Josh Reviews The Sandman Season One

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is one of the all-time classic comic book series.  Mr. Gaiman’s run on this comic (created for DC comics, and eventually used as the basis for DC’s “Vertigo” imprint for mature readers) lasted for 75 issues, published from 1989 to 1996.  (Aside: holy guacamole, I can’t believe The Sandman is three decades old!!)  The series was groundbreaking in so many ways.  It was a sophisticated comic book series for adults, one that blended genres (fantasy, horror, mythology) and was filled with nuanced, compelling characters (many of whom were LGBTQ+ in the years long before characters from those communities were regularly seen in mainstream comic books, or any media for that matter).  Mr. Gaiman’s literate approach was grounded in myth and storytelling stretching back millennia.  When the series’ individual story-arcs were collected, they helped launch the popularity of the graphic novel format.  To call this series influential would be a dramatic understatement.

There have been rumblings of film or TV adaptations of The Sandman for many years, but not ever materialized.  This feels like an extremely difficult series to adapt!  Most impressively, this new Netflix series, overseen by Mr. Gaiman, David S. Goyer (who co-wrote Batman Begins and wrote Man of Steel) & Allan Heinberg (who wrote Wonder Woman and created the Young Avengers in 2005 for Marvel Comics), seems to have cracked the code!

This first season on Netflix (which consists of ten episodes plus a wonderful, eleventh “bonus” episode) adapts the first two Sandman story-lines: “Preludes & Nocturnes” and “The Doll’s House”.

Even in an era in which we have seen a number of wonderfully faithful movie and TV adaptations of popular novels and comic books, The Sandman TV show is extremely, impressively faithful to the original comics!  Again and again I was blown away by how well the team behind the TV show brought to life characters and sequences from the comic book series.

One of the keys is that they were very patient.  Rather than trying to blow through the early issues of The Sandman quickly, in order to get to the better, cooler stuff deeper in the series, each episode of this show basically adapts a single issue (or sometimes two) of the comic book series.  I can’t recall ever before seeing such a faithful, “by the book” approach to a comic book adaptation!!  It’s really quite extraordinary.

Even more impressive is that, when there are changes — and OF COURSE some changes have to be made in bringing a story from one medium into another — I thought the changes were clever and correct.  Again and again and again, when a change was made, I thought it was a change for the better.  They’ve actually made a LOT of tweaks and adjustments, but they’re not really noticeable because the changes are all so GOOD.  They’re almost all wonderfully smart, clever changes that help make this material sing as a TV series.  They’ve fleshed out the characters, adding little bits and moments to develop each individual character.  They’ve also added some gentle connectivity between those early stories.  This is important, because the first few issues of the original Sandman comic book series, collected as “Preludes & Nocturnes,” is the weakest of the entire run of the series, in my opinion.  The individual stories are each interesting, but Mr. Gaiman and his team were still figuring out what the series was going to be.  But now, in going back to these original stories with an understanding of where the series would go, Mr. Gaiman & co. have added lots of wonderful little bits and bobs that help connect these stories together.  So now, for instance, the Corinthian — the villain of the comic book series’ second storyline, “The Doll’s House”, here adapted in episodes seven through ten — appears throughout the show.  We learn that Morpheus was chasing him when he gets captured by Roderick Burgess in 1916, and we follow the Corinthian’s attempts to stay one step ahead of his former master Morpheus.  When Judy calls a friend in episode five, “24/7”, it’s Rose Walker, who will be an important character in the second half of the series.  I also liked getting to know Ethel Kripps starting right away in episode one, and being able to then follow her until her son John becomes a villain in episodes four and five.

