The Sandman on Netflix

I agree the first volume is sort of weak and out-of-character with the rest of the series, and it's still a bit like he's playing Alan Moore's sandpit. But I always found Doll's House really enjoyable, and missed it when the series moved on from that vibe to be "decompressed"

I hope they do they boy detective stuff

this is their big tentpole ongoing series at this point, so I think the assumption is they will see it through to the end, but looking at all the fluctuations with netflix' stock and the industry as a whole I wouldn't count on it.

Yeah

I'm surprised that some people are put off by the diversity of tone and plot vectors, like The X-Files and Doctor Who never existed

I think if it makes it to Brief Lives I'll be happy - but on the other hand it would be interesting to see a version of the Kindly Ones which isn't Gaiman paddling in place for half of it.

I am excited for this even though I remember essentially nothing concrete about the comics, although I am concerned my partner will think it is bad (in which case I will never make time to watch it on my own).

I found it confusing and exposition-heavy but my partner followed it easy enough, so I dunno

Is it bad? IMO, as with Good Omens, Gaiman doesn't really understand how TV narrative works, but the resulting mess is interesting, and because it's so visibly "authored", it avoids the usual streaming show shapelessness

The only misstep, I felt, was throwing in a ham-fisted "omg! Desire is the dad?" moment at the end. Originally this detail was subtle and cool and un-telegraphed, Dream just thinks about it and puts it together himself. Here, Unity mentioning her "golden-eyed love" as the penultimate thing she speaks before passing, followed by shots of Desire's mug, it was really, really annoying

That's not true re renewals, is it? They've premiered and renewed plenty of stuff since then, iirc. Umbrella Academy, The Witcher, Russian Doll, Outer Banks, Bridgerton ...

Russian Doll hasn't had a third commissioned afaik, but Lyonne is perhaps more interested in her not-Columbo series Poker Face with Rian Johnson (same)

IMO, as with Good Omens, Gaiman doesn't really understand how TV narrative works

Gaiman is not in charge of this fwiw, more of a The Dreaming role - he was showrunning Good Omens S2 and Anansi Boys in Scotland. Young Avengers blokey is the Sandman showrunner.

I hope they do they boy detective stuff
They appeared on an episode of Doom Patrol, and a spin-off series has been announced. HBOMax tho.

First episode was... okay? The score is distractingly bad as was the Dreaming CGI, non-CGI parts have the sheen of a British house style (Sherlock, Frankenstein, etc.) that I really dislike.

Yeah I felt that BBCesque Sherlock/DR Who feel also?

The score is distractingly bad as was the Dreaming CGI

This series seems unscorable, though. Impossible to really have a single "language" in a world so frayed. I hope they up their licensing budget, part of the appeal of the comic series was all the little pop culture inserts. Smiled wide at the US Girls sync! yay team

Episode 6 delivers <3

xp - it may well get better in future episodes if there's more variety. I hate big soaring Hans Zimmer strings (louder than any piece of actual dialogue or action) and episode 1 went there too often - especially in any tracking shot of the Dreaming. Maybe I'm stereotyping Neil Gaiman and Vertigo Comics but I wanted minimal and goth-y even in this episode mostly set in the '20s.

I was wondering if the Dreaming was actually supposed to look a bit unreal and have dramatic soundtrack to highlight the nature of the place while Morpheus was running it prior to his abduction. Like CGI not supposed to be quite a realistic rendering of an actuality but a little off because it's dream or something along those lines.

Yeah in that vein, in the very last scene in ep 10, Lucifer is holding court with all of what I assume is Hell's demons/some kind of demon council? But it was shown as this almost cartoony black ragged tear in the air, with evil grinning mouths in it. Like a comic sketch! I have to assume it was intentional but it did look strange.

Hid cos I dont know who hasnt caught up yet.

That sounds like how DC used to portray the Lords of Chaos back in the late 80s

yeah a bit - the all-teeth mouths in particular.

