There’s something about The Sandman; it feels like it was created 25 years ago not because Neil Gaiman’s run ended 26 years ago. The new Netflix series seems to be from a different cultural time, perhaps the mid-90s to late 2000s, and its title character is reminiscent of all the brooding, white-faced pretty boys who have populated the movies and shows: David Boreanaz in Buffy and Angel, Brandon Lee as the Crow, Aidan Turner from Being Human, Michael McManus in Lexx, Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, everyone from Twilight and Johnny Depp as From Hell or Sleepy Hollow or Edward Scissorhands or just about any role that wasn’t Jack Sparrow.
This specific sad-boy of the Sandman goes by many names (Dream, Morpheus, Kai’ckul etc.), but he ends up looking like a bony Nathan Fielder doing an impression of Robert Pattinson who played Batman recently. Tom Sturridge plays Dream who barely mumbles — barely audible amidst this chaos — for his only lines. There’s so much happening in The Sandman with all these cool characters that it’s such a waste that we need to follow him around; he belongs back in ’08. Nevertheless, this series remains visually stunning and well directed with lots of potential and imagination that will definitely be appealing to followers of the comics.
Between 1989 and 1996 there were seventy-five issues of The Sandman (written by Gaiman with art by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg and dozens upon dozens of inkers/pencilers/colorists) where his penchant for anthropomorphism comes through typically. Preceding American Gods (which essentially versioned the gimmick), this story follows Dream who is one among several manifestations embodying abstract ideas such as desire/delirium/destiny/destruction/despair (because vague metaphysics must start with a “D”).
Netflix is very true to the comics although they have a more politically correct or “woke” version that plays with gender and alters some of the more problematic portions from the previous run, but this does not affect even in slightest to translation. However, many plotlines are followed and there are panels which are actually recreated from the comic book. Morpheus (aka Dream), who was intended to be main character, gets captured when some amateurs trying to summon Death mistake him for her. They took his pouch of sand, ruby necklace, and H.R. Giger-looking helmet, then sealed his unclothed body into a glass sphere for one hundred years.
Morpheus breaks out and finds out that it’s pretty much going down the drain as dreams and nightmares walk around free; it’s honestly not such a bad way of explaining all those frequent wars, fascism’s genocides and crises of the last century though Sandman never goes deep enough into this idea and its message on dreams is often confusing. Morpheus proceeds to track down his three magical objects in order to fix the world leading him literally through Hell and back.
To be beautifully designed and directed as it may, there is not a whole lot of actual drama in The Sandman, nor much action, which is surprising for a DC-related title. Some great thoughts have been used to act the play but unfortunately they don’t come out as well on screen. For instance, Morpheus fights Lucifer by simply engaging in an improvisation acting exercise, starts with Lucifersaying “I am snake and I bit your horse,” to this Morpheus replies “I am bird of prey and scratch you with my talons.” It tries to discuss what storytelling is as well as why it matters like many other parts of the series but when it comes to screen it looks more like children make-believe.
Yes, all pretty silly (this is a show where Patton Oswalt voices a bird, after all). This generally happens when adapting comics especially within the booming fantasy genre; something that feels natural on the page becomes extremely self-serious or awkward or ridiculous with real actors. “Tonight humanity will sleep in peace” or “You dare suggest one such as I might need your companionship” are delivered so seriously that despite the strong language, nudity, bloodshed and gory images throughout it often feels childish.
However saving grace comes from that imagery. Expensively made and visually stunning The Sandman features imaginative CGI perfectly held together by vivid set design and costumes during bizarre scenes like these. To illustrate too many slow walking characters approaching huge buildings probably situated miles away but they all look awesome and thoroughly developed environmental settings for each one were lovingly done. Director Jamie Childs takes care of the best episodes in the series overseeing possibly an army of crew members who built up visually striking universe around him. His installment in Hell is number 4; therefore, outflowing dark imagination stands at its peak while coupled with episode 5 both would have made a good feature film.
After that comes fourth episode which is what many of the fans of The Sandman comics were waiting for. The fifth episode, 24/7 (the closest thing to a bottle movie that the series has) takes place almost entirely in an all-night diner and features only seven characters. Though not as emotionally impactful and haunting as the comics, it is a slow burn done just right—a philosophical nightmare that feels different from anything else on TV.
There are many other reasons why the fourth and fifth episodes come across as an impressive one-two punch. This is because David Thewlis, a fine actor who makes anything he stars in better, is at his best in this episode (Naked, Fargo, An Inspector Calls). The story line revolves around John, who has taken over Morpheus’ ruby and now uses it to destroy all falsehoods or fantasies on earth. The following incidents drive the viewer to pure hysteria; some of them even resemble statements that can be found in David Byrne’s The New Sins such as “We don’t want honesty, we want better fictions.”
Although it seems like there’s global catastrophe at the end of that episode, the show merely resets for next (and worst) episode and there is not much left until the end of The Sandman. Towards its conclusion though several fun moments pick up suspense but ultimately they are forgettable.
One reasonable cause could be that The Sandman was regarded as one of those texts that were considered unadaptable since it involves stories that traverse centuries with a wide range of characters while varying linear narrative structures; besides these themes are also intellectually stimulating yet impracticable. However, Neil Gaiman along with David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg have created a brand new series called The Sandman which does do justice by stitching together fragments from Preludes & Nocturnes and The Doll’s House into one coherent narrative-an attempt at reassembling parts of comics-but without having gritty unsettling qualities such as those employed in the original source material.
This does not mean that The Sandman is bad television. It looks spectacularly beautiful and has some great characters due to excellent direction and design choices. But if you’re a serious comic book fan then you will probably enjoy this show quite a bit because seeing familiar scenes come alive can be thrilling. They have foreknowledge though; watching this through the eyes of someone who has never seen The Sandman before might bring to mind an incoherent mess made by sticking together outtakes from Twilight knock-offs and latter-day goth movies. As a result, The Sandman almost succeeds in dreaming up what readers have already imagined for more than 25 years but fails to let new audiences dream, too.
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