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selenakWhen I heard that there was a Sandman Bonus episode based on the two comics stories Dream of 1000 Cats and Calliope, I may or may not have squeed out loud. Now, Netflix put it online, and I am one happy fan, the darkness of one of the two stories not withstanding. Both are only standalones on first sight but really continuity important if you know the entire saga.
Since the cat story really is a cat story, meaning nearly everyone in it is a cat, I must admit I was curious whether or not the tv version would find a way to do it. I mean, a talking raven is one thing, but talking live action cats can come across as uncanny valley or goofy pretty fast. So I'm happy to report the tv show decided to do this one in animation. I'm no expert, but to me the result looked fine, and the cats pleasingly like felines, not with too large eyes or with a body language like dogs (true for many a Disney animal, even horses, looking at you, Maximus). The prophetess was voiced by Sandra Oh, and Neil Gaiman had a creator cameo by voicing the skeleton crow in the Dreaming. The key encounter between the Siamese cat and the Cat of Dreams - which hammers home that Dream really does not have a definite shape but takes his look from whoever is the beholder - really works, but what makes or breaks this particular story, imo, is the final scene, where the panel from the comics is translated into animation beautifully, she says cryptically, because that one really needs to be watched utterly unspoiled, so that you will never watch your own cat the same way again. *veg*
Calliope surprised me by using Derek Jacobi as Erasmus Fry (small part, big impact - Jacobi isn't whom I imagined at all, but he is really good in a way that reminds me of his performance in Utopia (after a certain transformation scene) and Arthur Darvil, Rory himself, as Richard Madoc (also not at all whom I had imagined, but I salute the show for going against type here, because part of the point is that the Richard Madocs of this world aren't signalling "creep" from the get go but can come across as completely harmless at first. Calliope is played by an actress whom I haven't seen before (at least not that I recall), and she offers a steely dignity along with the suffering. It also helps that without changing the plot, the tv version gives her more agenda. It also gives her clothes throughout, which is probably a smart thing since the remark a young Gaiman wrote to his illustrator of how Calliope's nudity should not come across as tiltillating but should evoke concentration camp survivors instead is hard to do on film if you don't want to use special effects or make the actress starve herself. Even more important are the small additions and changes - in the tv version, Richard Madoc doesn't rape her practically as soon as he "gets" her from Fry, he says "I have to think" - which underlines the Fry/Roderick Burgess, Madoc/Alex Burgess parallels in ways that hadn't occured to me before, to which Calliope has a short, eviscarating and to the point reply, as she has for his other attempts to prettify what he's about to do by "wooing presents". And she has a counter offer - at the start (i.e. before he rapes her): if he frees her and then asks her for inspiration, then we'll see. But she won't give anything out of her own free will as long as she's a captive. But Richard Madoc, like Alex, despite starting out with awareness of how wrong this captivity is doesn't have the courage to act on it and risk releasing his captive and thus only becomes guilty himself.
(Of course, Richard M. is worse than Alex Burgess in both the physical force he uses and the fact that tv!Alex does not ask for anything but a guarantee Dream won't attack him or Paul while Madoc keeps acting like a parasite in his inspiration demands, and their final fates are correspondingly different.)
The rape itself isn't depicted, it's just clear it will happen the moment Madoc rises from his chair (we then cut to him finally getting in the writing flow, becoming successful etc.). His later sulking "can't you be happy about our success?" and other attempts to prettify what he's doing are shot down by Calliope every time, and once it's over, the episode gives her a different reply to Dream's question what she will do now. (Attempt to change the supernatural laws so no one will be bound the way she was again.)
There are a couple of writers depicted in Sandman, notably Shakespare three times, in three different stories, but Richard Madoc (and Erasmus Fry) certainly count as the darkest, most repellent variations, which in a saga about storytelling, the power of storytelling, results in one of those times where you can see Dream use the power of imagination actively to punish someone. But the main reason why this particular story is so continuity relevant is of course the reveal that Calliope and Morpheus had a son together, and who that son is. In the comics version, he's not directly named, though if you know your myths you know whom the Three-in-One are talking about even before the Morpheus/Orpheus echo in the final panel; the tv version doesn't beat around the bush and names him directly from the time the Kindly Ones bring him up. Since the fate of Orpheus, and Dream's contribution to it, is absolutely instrumental to the last third of the entire saga, I can understand why Calliope was filmed despite the first season not offering any room for it. (I wonder whether they filmed Calliope's scenes in Orpheus and The Wake as well just in case so they won't have to bring back the actress for what are essentially cameo appearances?) And I'm really curious who will play Orpheus if and when - *fingers crossing* - the tv version reaches the point where he starts showing up; which might be as early as next season, if Thermidor, aka the French Revolution era Lady Johanna Constantine adventure, is done as an episode.