That's one character and that how they looked in the comics, tbh.

*that's how they looked

@ Trayce

Yes and I couldn't help but think like "are they setting up viewers unfamiliar with the series for the expectation of some eye-popping showdown?" because that is the opposite of "welp I'm going to the beach see ya"

I liked the comics well enough back in the day (issue 50 is a masterpiece, I think) but...couldn't get past the first episode of this ? Something tonally off in this for me. Looks great and all but that's just about it. Should I stick with it? Or rewatch both seasons of Rome for the umpteenth time?

somehow I've never read the comics, but I'm enjoying the show so far, now I want to go back and read them. The CGI isn't perfect, but I think this show looks way better than a lot of other fantasy and comic adaptations I've watched recently.

This may well be one of the most goth shows ever. Dream can be a bit uninteresting, but he gets a lot of mileage out of his constant pout, and all the supporting characters are great.

I watched the diner episode last night and it really caught me by surprise. About 2/3 of the way through I was getting very restless, it felt like bad Sartrean drama that wasn't going anywhere. But of course it all goes nicely off the rails and then ties back with the greater story in a very impressive and gnarly way.

Or rewatch both seasons of Rome for the umpteenth time?

Where this is an option I would always do this.

Lol yeah..."Rome" is my comfort miniseries.

About 2/3 of the way through I was getting very restless, it felt like bad Sartrean drama that wasn't going anywhere. But of course it all goes nicely off the rails and then ties back with the greater story in a very impressive and gnarly way.

I had the same reaction, Like where the FUCK is this going, are they trapped in there? Whats happening why is it taking so long... ohhh now I get it.

Rome & Deadwood in alternating years forever

i am enjoying this very much - it actually has a (sorry) dreamlike quality, watching very familiar scenes from the comics recreated pretty faithfully as a moving image

most notably ep 6 with all those lines i know back-to-front - it was like woof posted above, a very pleasurable nostalgia hit for something I cared about in my teenage years

having said that, I feel it is an excellent television version of The Sandman but perhaps not great television?

although i see itt that there are many non-comics people who have enjoyed it

I just watched ep 7 last night & fgti was otm re the casting of Hal … really excellent & kinda like whole thing so far has reassured me w good choices for the roles i am invested in (so far anyway)

I am still enjoying it immensely - i think emsworth may be otm that it’s a good tv version of Sandman but maybe not great tv in and of itself

idk but i am fine with that

i just feel like i am on a longhaul flight at cruising altitude w clear skies ahead (or a similar metaphor for flight-phobic/pandemic times)

disappointed taht it's over and have to wait to see if there is a 2nd series coming . Assume there must be from end set up.
& of course the comic goes on way after this ends.

Have enjoyed it, think its a good media experience so not sure what would make it good/not good TV. & not sure how niche it is so is taht part of it? Think it has worked very well so hope it is continued with same qualities.

Even Jenna Coleman wasn't as bad as she normally is, doesn't look much like Sting though do she?

I had forgotten me and my housemates in college went to Halloween as most of The Endless in about 1997! Good memories. This series is a delight. I love how much darkness they're getting away with tbh? I haven't enjoyed the specific gore elements but I appreciate how they define the stakes and boundaries.

Watched the first ep last night and my partner is in, hooray. She did note that hazy, gauzy quality that a lot of Netflix shows seem to be using these days, and is hoping for a bit more humor to it, but is down to see where it goes.

She also asked if I thought Dream looked like Ow3n P@ll3t, lol.

I was distracted thinking Dream would turn around and be Neil Gaiman.

*cough* I think he very closely resembles one P4trick W0lf, myself

Just seeing some shorts being released on torrent sites today. Not watched them yet but sounds interesting.

The episode with the walk with Death and Dream Makes A Friend is quite beautiful (but like, could have skipped the soaring "feel something now" strings when Morpheus calls him friend).

I want a series about giant sentient cats dominating humanity.

