The Sandman Review: The Sandman is the latest fantasy drama series released by Netflix on 5 August 2022. The series is based on Neil Gaiman’s comic book series from 1989–1996, published by DC Comics. It is developed by Gaiman, David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg. Produced by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
Its long list of the cast includes Tom Sturridge, Boyd Holbrook, Patton Oswalt, Vivienne Acheampong, Gwendoline Christie, Charles Dance, Jenna Coleman, David Thewlis, Stephen Fry, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Vanesu Samunyai, John Cameron Mitchell, Asim Chaudhry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Joely Richardson, Niamh Walsh, Sandra James-Young and Razane Jammal.
There are 10 episodes in the series with a runtime of about 38-54 minutes respectively. It follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic and human mistakes he’s made during his vast existence.
-No Spoilers-
The Sandman Review
The series starts off with our lead introducing us to his kingdom. He distinguishes the real world as the waking world and shows that there is another world that waits for all of us when we close our eyes and sleep — a place called the Dreaming, where The Sandman, Master of Dreams (Tom Sturridge), gives shape to all of our deepest fears and fantasies.
It then takes us to the year 1916 in Wych Cross, England, where a man named Jon Hathaway knocks on an oddly looking manor. It belongs to Rodrick Burgess, who likes to be called Magus. Jon had brought him ‘Magdalene Grimoire’ from the museum, which contains all the black magic spells used in occult ceremonies.
The purpose of it was to use the spell from the book and trap the angel of death. So that Jon and Magus could ask the angel to give them their dead sons back, whom they lost in the war. But Magus and his Order of Ancient Mysteries accidentally summoned Dream while trying to summon and imprison Death.
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They take away his sand pouch, the ruby and the helm, which makes Dream completely powerless, trapped inside a crystal prison surrounded by the enchantment circle, in the basement of the manor. Burgess hoped Dream could be coerced into setting up a trap for his sister, Death, but he refused to speak to him till his death.
His imprisonment led to worldwide problems. Some people slept forever, while others couldn’t sleep or experienced waking to frightful dreams. Alex Burgess took over as Dream’s captor after his father’s death, and he too attempted to negotiate with Dream, till his old age to no avail.
Until one day, when his wheelchair scuffed the binding circle, breaking the enchantment that prevented Dream from entering the minds of mortals. One of his guards fell asleep on duty, allowing him to tap into the power of dreams and make his escape from his crystal prison.
On breaking free, he gave Alex the curse of eternal sleep and somehow reached his dreaming realm. From then on starts his quest to find his tools – the pouch, ruby and the helm, which were stolen by Magus’s mistress, Ethel Cripps, who ran away.
To restore order, Dream must journey across different worlds and timelines to mend the damage that has occurred in his absence, revisiting old friends and foes, and meeting new entities both cosmic and human along the way.
In his search, he encounters Constantine & her ex-lover, has to fight Lucifer Morningstar in hell and gets his ruby back from the Cripps family. We even get to see how Dream lived throughout the centuries, making friends with humans like Hob Gadling or Will Shaxberd, etc.
But once the world order is restored, another problem in the form of escaped subjects (dreams & nightmares) from the Dreaming and the rare appearance of a Dream Vortex takes place. A vortex is someone who can travel through other people’s dreams and is powerful enough to take Dream’s place.
Therefore, Morpheus has to destroy the vortex before she takes down all the walls between the realms, leading the world to chaos & destruction. But it’s not as easy when his own siblings, Desire & Despair, are always conspiring to bring him down, and you can’t leave out Corinthians, the runaway subject killing people in the real world and creating problems for his creator.
Summing Up
The series fairly stays true to the plot of the original comic, as the creator is also a big part of this production. If you are familiar with the comic series, then you would instantly realise that the series is a compilation of Preludes & Nocturnes till episode 6 and then follows the plot of The Doll House after that.
There are a few tweaks, obviously, like gender swapping of John Constantine and Lucifer Morningstar characters, introducing Corinthians much earlier than it was in the comics and killing/altering some minor characters. The creators definitely tried to create a storyline that transitions smoothly without confusing the audience with various timelines.
And the characters of Magus, Corinthians and John Dee are definitely commendable, owing that they are played by some seasoned actors. However, the series seems to slow down a bit in the last few episodes and might not hold the audience till the end. I believe the series could have been till episode 6 and made into another season that explored The Doll House more grippingly.
The performances by Magus and John Dee in the first 6 episodes enthral the audience, but the following episodes do not compensate for their absence with equally strong antagonists/drama. The role of Desire could have been more explored & made more interesting, rather than some 5-minute cameo.
Also, if you are completely new to the series and the concept, then it might be quite confusing with the introduction of loads of characters and bidding them goodbye without getting to know them. The numerous timelines and backstories of characters that aren’t explained well seem like they would make sense in the end, but they won’t, unless you read up about it.
The Sandman is streaming on Netflix.
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