The cast is terrific.  Not just are these actors all amazing — bringing important dramatic heft and emotional realism to this wild fantasy series — but, again and again, they so perfectly bring these characters to life.  The casting is just extraordinary, and I was impressed at how many characters from the comics they managed to fit into this first run of episodes.  Most TV adaptations would have simplified things, combining characters so that we had fewer characters who we’d then follow through all eleven first season episodes.  Thankfully the Sandman team understood that the short-story structure of the series is an important aspect that needed to be brought over in this adaptation.  (The result is a show that is very much what I want all streaming shows to be like.  Each episode feels like a complete story that can stand on its own and come to a satisfying resolution.  At the same time, these episodes are all very strongly connected, with characters and storylines running throughout the season.  It’s a near-perfect balance of episodic and serialized.)

Back to the cast!  I was impressed right from the start of the first episode by the brilliant casting of Charles Dance (Alien 3, Game of Thrones, The King’s Man) as Roderick Burgess, the cruel, selfish human who imprisons the dream-lord Morpheus and starts the events of the series in motion. I love that they made Lucien, the librarian in Morpheus’ realm, a woman, and I adored Vivienne Acheampong’s dignified performance.  (And I love her look, with her proper outfits and those little pointed ears.  This is a wonderful new version of this character, nicely tweaked from the comic.)  I love the perfect casting of Cain (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and Abel (Asim Chaudhry), looking exactly like they do in the comics and behaving just as I’d always imagined they would.

Holy cow, they got Patton Oswalt to be the voice of Morpheus’ raven, Matthew!  Fantastic!  Now, this was a very different interpretation of Matthew from the Matthew of the comics, but I loved it.  Mr. Oswalt brought a fun energy to the show, and I loved his dynamic with the stiff, quiet Morpheus.

I love the gender-swapping to John Constantine (a now well-known DC character who’s had his own movie and TV show) to Johanna Constantine, here brilliantly played by Jenna Coleman.  (She gets a great showcase in episode three, “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, and happily she pops up again as her ancestor in flashback in episode six, “The Sound of Her Wings.”)  Fans online have been calling for a Joanna Constantine spin-off show; please allow me to join the chorus!  She’s dynamite; a great, tough, smart foil for Morpheus, and a compelling character in her own right.

Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie is fantastic as Lucifer Morningstar, introduced in episode four, “A Hope in Hell”.  Also perfect: John Thewlis (Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter films, Anomalisa, Wonder Woman) as John Dee.  (They smartly dropped the DC connection to the villain of Doctor Destiny.  Those early Sandman issues took place in the DC universe, though the series quickly became its own thing.)  Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso) is wonderful as Rosemary, the poor woman who offers John a ride and then discovers she’s sharing her car with a murderer.  I also loved Joely Richardson (Event Horizon, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as the elder version of John’s mother Ethel.  (She’s played by Niamh Walsh in episode one; Ms. Walsh is also terrific.)

Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Good Place) is perfection as Death.  What a great choice to play this critical character!!  Ms. Howell-Baptiste obviously looks a lot different than how the character was drawn in the comics, but I love the color-blind casting.  Ms. Howell-Baptiste could not be more perfect as the sweet and wise Death.  Bring on the Death spin-off starring Ms. Howell-Baptiste!  I also really liked Ferdinand Kingsley as the immortal Hob Gadling, with whom Morpheus meets every hundred years.

I love that Rose Walker and her great-grandmother Unity (key players in episodes seven through ten, which adapt “The Doll’s House” storyline) are both played by African-American women; again, I appreciated the show’s openness to casting people of color in roles that were white in the original comics.  The Sandman comic was always one of the most diverse comic book series ever made, and the TV show moves that dial forward even further.  (Because the show is set in present day, they had to make Unity Rose’s great-grandmother, not just her grandmother!)  Unity is played by Sandra James-Young, and Rose is played by Kyo Ra.  Rose in particular is terrific. I also really liked Razane Jammal as Rose’s friend Lyta Hall.  She has a very distinctive look, and she does a great job playing the emotional reality of the very bizarre situation in which Lyta finds herself.  (This could have felt silly or unbelievable in the hands of a lesser actress.)  Lyta is probably the character on the show who is the most changed from the comics, where she was tied to a super-hero character connected to DC comics history.  I love how they reworked Lyta to better fit into this show, while still maintaining the core of her storyline (which will prove very important down the road).  This was very clever storytelling.  And then there is the wonderful Stephen Fry (A Fish Called Wanda, V for Vendetta, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and he was the Master of Lake-town in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films) as Rose’s friend and protector Gilbert!!  What great casting!  Mr. Fry looks perfect for Gilbert, and he also has just the right tone of old-fashioned protectiveness and friendliness.