<3

i'm only three episodes in but idk so far it hasn't displayed any capacity for psychedelia, otherwise it's fine and better than expected, and i especially enjoyed the ways they rewrote the narrative of preludes

i just wish it looked cooler and had a score that wasn't a tv show score

i'm rereading the comics rn, i suppose the direct comparison isn't helping me digest the show as its own thing

casting is otm tho

yeah the normcore aspects were a bit :/ but not in a distracting, bothersome way
but the show def suffers under immediate comparison

i agree on the score … like a trent/atticus thing would have been cool? or some other old ex-goth lol

Yeah, felt like it deserved the Clint Mansell treatment, like the trippy bits in The Fountain.

I’m not sure about that weird stretching thing going on in the camerawork, like a random instagram filter. I keep thinking I’ve got my TV set at the wrong aspect ratio (unless I have, in which case move this post to the absent-mindedness thread).

Dream Makes A Friend def the best ep, partially because it doesn't demand anything much in terms of special effects (which will always look cooler in a comic).

was charmed by the changes they made to the preludes arc in order to omit the dc universe characters. less charmed by what they've done to the doll's house to achieve the same thing

casting remains for the most part dope, especially the uncanny valley decisions they made for fiddler's green and fun land that legit make it feel like my favorite comic book is coming to life. on the opposite end of things however... not thrilled with the performances of the ppl playing rose and hippolyta

i think in general i dislike how unwilling this show is to make anyone unsympathetic bc there are v unsympathetic characters in sandman... and that's ok

I don’t think we’ve seen the range that Lyta’s character has to offer, yet; and Rose was pretty specifically by the book in my estimation

Well Morpheus himself is pretty unsympathetic! That poor gargoyle.

Fiddler's Green the first time in ages I've not found Stephen Fry insufferable.

morpheus does many bad things! which is why i think having endless, pointless conversations with lucien in the library about whether or not the fuckin dream vortex is causing rifts in the fucking dreaming are doing way too much work to show us dream is changing

Lol. So much of the acting is so specifically bad, in the same way, even from some decent actors, that it must be intentional, right? I don't know if they're trying to convey a surreal "this all might be a dream" feeling even in the "real world" scenes, a sense of comic book-ness, or trying to attain some sort of Twin Peaks uncanniness, but I'm not sure that it works.

just to say something nice i want to say that the guy playing the corinthian fucking nailed it

he was so good!!

My wife was into this and I thought the first several episodes were excessive and bad CGI, but the diner episode and the episode with Death were really amazing. Love that they are already departing from the overarching plot to do 1-2 episode contained stories.

The diner story and the Death story came at the exact same points in the comics - the Hob Gadling story was a diversion in the middle of The Doll's House, but made sense paired with The Sound Of Her Wings here.

In terms of representation, my wife was not too happy that despite all the care taken to race and gender the show's take on Despair was still "a fat woman".

Isnt she in the comics as well? What if they'd made Despair slim? That seems like it'd be worse!

Yes she's like that in the comic - but the show changes the gender and ethnicity of all sorts of characters, so it's weird they left this one as is.

Interesting interview with a staff writer

https://gizmodo.com/netflix-sandman-neil-gaiman-vanessa-benton-interview-1849563633

It's nearly Time...
But for what? pic.twitter.com/wJsXkMEA1k

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) September 28, 2022

gaiman is rebooting days of our lives?

It's the third volume of Sandman on Audible, I think?

his reply tweet says "for this" and spruiks the third volume of Sandman on Audible.

(Twitter rarely now allows public viewing of threads.)

It's really wonderful to see this show 20 years after reading the comics. I barely remember the details anymore, just that the comic had imaginative stories and frequently went places I didn't expect. Those aspects carry the show nicely through some not-great acting here and there. Hope this gets enough seasons to finish it out

And it looks like we get a season 2!

Cool! Season of Mists feels really challenging to make work for TV but so far I'd say they've done as good a job at a Sandman adaptation as one could imagine.