Sandman

As someone who has read the comics - The Absolute Sandman 1-4 and Absolute Death proudly sit on my shelf - I approached this adaptation with cautious optimism.

Season 1 blew those doubts away. From the extraordinary visuals to Tom Sturridge's hauntingly precise embodiment of Dream, it struck the delicate balance of fitting television while never betraying Neil Gaiman's original vision. Episodes like The Sound of Her Wings reminded me why the material was always considered "unfilmable", and why that was wrong.

Season 2 deepened the world. Season of Mists delivered scope, The Song of Orpheus merged Greek myth with tragic inevitability, and the introduction of Destruction and Delirium proved the Endless could thrive on screen. Even side players like Johanna Constantine and the Corinthian elevated the ensemble. For much of the season, it was intelligent, faithful, and frankly cinematic television at its best.

And then came the stumble. The closing arc in Ep 11, and then a needless Ep 12, felt indulgent and oddly slight... a missed opportunity to end with the grace and gravitas the comics achieved. Having loved Season 1 and nearly all of Season 2, this final note was jarringly flat, as if the production lost sight of its own rhythm.

Still, across two seasons, The Sandman remains one of the most ambitious and visually stunning comic adaptations ever attempted. Even with its uneven close, it captured the heart of Gaiman's mythos and gave us performances (Sturridge especially) that deserve to be remembered.

That Netflix has now cancelled it only underlines the melancholy: a dream realised, but cut short.

This show was so exciting. I've never fallen asleep during a show before. This one?? I watched it, passed out. Rewound it, passed out again. I think it's cursed-or it's a secret sleep aid and I think the plot is just a lullaby.

Great visuals, epic concept.......and the perfect cure for insomnia. :)

Netflix's The Sandman is a great adaptation of the original comic-books (please don't call them graphic novels, they're comics).

Sadly this adaptation also fails to deliver the most important and strikingly emotional stories from the comics. The fate of the two angels in Hell, The Inn at the end of the world, Barbie's story, and many more.

I understand they've skimmed down the story to the bare minimum and essential to tell the fate Dream. However with it, they have disregarded precisely what the comics are all about, the stories of Morpheus and his Realm.

Hopefully, somebody else will have another go in 30 years.

That been said, the cast is spectacular, the photography is beautiful, and the whole atmosphere captures perfectly the tone and feel of the original comics.

I see some reviews complain about it being slow or too elaborate, ehem, The Sandman is proper mythology and a very deep family drama, not another one of Snyder's mental puke. It actually requires you to THINK.

Having never read the books I wasn't really sure what to expect from The Sandman. Then after reading through the reviews and seeing how mixed they were I was even more confused about whether I should give it a try. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it. I just read that it got renewed for a second season so that's good news. It looks like most of the negative reviews are from people that are mad that it's not exactly like the source material and I've never got that. As long as it's entertaining...who cares. Movies and shows have to be adapted for tv and are just based off the source material. Less than 5% of the people who watch these movies and tv shows have actually read the book or comic it's based on.

First of all, series II is better than series I, and that doesn't always happen.

Series II is more mature. The main character definitely evolves more and analyzes his behavior. He even apologizes (though the first time it's a non-apology, just like with politicians).

The series is dark, baroque, stylized, and features some excellent reflections, such as: "The greatest curse of getting what you want is getting what you wanted." The series also requires a certain erudition, as the characters can reference a literary work, revealing only a fragment of the plot or the character's name but not the title. Or they encounter a whole galaxy of long-forgotten gods, from Odin (the perhaps more well-known one) to Ishtar (the perhaps lesser-known one).

The series features excellent humanist themes about the tragedies of ordinary people. There's a great character of a trans woman whose family behaved very badly at a funeral, and a young woman with gloves with a troubled past. These are truly excellent storylines.

Among the show's flaws is the seamless transition from one completed case to another, and then a third. Perhaps it would have been more sensible to make several, but shorter, seasons. Especially since some storylines feel a bit drawn out.

However, despite minor flaws, I think the show deserves 8 stars after the second season.