Netflix's The Sandman Season 1 Review: We're Off to Never-Never Land

It's been a long time since I experienced a piece of media and wanted to immediately want to experience it again. Even with the things I really really love, the invested time I sink into it makes me want to decompress from those things for a while. With my short attention span, I end up moving on to another show, movie, or game; failing to ever revisit things I said I would. Ever since I started working, I've been blessed with disposable income to spend on video games. So it's always easy to just buy a new game when I finish the current one I've been playing. It's good to have the variety, but at the same time, I seem to have forgotten how to make fond memories of games. I write most of these blog posts to help me remember what I liked about something. Writing also makes me feel less guilty for playing games, too. 

Enter The Sandman...

As I'm writing this post, I'm re-watching it. So that is a big sign of what I think about this show. The Sandman is a Netflix adaptation of the comic book series of the same name. The cool part about this series is that Neil Gaiman, the writer, has had a ton of influence on the show. And while I am not familiar with the source material (I read through the first few issues of the 1989 series after watching the show), I can sense that this show took a lot of care in reinterpreting the comic into a ten episode season without losing the magic that probably made the comic a hit. From what I understand, The Sandman comic books are actually told in relatively short arcs, exploring different characters and topics that all revolve around the main character, Dream of The Endless a.k.a Sandman.

The Netflix series starts off with the beginning story, Dream has been trapped accidentally by a magician and is imprisoned for a century, eventually breaking out and trying to restore his Dream realm from years of neglect.  He must obtain his tools, but must go on a journey to find them. In the show, this portion of the story takes up about half the season and has some really good set pieces. Episode 5, which acts like a mid season finale, is terrifyingly spectacular. The main villain finds himself in the diner and slowly removes the inhibitions from the patrons and prevents them from leaving. The slow descent into chaos and lust is as creepy as it is poignant. I won't spoil it too much, but it's definitely worth witnessing this type of control chaos. 

The Sandman blends fantasy and terror into a surreal experience that makes it exciting to watch. There is a whole lot of lore and backstory, some explained and some just shown through dialogue of past events. The added humor keeps things from getting too dark but also helps bring an added dimension to a few characters as well. The interactions between Dream and his sidekick(?), Lucienne, reminds me of an Alfred/Batman dynamic that tells you a lot about the way their relationship plays out in the end. This type of humor is also very sparse. It's much like Tim Burton's Batman. The seriousness here is broken up by some sarcastic comment. Remember when Alfred gives Bruce cold soup?

Each episode of the season is written so well or maybe it's just that I came off of watching Resident Evil that this show just does everything so much better. There are actually a couple of stand alone episodes that break apart the overall arc (but not completely) and those episodes are actually pretty cool. One of them being the episode where Dream gives a man immortality and then meets every 100 years to see how he fares. The conversations they have are surprisingly interesting. Can't give too much away but normally you'd be expecting him to hate himself after a couple hundred of years, but what he finds out is that he loves his lengthy life and cherishes it. But it comes off of a discussion between Dream and his sister, Death as she goes through her routine of taking people's lives. There is this great observation that dreams and death are actually a service to humanity despite their overwhelming power over it. The best part is that it adds and impacts Dream into a better character. After being imprisoned for over a century, he has to re-learn about his power and about those he uses his power on. Not only does the show tie up these standalone episodes in a convincing way, they make sure the character development isn't lost as it moves forward. 

CGI could use some work but it does its job without being too noticeable. 

The show isn't perfect. Some CGI moments are choppy and goofy. The main actor, Tom Sturridge, can sometimes make this pouty, teenage angst-filled face that doesn't fit with his perceived persona. He is the King of Dreams, but, in some frames, he just looks like the lead singer of Muse. And while most of show is written well, I found that the midseason change in gears seemed to make the season feel too long. That didn't really jive well with me. Episode 6 being the example in this case. 

Anyways, it's nice when each episode of the series has something fun to talk about and is packed with cool little conversations and characters. I like it when a show provides more than just entertainment but also makes you think. That is what I call a mature show. Nothing feels too contrived. 

It also says something that I actually want to read the comics now. I remember reading magazines I got in the mail for Comic-Con and seeing Neil Gaiman all the time and drawings of The Sandman would be provided next to him. I was never interested, mainly because he didn't look like Batman and the art was a little odd for my 8 year old brain. But I'm genuinely curious to read more and see how the show differentiates from the source material. 

Give it a watch!

It's useless, I told you...I can read your every thought!