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Full Spoilers ahead for The Sandman TV show and the first two collections of the comics ‘Preludes and Nocturnes’ and ‘The Doll’s House’.
I’m not entirely sure when I first heard about ‘The Sandman’ comic series by Neil Gaiman, but it was perhaps when it was nearing its end or a little while after that. I didn’t actually end up reading it until much later, after I had already read some of Gaiman’s other works, but I did really enjoy it — even if I didn’t feel that every single thing worked perfectly. The series was released between 1988 and 1996, and people have been failing to get Neil to agree to an adaptation since then.
The show has finally come to fruition after fits and starts for many years — I remember hearing about a lot of failed attempts over the years, including a movie that fell through around the 2013 time by David S. Goyer, who wound up being one of the showrunners along with Allan Heinberg and Neil Gaiman himself. I remember even older talk about a TV show that would never come to pass. In 2019 the show was officially announced but I held my breath for two years until I was sure it was actually completed.
The Sandman covers the first two collections of the comics, ‘Preludes and Nocturnes’ (1988-1989) and ‘The Doll’s House’ (1989-1990) with a few notable exceptions. There is an interjected plot about the backstory between Nala and Dream, which is only hinted at in the show, but perhaps they felt that it would be too weird for a first season. If they actually make a second one with the reaction as overall positive as it’s been, they can truly embrace the weird.
Much has been made about the gender swap and race swap casting choices of the show, which aren’t new because they were announced a while ago. It is true that most of the characters in the comics tended to be on the white or white-passing side, even though Neil, always a progressive writer, made it a point to include a diverse set of characters, including gay and trans characters in an era where they were entirely the butt of jokes. More recent looking back has indicated that some of those portrayals were perhaps problematic, so it’s no real surprise that Neil has chosen to update some of the storylines.
In terms of the casting, he’s said that for the most part, they simply opened the casting to a complete range of possibilities except for the characters where it made no sense. They also excised all of the direct references to DC Comics superheroes, which was far more integrated in the original run — it’s something Gaiman moved away from as the series went on.
Some characters that came from DC Comics were changed a bit, some more than others — there may be some rights issues about John Constantine, so they made an update by having both the older version (who is also called Johanna) and her modern descendant with the same name played by the same actress (the always charismatic Jenna Coleman), somewhat confusingly. Librarian and most loyal servant Lucien (originally copied from a different DC Comic and a white-passing man) has been changed to ‘Lucienne’ (a black woman played with depth by Vivienne Acheampong) and given a bit more attitude and self-reliance than the comics version.
Nightmares Brute and Glob (also copied from less popular comics) have been replaced instead by shapeshifter Gault (Ann Ogbomo) and Unity Kincaid (Sandra James-Young), and her great-grandchildren Rose and Jed Walker are now all played by black actors with their storylines tweaked. Gault has a more positive, redemptive arc that ties into Dream’s only positive arc of change, while Rose (Vanesu Samunyai) is a far more proactive and active character instead of one who is getting things done to her (for the most part), and her brother Jed (Eddie Karanja) becomes ‘The Sandman’ in a role that ghost Hector Hall originally had, and the legacy DC hero Sandman he portrayed is replaced by a more stock childlike idea of a superhero (which makes sense, since Jed is now the hero).
Cain (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and Abel (Asim Chaudhry), also copied from other comics, are now played by non-white actors but otherwise are the same as the comics (including their delightful and morose chemistry), as is Hector Hall (Lloyd Everitt), except that his ghost is now instead haunting wife Lyta (Razane Jammal) and giving her a Dream baby in a fairly similar outcome to the comics version. The Three Women/Fates/Hecate are also now played by non-white actresses but are otherwise just as mysterious and creepy as they should be.
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In terms of the more prominent characters, Lucifer (who is drawn to look like a gender ambiguous David Bowie) is played by Gwendoline Christie but is never really meant to have a gender one way or another — it’s more important to have the imposing presence. I always imagine Lucifer shorter because then the intimidation felt more ironic, but Gwendoline Christie is a great actor.
Desire, who was portrayed as a sort of man/woman mix that was intended to be whoever you found attractive, is now played by non-binary actor Mason Alexander Park and it’s hard to argue that Neil wouldn’t have used that sort of language had it been a more accepted term when he wrote it. Mason barely has any scenes, but they do have the right sort of manic, furious energy Desire should possess.
And then of course, there’s Death, portrayed in the comics as a goth white girl, here portrayed by Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who I remembered fondly from The Good Place, and Barry but wasn’t entirely sure about pulling off Death, who is perhaps one of the most beloved and complicated characters Neil ever came up with. Thankfully she does the character justice in the show’s best episode ‘The Sound of Her Wings’, which also cleverly combines that story with the Hob Gadling one, two that are certainly my favorites of the first two issues and of the series as a whole.
Overall though, the casting choices work. Tom Sturridge plays Dream in a difficult role to play, but I felt that he had a good sense of the presence and stubbornness of that character. Boyd Holbrook plays nightmare The Corinthian, except even more charismatic and now invested in a season long arc as the villain who wants to defeat Dream (even though it is a hopeless task). It’s a clever writing choice because otherwise the first few issues did have more of a disconnected thematic feeling, which isn’t great for people that want to get into a new TV show.