So that was a good way to end the week, and I'm now more hoping than ever for a next season confirmation.
Since the cat story really is a cat story, meaning nearly everyone in it is a cat, I must admit I was curious whether or not the tv version would find a way to do it. I mean, a talking raven is one thing, but talking live action cats can come across as uncanny valley or goofy pretty fast. So I'm happy to report the tv show decided to do this one in animation. I'm no expert, but to me the result looked fine, and the cats pleasingly like felines, not with too large eyes or with a body language like dogs (true for many a Disney animal, even horses, looking at you, Maximus). The prophetess was voiced by Sandra Oh, and Neil Gaiman had a creator cameo by voicing the skeleton crow in the Dreaming. The key encounter between the Siamese cat and the Cat of Dreams - which hammers home that Dream really does not have a definite shape but takes his look from whoever is the beholder - really works, but what makes or breaks this particular story, imo, is the final scene, where the panel from the comics is translated into animation beautifully, she says cryptically, because that one really needs to be watched utterly unspoiled, so that you will never watch your own cat the same way again. *veg*
Calliope surprised me by using Derek Jacobi as Erasmus Fry (small part, big impact - Jacobi isn't whom I imagined at all, but he is really good in a way that reminds me of his performance in Utopia (after a certain transformation scene) and Arthur Darvil, Rory himself, as Richard Madoc (also not at all whom I had imagined, but I salute the show for going against type here, because part of the point is that the Richard Madocs of this world aren't signalling "creep" from the get go but can come across as completely harmless at first. Calliope is played by an actress whom I haven't seen before (at least not that I recall), and she offers a steely dignity along with the suffering. It also helps that without changing the plot, the tv version gives her more agenda. It also gives her clothes throughout, which is probably a smart thing since the remark a young Gaiman wrote to his illustrator of how Calliope's nudity should not come across as tiltillating but should evoke concentration camp survivors instead is hard to do on film if you don't want to use special effects or make the actress starve herself. Even more important are the small additions and changes - in the tv version, Richard Madoc doesn't rape her practically as soon as he "gets" her from Fry, he says "I have to think" - which underlines the Fry/Roderick Burgess, Madoc/Alex Burgess parallels in ways that hadn't occured to me before, to which Calliope has a short, eviscarating and to the point reply, as she has for his other attempts to prettify what he's about to do by "wooing presents". And she has a counter offer - at the start (i.e. before he rapes her): if he frees her and then asks her for inspiration, then we'll see. But she won't give anything out of her own free will as long as she's a captive. But Richard Madoc, like Alex, despite starting out with awareness of how wrong this captivity is doesn't have the courage to act on it and risk releasing his captive and thus only becomes guilty himself.
(Of course, Richard M. is worse than Alex Burgess in both the physical force he uses and the fact that tv!Alex does not ask for anything but a guarantee Dream won't attack him or Paul while Madoc keeps acting like a parasite in his inspiration demands, and their final fates are correspondingly different.)
The rape itself isn't depicted, it's just clear it will happen the moment Madoc rises from his chair (we then cut to him finally getting in the writing flow, becoming successful etc.). His later sulking "can't you be happy about our success?" and other attempts to prettify what he's doing are shot down by Calliope every time, and once it's over, the episode gives her a different reply to Dream's question what she will do now. (Attempt to change the supernatural laws so no one will be bound the way she was again.)
There are a couple of writers depicted in Sandman, notably Shakespare three times, in three different stories, but Richard Madoc (and Erasmus Fry) certainly count as the darkest, most repellent variations, which in a saga about storytelling, the power of storytelling, results in one of those times where you can see Dream use the power of imagination actively to punish someone. But the main reason why this particular story is so continuity relevant is of course the reveal that Calliope and Morpheus had a son together, and who that son is. In the comics version, he's not directly named, though if you know your myths you know whom the Three-in-One are talking about even before the Morpheus/Orpheus echo in the final panel; the tv version doesn't beat around the bush and names him directly from the time the Kindly Ones bring him up. Since the fate of Orpheus, and Dream's contribution to it, is absolutely instrumental to the last third of the entire saga, I can understand why Calliope was filmed despite the first season not offering any room for it. (I wonder whether they filmed Calliope's scenes in Orpheus and The Wake as well just in case so they won't have to bring back the actress for what are essentially cameo appearances?) And I'm really curious who will play Orpheus if and when - *fingers crossing* - the tv version reaches the point where he starts showing up; which might be as early as next season, if Thermidor, aka the French Revolution era Lady Johanna Constantine adventure, is done as an episode.
So that was a good way to end the week, and I'm now more hoping than ever for a next season confirmation.
