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The Sandman (Season 1)
Fear me, I managed to marathon the entire Sandman season. ;) Which covers Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll's House in terms of comics trade collections and while sticking close to the comics does occasionally swerve, adding some new things, substracting others, changing motivations, even. Generally it's a thumbs up from me, I loved watching - hence the ability to marathon it non stop - , and now I'm really looking forward to how the tv version will handle my favourite volumes later on.
- the first time I heard the tv version would let Dream escape in our present instead of the 1980s, I thought "but what about Alex Burgess?" and a bit later "what about Unity Kincaid?", because it does make a difference whether we're talking about ca. 70 skipped years or over a hundred, and I was afraid either or both characters would be replaced by descendants, but no: they're both just really long lived
- while Ethel Cripps buys herself additional life time when trading all of Dream's stuff for magical protection; I must say Ethel is a character who really got a life of her own in this tv version when in the comics she was just a plot device, and I loved what the series did with her
- and yay, poor Alex made it into tv land, was in fact central to the first episode, the three actors playing him were very sympathetic, and I was v.v. impressed by the show coming up with the Jessamy the Raven story as an additional reason why Alex doesn't dare to release Dream once his father is dead
- yay, Paul made the tv cut as well, and I hope we get some more of him once the tv show reaches The Kindly Ones
- I note Alex gets "eternal sleep" instead of "eternal awakening" as a punishment; this makes Dream look less cruel/terrible, but he's about to do dickish things elsewhere and also non stop psychic torture for the next few years not being on the menu is something of a relief
- the Jessamy the Raven addendum also does excellent things for Dream's characterisation, sets up his relationship with Matthew, and gives them (Matthew and Morpheus) an emotional arc that's the exact parallel/flipside of Matthew and Daniel in The Wake
- changing the Dream/Choranzon duel to a Dream/Lucifer one (because Choranzon chooses Lucifer as his champion) was inspired; generally I thought Gwendolin Christie does an excellent job with Lucifer, and this was when Tom Sturridge won me over to his version of Morpheus, because these two did manage to signal they know each other pretty well and Dream is very aware Lucifer is going to mindmess with him
- I have no idea, though, whether viewers who haven't read the comics will get the reason that Nada sees Dream not in Sturridge shape but as a black man is that whoever looks at the Endless sees them reflecting the viewer's expectation, as opposed to Morpheus shape-changing for Nada's benefit
- given that Matthew gets a brief explanation for the interaction with Nada from Morpheus, does that mean we don't get the proper flashback (which isn't in the later half of the season when it covers the Doll's House material), or just that it's shifted to when the tv series covers Seasons of Mist? Would make thematic sense, of course?
- speaking of flashbacks, I was wondering in the The Sound of her Wings episode what they were going to fill the rest of the ep with once the titular story was over, and lo, it was filled with Men of Good Fortune, aka the Hob Gadling saga
- in which the necessity - since Dream no longer frees himself in the 1980s, he can't keep his appointment with Hob - becomes a benefit, because Dream having to find Hob out of appointed date in the Waking World underlines how invested he is in this relationship and is an even better pay off to the 19th century set up (when they argue) than the comics offered
- Johanna Constantine in two versions instead of just onebegs the question whether she's another Clara avatar works very well, too, since Modern Johanna (who stands in for John Constantine in episode 3) is her own person (and there are some neat nods to Hellblazer lore); btw, Rachel does not get gender swapped, and Modern Johanna is thus on screen bisexual (there's a brief scene where various exes of hers are listed, with both female and male names)