Nerd superfan Patton Oswalt plays the voice of Matthew the Raven, which I’m sure he’s super happy about — the only change I didn’t really like was in the episode where Lucifer and Dream have their metaphorical duel and Matthew gives a cheesy little inspirational speech. Maybe if it was written better, it wouldn’t have bothered me, but it felt like an inclusion simply to make Matthew more important.
Charles Dance is perfect casting for Roderick Burgess, the wannabe Magus that accidentally imprisons Dream when he wants to get Death instead — he’s given a slightly more sympathetic motivation here and doesn’t actually possess magical abilities. But he’s still a delightful asshole. Joely Richardson plays his lover Ethel Dee, who is given way more depth here, but not in a bad way — her capability to stay younger is explained by having Dream’s magic ruby and then later, a magical amulet of protection.
David Thewlis plays his son John Dee, and he’s certainly one of the best at playing unassuming monsters. He’s also slightly more sympathetic but not by a lot, he doesn’t end up killing friendly driver Rosemary (Sarah Niles from Ted Lasso doing an American accent that weirded me out but there was nothing wrong with her performance), but still terrorizes the diner in the episode ’24/7′.
There are a lot more characters too, almost entirely played with great performances that could’ve leaped off the page. Of special note are John Cameron Mitchell delightfully playing Hal Carter, not-so-secret drag queen, Stephen Fry playing Gilbert/Fiddler’s Green with the warmth and intelligence the role requires, and the incomparable Mark Hamill as the voice of ridiculous dream janitor Merv Pumpkinhead, who is a beloved fan character.
The original comics started when they were actually released, in the 1980s, and thus were a direct line from 1916 to then — so Unity is Rose and Jed’s grandmother instead of great-grandmother, for example. The younger appearances of those around Dream are explained in an aside that being around him extends their lifelines, and this carries along with the ruby and protection amulet to Ethel and John. But how is Unity still looking so young? Is it the sleeping sickness? It’s not something ever explained and feels like a plothole they overlooked.
One of the things about the first few issues is that they were actually more horror-oriented and sometimes felt a bit grotesque for the sake of it (with the strong exception of the journey into Hell and the challenge to get Dream’s helmet back). In my opinion (shared by many others), the series didn’t really ‘find itself’ until the introduction of Death and that issue. The next one, with the dream vortex Rose Walker and the serial killer convention, was fun enough, but it still had shades of that horror stuff. It’s not nearly as fascinating as what’s to come.
Here the first half of the season is entirely about that fetch quest, the capture and escape of Dream and his search to track down his missing items. It’s a good way to get people interested in the show, and certainly the diner scene in Episode 5 ’24/7′ is harrowing, as it should be (if not as much as the original, which is reasonable).
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So here I must agree with my old opinion and say that Episode 6 ‘The Sound of Her Wings’ is indeed the best episode of the new show and where it begins to transcend itself. The story of Death and her friendly, matter-of-fact comfort to the dead was always an emotional one, and this version keeps the major beats intact, like the beautiful scene where an elderly Jewish man asks to say the ‘Shema’ prayer before he dies.
After that, we get the pitch perfect version of my favorite tale of Hob Gadling (superbly played by Ferdinand Kingsley, son of Ben Kingsley so I guess he comes by it honestly) and his and Dream’s meetings through the centuries. Although it doesn’t have quite as much of the dialogue of the original, it keeps everything that matters (much of it verbatim off the page) and utilizes score and acting to make the tale more poignant and emotional.
The storyline also cleverly uses the time difference as a benefit instead of a hindrance, as we know Dream misses their meeting because he’s trapped — but Robert doesn’t realize that. So when he shows up in the modern time, it feels far more emotional and connective than it did even on the page.
The show copies dialogue quite a bit from the comics, mostly for the good places — some is a bit clunky heard out loud, but why minimize such great writing otherwise? The latter half of the season with the Rose Walker arc feels a bit rushed though, and her character is a bit flat (which she is in the comics too but I was hoping for a better version on the screen).
Although I loved seeing Rose’s ridiculous housemates, however briefly, they weren’t given enough time for me to really appreciate their weird depth — there are glimpses of that here, but not really enough. The serial killer convention was always a weird storyline anyway, and it came off about as well as it could’ve, with the vortex stuff kinda minimized oddly.
The actual importance to the storyline probably could’ve been made more impactful — in the comics it’s short too, but if you’re planning in retrospect, why not go further? We also really don’t get enough of Desire or Despair (Donna Preston, who gets just one scene) as the schemers behind the scenes, while The Corinthian dominates the season as the ‘villain’ (perhaps to streamline the storylines) but at least he’s always compelling.
I felt that Dream’s arc worked out decently for the season’s end, even if they got a bit treacly with it in his final moments, and the iffy CGI on Gault’s wings didn’t entirely help — she still looked kind of creepy. At least the actual final scene with Lucifer plotting their plans to take down Dream was the right sort of cliffhanger, and a good tease for the next possible storyline.
Overall although I had some quibbles with some of the show’s writing choices and it had some constraints with adapting somewhat dated material, more worked than didn’t, and I felt that the acting was almost uniformly excellent. The visuals were often great or striking, and if anything could go even weirder.
I’m hoping that with the positive reception, we can get a second season that goes even more extreme and weird, like the comics could get — maybe visually more weird too. I also want to see more from such favorites as Cain, Abel, Merv, Desire, Despair, and Death. There are a lot of interesting storylines ahead, and I really do hope they get the chance to make them.
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