It’s possible that the show’s only casting weak link might be Tom Sturridge as Morpheus, himself.  I feel bad criticizing, because this feels like a fiendishly difficult role to play.  Morpheus in the comics is a bizarre and very quiet, interior character.  This is not a human being who emotes like a normal human being.  I’m not sure exactly what I might have wanted Mr. Sturridge to have done differently.  He certainly looks perfect for the role.  But I’m afraid I found his Morpheus to be a little flat.  He didn’t have the spark that so many of the other wonderful characters in this series did.  (Also, I must admit that I was distracted by the way Mr. Sturridge has trouble with his r’s.  He has a tough time saying “Gregory” and “ruby”…)

But this is a small quibble, and I loved this series!

Want to dig a little deeper?  Here are some brief episode-by-episode comments:

Episode 1 — “Sleep of the Just”

• This is a great opener for the show.  It does a terrific job setting up Morpheus and establishing the creepy tone of fantasy and horror that was so important to the comic book series.
• I was so happy to see the show reproduce the iconic overhead shot of the captured Morpheus lying on the floor, exactly as he was in the first splash page of The Sandman #1, illustrated by Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg.
• It was a nice little tweak that the elderly Paul intentionally smudges the runes with the wheels of Alex’s wheelchair, freeing Morpheus.  It’s better for this to have been intentional, as opposed to an accident as it was in the original comic.
• The show really made me feel for the tortured little boy Alex Burgess, who gets a nasty punishment from Morpheus at the end.

Episode 2 — “Imperfect Hosts”

• I loved the CGI gargoyle Gregory — he has life and soul.  The comic was always dark, with bad things frequently happening to innocents.  But the sacrifice of Gregory is an invention of the show.  This was great twist; but it made me so sad!!  (It also recontextualizes Morpheus’ gift of a new egg to the brothers, which did happen in the original comic.)
• I loved the depiction of the Three Fates; beautifully realized just how they’d been depicted in the original comic.
• I was thrilled to meet Patton Oswalt’s raven Matthew in this episode.  I loved the new-to-the-show idea that Matthew is replacing an earlier raven, who was murdered by Alex Burgess, thus adding some tension to Matthew’s relationship with his boss Morpheus.

Episode 3 — “Dream a Little Dream of Me”

• Jenna Coleman commands the screen as Johanna Constantine.
• OOF, that heartbreaking ending with Rachel still packs a punch, just as it did in the comics.

Episode 4 — “A Hope in Hell”

• They made the smart decision to combine issues 4 and 5 of the original comic into one episode, as the John story (of his drive to get his ruby) couldn’t have carried an episode on its own.  But the two stories of John’s drive and Morpheus’ quest into Hell mesh together beautifully.
• I’m glad they included that brief scene with Morpheus’ imprisoned former lover Nada (played by Deborah Oyelade).  Nada will be important in the future!
• The battle-of-stories between Lucifer and Morpheus (a brilliant scene from the comics) was beautifully brought to life on screen.
• I’m glad they changed the end of the story so John lets his driver Rosemary live.  It always bugged me in the comics that he killed his driver at the end.  Awful things often happened to innocent people in the Sandman comic, as they do in the show (see the next episode), but here it was much more satisfying that not only does John let Rosemary go, but that he gives her his protective amulet (that he got from his mother) as a gift.