- the Corinthian, who isn't at all in Preludes and Nocturnes, though Gaiman did include hi in the Sandman prequel Overture gets a far larger role through the season, being introduced in the pilot already instead of mid season and being given a motivation to not just run from Morpheus but actively work against hm as Dream is in the process of dealing with him when captured himself by Roderick Burgess in the opener; the tv series lets the Corinthian provide Roderick Burgess (and the audience) with the necessary information of how to keep Dream captive and who the Endless are, later try to find out from Ethel Cripps where the tools of power are, and still later try to use Rose Walker as the Vortex against him
- Lucienne not only has more to do than Lucien but also gets an emotional arc of her own with Dream in the second half of the season
- since 24/7 is the darkest horror Neil Gaiman has ever written, I was not looking forward to a filmed version; while some of the gore was reduced (no cannibalism), the emotional horror of what John Dee does to the people in the diner comes across just as viscerally in the episode, though I note that Beth - the writer - gets the chance by the narrative to realize what he's doing (though she's unable to stop him), and later during the intervals when he lets everyone regain their conciousness and realize what they've done to not only do that but reply to him as well
- now I have listened to and appreciated the Audible version of Sandman (so far) as well, but I thought there Kat Dennings' Death was too one note on the flippancy, whereas the tv version's Death manages the boundless compassion as well as the humor, and the interaction with Dream is just as I'd imagined
- seems I've pronounced "Lyta" wrong alll this time, but in my defense, I was using the pronounciation as given in Babylon 5, where it's "Leeeta", not "Lieta"
- making Lyta Rose Walker's friend and Hector not the replacement Sandman (instead, Jed is) but letting him owe his post-mortem existence in Lyta's dreams courtesy of her proximity to Rose the Vortex also means Rose in addition to her own role replaces Carla, while Lyta replaces Rose's mother Miranda (who instead is already dead) in terms of going with Rose to England (and back) and living with her; given Lyta's importance to the overall story (and the general attempt to eliminate any mention of non-Sandman DC characters) I can see why the changes were made
- I note that instead of two abusive foster parents, Jed has an abusive foster dad and a downtrodden and also abused foster mom
- changing the two comic - and parasitic - nightmares who in the novel have separated Jed from the Dreaming and provided him with the superhero scenario so they can use him to remain hidden from Morpheus to one compassionate nightmare who wants to change into a different kind of dream and actually has created this scenario for Jed as an escape from his waking hell fits with the question of whether or not it's possible for people (in dreams and reality) to change, which is central to the saga
- courtesy of the Corinthian, the other Endless are name dropped far earlier than they were in the comics, and "the Prodigal" (i.e. Destruction) and his absence are - are alluded to as early as episode 2 when Lucienne points out to Dream that it wouldn't have been the first time that one of the Endless left their realm and duties behind , but Desire doesn't show up earlier than mid season, and so far, there's only one change in terms of Desire's storyline, which is that they claim responsibility for Roderick Burgess capturing Dream (not sure that works) when talking to Despair
- the beefing up of the Corinthian's role (and John Dee's) as long term antagonists in this season strikes me as also being done to provide the originally very episodic quest stories with more continuing storylines, and at a guess, they'll do that with Lucifer and Desire as well next season, because next up for adaption is a collection of short stories, and then Seasons of Mist
- the Serial Killer Convention satire/black humor still works (I was wondering whether it would), with only minor updating (i.e. the undercover journalist is now an undercover blogger)
- Rose made her debut in the 24/7 episode as a cameo on the phone when Judy is talking to her - because of the different technology as compared to a 1980s phone booth, we literally see her on the phone; since all the Donna mentions by Judy are in the tv episode, I'm assuming we'll meet Foxglove and Hazel as scheduled, but I do wonder whether Hal's announcement in the season finale about wanting to move to New York (not Los Angeles) means he'll replace Wanda once A Game of You gets adapted?
- I'm changing my guesses to which characters will most benefit from new fanfic courtesy to the tv adaption by adding Hob Gadling to the "will new get way more stories" column; the actor was excellent, and has great chemistry with Dream.
