPDATE – Feb 24
The third and fourth episodes of the new season of Carnival Row – titled The Martyr’s Hand and An Unkindness of Ravens – aired moments ago. There were no nude scenes in either of them.
All that said, Karla Crome seems to have a much more prominent role this season, and as we learned from the previous one, she seems to have no problem with doing nude scenes. I’d like to think that’s a good sign of what to expect, but we’ll have to find out with time.
Sorry I’m not bringing better news. Hopefully that won’t be the case next week. Have some Tourmaline Larou from last season to tide you over.
UPDATE – Mar 3
We finally got our first nude scene of Season 2. Tamzin Merchant has a sex scene near the beginning of episode 6. Check back in a bit for the 4K UltraHD captures, but in the meantime, here’s a teaser of what to expect:
OK, it’s now a few hours later, and I’ve had my sleep.
The episode in question is titled Original Sins, it’s the sixth episode of the season, and it aired this morning or last night (depending on time zone-induced perspective) along with the fifth episode of this second and final season of Carnival Row.
The full post about Tazmin Merchant’s brand new nude scene is up now, wherein you can learn a bit more about it (should you care) and enjoy the gallery of screen captures in 4K UltraHD (which you almost certainly do care about).
After losing a bit of hope over the course of the last two weeks’ updates, I’m now hopeful again that there’s more nudity around the corner. As always, check back in a week or sooner for further news on any more nude scenes we can expect from the show.
And remember, you saw it here first.
UPDATE – Mar 5
The thirst is clearly getting to me, because I’ve been rooting around and only now found that back in January, Cara Delevingne posted an Instagram story in which she does yoga naked. Yep, completely nude yoga, shaved pussy and all.
Cosmopolitan seemed to be the ones that broke the story, and in the same article, they mentioned that even though the Carnival Row actress’ face isn’t in the shot, the tattoo on the side of her chest matches with one she is known to have.
LatestLY connected her naked exercising to her recent “erratic behavior,” which has apparently included spasmoidal body movements at an airport, running around without a shoe, drinking unknown liquids (horrifying, I know), and admiring dildos in a sex shop, the last of which is apparently not connected to her new documentary, the not-at-all salaciously-titled Planet Sex.
HotNewHipHop took a different approach, viewing Cara’s nude public yoga session as an improvement over her unstable past behavior rather than a continuation of it.
I don’t know anything about all of that. All I know is that I can’t find the full Instagram story anywhere. If you have it saved, let me know.
I’ve already put the Bat-Signal out on Twitter.
UPDATE – Mar 10
The seventh and eighth episodes aired two hours ago.
I’m sad to say that there’s nothing to report on the nudity front.
We have only two episodes left before Carnival Row is finished forever. If they were saving the big Cara Delevingne nude scene for last, then fair dues, but I’m going to be quite distraught if that never materializes.
UPDATE – Mar 17
The final two episodes of the second and final season of Carnival Row aired just now. The season was great, and I’m sad the show is over.
I’m probably even more sad that there were no further nude scenes in these two episodes. C’est la vie, I suppose.
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