The Sandman season 1

"The Sandman" on Netflix is one of the greatest things I have watched in a long, long while. I'm in love!

I knew that the Sandman comics existed, before watching the show, but that was about it. I'd never read them, and didn't know anything about them. The existence of the TV show was completely new to me before it popped up on Netflix. 

I have a bit of a hard time with the setup stage of a new story, sometimes. It's hard to fully concentrate on everything that's going on, to take it all in, when I don't have a guarantee I'm going to like these characters, and the story. So I have a tendency to lose focus. It doesn't happen with everything I read or watch, but it did happen here for a bit. I liked episode 1, but after that I got distracted, and pretty much missed episode 3-5 completely. Then it finally clicked while watching episode 6, "The sound of her wings", where I just sat and watched, completely enchanted. 

I have now gone back and rewatched the whole thing, read a bit of the comics, and man, I'm obsessed. I wasn't into every episode, and it was mainly the first half of the season I was properly into, but I'm totally in love with the universe, the concept, and most of all, the main character.

Dream

The character is referred to by a few different names in the show, among them Dream, Dream of the Endless, or Morpheus. Lord Morpheus seems to be what people from his realm calls him. But the proper name as far as I understand is "Dream", so I'll stick to calling him that. 

Dream in the comic speaks in speech bubbles that are fully black, with white text and a wavy outline. I don't think I can describe how Dream in the show speaks, but I thought it sounded great, and now that I'm a bit more familiar with the character, I feel it's a great interpretation of those speech bubbles. 

I also love how the show has managed to make Dream properly feel like an immortal, experienced, godlike being, rather than just a normal man with superpowers. He has enough human traits to be likeable. But shows with similar concepts often have a tendency to go overboard with some personality trait in their supernatural characters, to such a degree that it kind of nullifies my suspension of disbelief a bit. Like, I constantly question how the other characters are taking this character seriously as the god they're supposed to be. This doesn't really happen with Dream, which I approve of.

I also like that the creator of the comics, Neil Gaiman, is involved in the making of this show. And it appears that the actor Tom Sturridge, who plays Dream, has a good grasp of the character, the way the author intended him to be: 

"I remember you said to me that that when he speaks – and everything he says is has to feel like it's etched in stone – that he doesn't... he's not–– he's never improvising. Because he has experienced and perceived every thought, dream, and moment, and therefore he knows what he's gonna say."
– Tom Sturridge to Neil Gaiman in an interview (Video)

The god(like) character does need some human traits though, so that the audience can relate to them. Dream can be somewhat insensitive, often self-obsessed, and is very slow to forgive or to apologise, but his captivity in the first episode changes him a bit, and he starts to evolve for the better.

"Still, his time [in the waking world] appears to have changed him as it has changed me."

"How so?"

"Lucienne, he came to you and told you he was wrong. It was very nearly an apology. The Morpheus I knew was incapable of that."

Dream has a huge mop of hair in the comics (they first came out in the 80's), but I also like how this is toned down in the TV show, while still looking like the character. It kind of fits in-universe too, where Dream changes his look as the times go by.

The Sound of her wings

In episode 6, Dream is having a bit of an "existential crisis" on what to do with himself now, and tags along with his sister Death for a bit. After the siblings part ways, we get a flashback to 1389. Back then, Death was similarly taking Dream along, to make him learn more about humanity by making him listen to humans in their environment. In a pub, they overhear a man called Hob Gadling boasting jokingly to his friends that he has no intention of ever dying. 

Dream, to Death: "Why would any sensible creature crave an eternity of this?"

Death: "You could find out."

Dream: "How?"

Death: "I could grant him his wish."

Dream: "Do that, and he will be begging for death within a century, I assure you."

And so Death makes Hob immortal as an "experiment" for Dream to follow up on. Dream walks over to Hob and tells him he's overheard their conversation, and that they'll meet again in 100 years, at this pub, so that Hob can tell him "what it's like".

And then they do. And the progress of them meeting over the centuries was so dang charming to watch. The way they both evolve from their first meeting! 

Other things I really liked

• The soundtrack is superb. 
• Some of the magical dream world imagery looks really cool. I particularly liked Dream's giant hand plucking out a crossroad from a dream, and the transition showing how Matthew the raven flies between worlds.
• I also geekily enjoyed seeing Canary Wharf being built in 1989 in episode 6, since I used to live in that area for a while.

Slight dislikes

• I wasn't hugely into the Rose Walker / Vortex plot. It was OK, but the second half of the show felt very different to the first one. And I didn't really care much about any of the side characters. I think the comics are a bit like that as well though, so the various plotlines through the next seasons will probably have similar changes in style.
• Minor nitpick: The green screen scenes were a bit obvious in some places.

Things I thought could have been handled differently

While imprisoned, Dream never speaks

And I feel like that didn't do him any favours. First, he refuses to speak to Roderick Burgess, his captor, who asks for "wealth, youth, immortality". 

"Day after day, he pleaded for gifts that are not mankind's to receive nor mine to give. So I remained silent."

This sort of makes sense to a degree, but why not speak and explain it? See how the situation changes? When Roderick dies, his son Alex takes over guarding Dream. Of course Alex wasn't fully innocent, but I feel like he was forced into the situation as a child. He shoots Dream's raven, but this was on his father's orders. I guess this was the main reason why Dream doesn't forgive him. Alex grows old just wanting to get rid of Dream, but he's afraid of releasing him in fear of the repercussions, and to me, this is very understandable. He asks Dream several times if he can guarantee his safety if he sets him free, but Dream still doesn't speak. 

Now that I'm a bit more familiar with Dream as a character, I guess I kind of get it? Dream's initial characterisation, his aloof, regal personality and unwillingness to forgive probably plays a big part. But it's hard to follow a god's reasoning when you've only just been introduced to him! 

Alex did some bad things, but it's not that easy to do the right thing when you're fearing for your life, and the anger of your father. And when he takes over as jailor, he's already got Dream's wrath to worry about because of the raven, so there's just no chance that he's going to let him go without some assurance that he'll be safe. Doomed either way.

So I felt this could have been handled a bit differently. How, I'm not sure. But in a way that's easier for mere mortals to follow!

Looking for the Corinthian

When Dream was moping about a lack of purpose in episode 6, shouldn't he have gone looking for the Corinthian, who was still at large, killing people? In the comics, the Corinthian didn't get introduced this early, so when this storyline happens in the comics, he wasn't around. But in the show this felt like a bit of an oversight.

Checking out the comics

Naturally, I had to check out the comics too. I read a little bit online, but I have ordered the first two volumes of the Deluxe edition, which should contain issues 1 to 31. So I'm putting off reading any more until they arrive I think. It's going to take a couple of weeks before they're in stock though, which sucks. I would have liked to have bought all 5 books in one go, but they are hella expensive. I wonder if I'm going to regret that, but we'll see. 

I have a feeling that I'm going to struggle a bit with some parts of the comic, as there are a lot of side stories that don't focus on Dream specifically. But I can always come back later and reread.