- the first time I heard the tv version would let Dream escape in our present instead of the 1980s, I thought "but what about Alex Burgess?" and a bit later "what about Unity Kincaid?", because it does make a difference whether we're talking about ca. 70 skipped years or over a hundred, and I was afraid either or both characters would be replaced by descendants, but no: they're both just really long lived
- while Ethel Cripps buys herself additional life time when trading all of Dream's stuff for magical protection; I must say Ethel is a character who really got a life of her own in this tv version when in the comics she was just a plot device, and I loved what the series did with her
- and yay, poor Alex made it into tv land, was in fact central to the first episode, the three actors playing him were very sympathetic, and I was v.v. impressed by the show coming up with the Jessamy the Raven story as an additional reason why Alex doesn't dare to release Dream once his father is dead
- yay, Paul made the tv cut as well, and I hope we get some more of him once the tv show reaches The Kindly Ones
- I note Alex gets "eternal sleep" instead of "eternal awakening" as a punishment; this makes Dream look less cruel/terrible, but he's about to do dickish things elsewhere and also non stop psychic torture for the next few years not being on the menu is something of a relief
- the Jessamy the Raven addendum also does excellent things for Dream's characterisation, sets up his relationship with Matthew, and gives them (Matthew and Morpheus) an emotional arc that's the exact parallel/flipside of Matthew and Daniel in The Wake
- changing the Dream/Choranzon duel to a Dream/Lucifer one (because Choranzon chooses Lucifer as his champion) was inspired; generally I thought Gwendolin Christie does an excellent job with Lucifer, and this was when Tom Sturridge won me over to his version of Morpheus, because these two did manage to signal they know each other pretty well and Dream is very aware Lucifer is going to mindmess with him
- I have no idea, though, whether viewers who haven't read the comics will get the reason that Nada sees Dream not in Sturridge shape but as a black man is that whoever looks at the Endless sees them reflecting the viewer's expectation, as opposed to Morpheus shape-changing for Nada's benefit
- given that Matthew gets a brief explanation for the interaction with Nada from Morpheus, does that mean we don't get the proper flashback (which isn't in the later half of the season when it covers the Doll's House material), or just that it's shifted to when the tv series covers Seasons of Mist? Would make thematic sense, of course?
- speaking of flashbacks, I was wondering in the The Sound of her Wings episode what they were going to fill the rest of the ep with once the titular story was over, and lo, it was filled with Men of Good Fortune, aka the Hob Gadling saga
- in which the necessity - since Dream no longer frees himself in the 1980s, he can't keep his appointment with Hob - becomes a benefit, because Dream having to find Hob out of appointed date in the Waking World underlines how invested he is in this relationship and is an even better pay off to the 19th century set up (when they argue) than the comics offered
- Johanna Constantine in two versions instead of just one
- the Corinthian, who isn't at all in Preludes and Nocturnes, though Gaiman did include hi in the Sandman prequel Overture gets a far larger role through the season, being introduced in the pilot already instead of mid season and being given a motivation to not just run from Morpheus but actively work against hm as Dream is in the process of dealing with him when captured himself by Roderick Burgess in the opener; the tv series lets the Corinthian provide Roderick Burgess (and the audience) with the necessary information of how to keep Dream captive and who the Endless are, later try to find out from Ethel Cripps where the tools of power are, and still later try to use Rose Walker as the Vortex against him
- Lucienne not only has more to do than Lucien but also gets an emotional arc of her own with Dream in the second half of the season
- since 24/7 is the darkest horror Neil Gaiman has ever written, I was not looking forward to a filmed version; while some of the gore was reduced (no cannibalism), the emotional horror of what John Dee does to the people in the diner comes across just as viscerally in the episode, though I note that Beth - the writer - gets the chance by the narrative to realize what he's doing (though she's unable to stop him), and later during the intervals when he lets everyone regain their conciousness and realize what they've done to not only do that but reply to him as well
- now I have listened to and appreciated the Audible version of Sandman (so far) as well, but I thought there Kat Dennings' Death was too one note on the flippancy, whereas the tv version's Death manages the boundless compassion as well as the humor, and the interaction with Dream is just as I'd imagined
- seems I've pronounced "Lyta" wrong alll this time, but in my defense, I was using the pronounciation as given in Babylon 5, where it's "Leeeta", not "Lieta"
- making Lyta Rose Walker's friend and Hector not the replacement Sandman (instead, Jed is) but letting him owe his post-mortem existence in Lyta's dreams courtesy of her proximity to Rose the Vortex also means Rose in addition to her own role replaces Carla, while Lyta replaces Rose's mother Miranda (who instead is already dead) in terms of going with Rose to England (and back) and living with her; given Lyta's importance to the overall story (and the general attempt to eliminate any mention of non-Sandman DC characters) I can see why the changes were made