Episode 5 — “24/7”

• This shockingly violent and grim issue of the comic blows me away every time I read it.  It’s bold, and both gripping and distasteful in how brutally awful and mean the story is to the (somewhat) innocent characters who are tortured and eventually murdered by John.  I was fascinated to see if and how they’d adapt this issue.  They did, and they went for it.  They’ve created a brutal and wrenching episode, in which Morpheus is mostly absent (and not missed).  It’s devastating watching John slowly turn the screws on the poor people who happen to be trapped in the diner with him.  It’s still a brutal episode, but the story feels just a tad more palatable here; enough to make it a very effective episode of TV.  Key to this is that I love the choice to make John focused on wanting people to tell the truth; so his manipulation of the diners isn’t just random cruelty; it’s all about stripping away the lies in their lives.
• The cast of the diners is perfect.  Emma Duncan is extraordinary as the waitress Bette, but the whole gang is perfect.

Episode 6 — “The Sound of Her Wings”

• This was an interesting combination of two of my favorite Sandman stories — issue #8 (“The Sound of Her Wings”) and issue #13 (“Men of Good Fortune”).  Both are wonderfully adapted here.  My only comment is it’d have been nice had they found a way to bring Death back into the story at the end.  That would have made this episode feel more like it fit together as a whole.  As it is, it feels like exactly what it is — two completely separate stories put together into one episode.
• The first twenty-ish minutes, which adapt “The Sound of Her Wings”, are about as good as this show gets; a near-perfect adaptation of the (terrific) source material.  It’s very moving.
• I really enjoyed the Hob Gadling half of the episode, as well!  I loved the way the succession of his meetings with Morpheus, every hundred years, played out.  I liked the adjustment that, because the show is set in the present day, Morpheus missed his most recent meeting with Hob, and so he has to track him down.
• It was a delight to see Jenna Coleman back as Johanna Constantine’s ancestor in the 18th century.

Episode 7 — “The Doll’s House”

• As we enter the back half of the season, the show moves to the second storyline from the comics, the first long storyline Mr. Gaiman did: “The Doll’s House.”
• I liked the new intro, allowing us to meet Rose’s brother Jed before he is lost from her.
• I loved seeing the pumpkin-headed Melvyn brought to life!!!  I loved the old-fashions stop-motion animation look they gave to him!  And Mark Hammill was amazing as his voice!!!  Just perfect.

Episode 8 — “Playing House”

• Again, pretty much any time the series diverges from the original comic book, it feels clever and done for a very good reason.  I wasn’t expecting to see any of the weird super-hero dream stuff from Sandman issue #12 incorporated into the show, but I thought it was super-clever that they made it Rose’s sister Jed who was dreaming of being a superhero called “The Sandman”.  (That’s a change from the comic, which incorporated an old DC character called “The Sandman”.  That was a cool choice for the comic, but it would have been too weird and confusing for the show.)  I love how they eliminated that extra character and made it Jed himself who was dreaming of being a superhero.
• Similarly, in the comic, the escaped nightmares who had taken control of Jed’s dreams were straight villains.  But I love how much more three-dimensional and sympathetic Gault is here!!  I was pissed at Morpheus for his cruel treatment of Gault at the end!  (And, again, I like the simplification — in the original comic, it was two nightmares: Brute and Glob.  But here they wisely simplified it to just one.  That’s a strong storytelling choice.)
• I was pleasantly surprised how well the show depicted Lyta’s becoming pregnant within the dream-world.  Again, they’ve taken the essentials of the story from the comic but reworked it nicely.  (Lyta’s comic book origins, connected to alternate versions of DC Comics characters Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, are too weird and complicated for the show — and also tied to DC in a way that doesn’t make sense for the show, which understandably wants to be more stand-alone.)  I was moved by this story of Lyta’s longing to be together with her dead husband… and the dream version of him longing for her.
• I loved meeting all of the denizens in the house where Rose is staying: Hal, Barbie and Ken, and Chantal and Zelda.  (I wasn’t sure how Chantal and Zelda would work on screen, but they made them work perfectly!)  I loved getting a peek into all of their dreams.  I was so happy to see Martin Tenbones!!!  He looked absolutely perfect!!!  (That creature from Barbie’s dream will be very important down the line.  I hope the series gets there!)