- I note that instead of two abusive foster parents, Jed has an abusive foster dad and a downtrodden and also abused foster mom
- changing the two comic - and parasitic - nightmares who in the novel have separated Jed from the Dreaming and provided him with the superhero scenario so they can use him to remain hidden from Morpheus to one compassionate nightmare who wants to change into a different kind of dream and actually has created this scenario for Jed as an escape from his waking hell fits with the question of whether or not it's possible for people (in dreams and reality) to change, which is central to the saga
- courtesy of the Corinthian, the other Endless are name dropped far earlier than they were in the comics, and "the Prodigal" (i.e. Destruction) and his absence are - are alluded to as early as episode 2 when Lucienne points out to Dream that it wouldn't have been the first time that one of the Endless left their realm and duties behind , but Desire doesn't show up earlier than mid season, and so far, there's only one change in terms of Desire's storyline, which is that they claim responsibility for Roderick Burgess capturing Dream (not sure that works) when talking to Despair
- the beefing up of the Corinthian's role (and John Dee's) as long term antagonists in this season strikes me as also being done to provide the originally very episodic quest stories with more continuing storylines, and at a guess, they'll do that with Lucifer and Desire as well next season, because next up for adaption is a collection of short stories, and then Seasons of Mist
- the Serial Killer Convention satire/black humor still works (I was wondering whether it would), with only minor updating (i.e. the undercover journalist is now an undercover blogger)
- Rose made her debut in the 24/7 episode as a cameo on the phone when Judy is talking to her - because of the different technology as compared to a 1980s phone booth, we literally see her on the phone; since all the Donna mentions by Judy are in the tv episode, I'm assuming we'll meet Foxglove and Hazel as scheduled, but I do wonder whether Hal's announcement in the season finale about wanting to move to New York (not Los Angeles) means he'll replace Wanda once A Game of You gets adapted?
- I'm changing my guesses to which characters will most benefit from new fanfic courtesy to the tv adaption by adding Hob Gadling to the "will new get way more stories" column; the actor was excellent, and has great chemistry with Dream.
no subject
Speaking as someone who has not read the comics and didn't know anything about the story save for the few things you mentioned elsewhere, I did indeed not quite get that - the seeing him different instead of shape-changing, yes, but not the reason behind it. Also because it's the one and only time it happens for any of the Endless we've met so far, so there's no context to suggest this specific interpretation.
I was quite warned for "24/7" and admit that I fast-forwarded through the couple minutes of gore towards the end, but mostly because I don't like gore in general and felt like the jump into "self"-mutilation was quite abrupt and non-sensical from John Dee, as opposed to the development until that point. The lead-up was tense yet fascinating (and a good bottle episode), but I actually found the car ride with Rosemary in the previous episode more stressful to watch. Same goes for Jed's scenes later on. Probably because both of these weren't as OTT with the horror. That said, David Thewlis was great in the role.
I also really liked some of the supporting characters - Lucienne and Rose! - whereas Morpheus himself was a bit one-note with the brooding and taking himself so very seriously. Which is why I was glad to at least get other people as a bit of a corrective - Death, Lucienne, even Hob - and liked the outcome of the final episode, which suggests that he might get better in that regard.
Speaking of Death, though, one thing I couldn't figure out: if she cares so much about him and knew where he was, why didn't she help him? He said it himself in an earlier episode, not one of his siblings saw fit to help and I have a hard time reconciling that with her kindness. I can only surmise that there's a bigger order somehow, but as it was, the incongruence between her "you don't have to do everything alone" and not helping him while he was captured irked me.
Oh, and one other thing: why did Morpheus place so much of his power in the ruby in the first place? Seemed unnecessarily risky.
the Serial Killer Convention satire/black humor still works
Hmm. Not for me? I don't know, but I found that very uncomfortable to watch and the satire did not land for me in the serial killer context.
Something I really liked was the individuality of the three missing dreams (less emphasis on the Corinthian and more on the other two would have been nice, but I guess the story wanted the villain) and the very different motivations and outcomes of their stories and how those connected to the role of humanity in relation to the Endless. Also, since I had no idea what Fiddler's Green actually meant, the reveal was lovely, as was Gold standing up for herself and her own dream when faced with Morpheus.
no subject
To be fair, it's the same with the comics. In volume 3 (i.e. next season, so far they've adapted two volumes for one season) there's a story where all the characters, including the pov character, are cats, and our heroine meets Dream - who looks, of course, like a big black cat to her. At which point it was obvious Nada seeing him as a man of her own people wasn't a fluke. Back when the casting for this seriese was announced, there were some racists grumbling about Death not being white, and the rest of us rolled our eyes because insisting on one particular ethnicity as the only possible one is missing a big point about the Endless.
"Can Morpheus change, and if he can, how much?" is one of the, if not THE big arc question of the entire saga, so... there'll be more on the topic.
Speaking of Death, though, one thing I couldn't figure out: if she cares so much about him and knew where he was, why didn't she help him?
I think this is the Sandman equivalent of "why didn't the Eagles fly the Ring to Mordor?", since it was asked during the original publication back in the late 80s already, with people saying that Death when taking Roderick Burgess at the latest would have witnessed Dream's imprisonment. To which a young Neil Gaiman replied "the Endless aren't the Justice League", that they all probably noticed he was captured directly after it happened, but that they wouldn't come to the rescue unless specifically asked. And he didn't ask.
I notice older Neil Gaiman put that observation (that they didn't help him) into Morpheus' mouth (it's not in the original comics), so maybe that lampshading indicates that the tv show will offer some additional reasons why Death didn't try to help him. There's a up and coming story called "Calliope" which pretty much has to be among the material adopted next season, because it provides some important long term information. Now, the titular heroine is not one of the Endless, she's one of the nine muses (yes, the original ones from Greek mythology), who got captured by a mortal writer, but since she has a connection to Morpheus, possibly similar things apply. The problem is that the magic used to capture Calliope was the correct, one, according to the old rites, and so she can't free herself or be freed by force. However, as we see in that same story, there's nothing preventing one of the Endless to use their power to put non-violent pressure on the human captor in order to affect a release. This is actually easier for Endless like Dream, Desire, Despair or Delirium to do, since what they embody is the product of human minds and emotion. Death, otoh - well, she brings people into the world and she takes them out of it, but not by her decision. (I.e. the taking them.) Her deciding to not take Hob Gadling as a gift for Dream is something she can do, and later in the saga we'll see that in ancient Greece, she already did that for someone else, and it had a really bad long term result for that someone else. I don't imagine she's doing it often. Anyway, short of giving Roderick Burgess what he wanted, she could only have talked to him (or later to Alex). Why she didn't try that is something for which as of now the explanation from the comics is: Because Dream didn't ask.
(Mind you: there's a Sandman story where he gets unasked for help by a sibling. But not Death. And the sibling in question has to trick him into it. The Endless are easily a match for the Hohenzollern in dysfunctionality, is what I'm saying.)
Hmm. Not for me? I don't know, but I found that very uncomfortable to watch and the satire did not land for me in the serial killer context.
Different strokes for different people, I guess. When I started to read the comics, in the early 90s, and came across A Doll's House, I had just been to FedCon, and it had me in stitches.
Something I really liked was the individuality of the three missing dreams
That was neat. Re: emphasis, the Corinthian doesn't show up in the first volume (i.e. the story up to and including episode 6) at all, they beefed his role up for the tv version, while Gilbert/Fiddler's Green has a somewhat larger role not least because Lyta isn't Rose's friend in the comics, so his role as Rose's friend and confidant is correspondingly larger. Gold is a completely new creation for the tv series, presumably for the same reason Lyta's origins and storyline got changed. Early Sandman being a new series, Neil Gaiman used a lot of minor DC characters from already established comics (presumably to win readers over, remember, this is the series that made his name, so it was a very different position to now). These included Lyta and Hector Hall - both second generation legacy heroes in older DC comics (Lyta actually has two backstories; she's either Wonder Woman's daughter, or that of a different comic book heroine code named Fury) - and the two missing nightmares who were separating Jed from the Dreaming. In the comics, they were pure parasites, and not very memorable. Since the tv series generally seems to follow a policy of not using pre Gaiman DC characters (I bet the copyright situation is a nightmare), it made sense and was more emotionally effective to replace the two minor cartoon villains by a sympathetic new character, especially since the question of how much people can change, as mentioned, really is crucial for The Sandman.
no subject
Hee. To be fair, that question never occurred to me during LOTR and I don't think the whole thing would have bothered me as much here either if the show hadn't, as you said, lampshaded it itself! I'm wondering if Gaiman put that in because he got asked one time too many, but to keep a potential follow-up for later seasons seems counterintuitive. (Relatedly, I just googled, and apparently a second season isn't officially confirmed yet. Netflix waiting to see how the first performs or what.)
as of now the explanation from the comics is: Because Dream didn't ask.
Lucienne: Tell me about it.