Episode 9 — “Collectors”

• The serial killers convention always struck me as a particularly far-out notion in the comics; I love how well they were able to make this work on-screen.  I liked the casting of all the various serial-killer characters, particularly Kerry Shale and Jill Winternitz as the convention organizers, and Danny Kirrane as the pedophile called “Fun Land”.  I couldn’t believe his line about hunting kids at an unnamed place (that-we-all-know-is-Disney!) made it into the show!
• I loved getting to see more of Jed on the show than we did in the original comics.  It helps raise the tension, because we know and like Jed and Rose and know they’re both in trouble.
• I loved how the show took the time to make Lyta and Hector’s love-affair in her dreams a truly heartbreaking story.  Morpheus’ causal destruction of the dream-ghost of Hector is so cruel (as it was in the comics).  Because we’ve spent so much time with Lyta and Hector, that moment really hurts.
• I liked the addition of the small runner about Lucien’s frustration with Morpheus, and allowing Morpheus to (sort of) apologize to her in the end.  It’s nice to get that slight humanization of Morpheus (particularly in an episode in which he so coldly disposes of Hector).

Episode 10 — “Lost Hearts”

• This was a very satisfying conclusion to “The Doll’s House” storyline and the season as a whole.
• I thought it was a very clever change to have Rose’s vortex-ability to blend dreams play into her and Morpheus’ final confrontation with the Corinthian.
• I loved the depiction of the revelation of Gilbert’s true nature as Fiddler’s Green.  That was a beautiful visual effects moment.
• I was thrilled they brought back the former-nightmare Gault and allowed her a happy ending!

Episode 11 — “Dream of a Thousand Cats”/”Calliope”

• In a super-cool surprise, a few weeks after season one premiered, the show dropped a surprise eleventh episode!!  I love that!!
• The first part of this episode is an animated adaptation of The Sandman #18, a peek inside the dreams of cats.  This was a brilliantly off-beat and haunting story from the comics, and this animated adaptation was just about perfect.  The animation was gorgeous.  These cats and their world were beautifully brought to life.  I never would have imagined this weird story from the comics would ever be adapted for TV, let alone as faithfully as this was.
• In a delightful twist, many of the voices for this animated adaptation were drawn from the cast of The Sandman Audible audio drama!  That includes James McAvoy, David Tennant, and Michael Sheen.  Sandra Oh is wonderful as the Siamese cat who is preaching her dream vision.
• That’s followed by a lengthy (this could have been its own episode) live-action adaptation of The Sandman #17.  This was a particularly ugly story from the comics, in which two writers imprison and rape the muse Calliope as a way to steal her gifts.  I’m glad that they did not depict those acts on-screen in this episode.
• Derek Jacobi (Gladiator, Gosford Park, The King’s Speech, Murder on the Orient Express) is perfect as the elderly writer Erasmus Fry, and Arthur Darvill (Broadchurch, Legends of Tomorrow) is very memorable as the equally selfish younger writer Richard Madoc.  Melissanthi Mahut is tremendous as Calliope.  Although she’s imprisoned, I was pleased that the episode gave Calliope greater strength and agency than in the original comic, where she felt to me to be a more passive, more pitiable creature.  Ms. Mahut’s performance makes the episode.

I throughly enjoyed this first season of Netflix’s adaptation of The Sandman!  Color me very impressed by this faithful adaptation that also worked beautifully as its own thing.  Season two can’t get here fast enough!!

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