The Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s The Sandman is a fascinating study of humanity, divinity and growth. In short, The Sandman is the best debuting tv show of the year.
On the surface, the premise of the season is rather simple. Dream, the god of dreams and nightmares, is captured by humans and sequestered away from his realm for 100 years. He eventually breaks free. He discovers several objects containing his full power have been stolen from him and goes on a journey to retrieve them.
The Sandman has one of the most impressive casts of any Netflix show. Even actors like Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who appears in just one episode as Death, leave an indelible mark on the series. In addition to Howell-Baptiste, the other standout guest performances in the series belong to Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne and Vanesu Samunyai as Rose Walker.
The performances and writing in each are excellent, so much so that you could see each episode serving as a setting for an entire series. There are some promising storylines that seem poise to continue on, but don’t really go anywhere. For example, The Sound of Her Wings, the best episode of the series, features a character, Death, granting eternal life to a human after making a bet with Dream. Dream believes the man will beg for death. Dream spends the bulk of episodes visiting the man every 100 years. Everything about it is wonderful. I just wish the story lead somewhere as the events in that episode really don’t seem to have much of an impact on Dream’s decisions.
Tom Sturridge pulls off a great brooding Bruce Wayne performance as Dream. A character who can be obstinate and shows very little emotion. Luckily, every episode pairs him up with characters who are led by their emotions. The push-pull between these two character types really allows the slow-burning series to build.
The Sandman is at its most interesting when Dream acquires his full power once again. He’s just as miserable but in a different way.
On the downward side of things, The Sandman doesn’t hold your hand at first, which really worked for me, but could be inaccessible for others. The series does provide explanations, but not right away and rewards paying attention to the smallest details. Gwendoline Christie was an inspired choice as Lucifer. However, while her performance is good, I found her performance to be the weakest of any guest star. Patton Oswalt lending his voice to a talking bird did take me out of it from time to time, but Oswalt certainly has some strong moments as well. Honestly, these are small nitpicks in an otherwise fantastic series.
Gaiman, David S. Goyer and Allen Heinberg did an outstanding job of building this unique world. Obviously, you can do another season, but you can also do spinoffs involving Dream’s other siblings and their views of humanity.
With the overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the dreams and nightmares that stood out in The Sandman. There may be some minor spoilers. The Sandman is available to stream on Netflix.
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The Best Episode of The Sandman: The Sound of her Wings
The 6th episode of the season is a turning point for Dream. He finally has all of his items and power restored but is in a malaise over what to do next. His world is still in ruins as many of his dreams and nightmares have scampered away. Add in being captured for 100 years and he’s less than sentimental about humanity. He’s not outright hostile though.
The Sound of Her Wings opens with Death sitting on a bench until his sister, Death stops by. As thankless as his job appears to be, Death’s role is far darker. When a person dies, she is the last being a person sees before they pass on. Dream gets to observe Death on a few of these appointments. There was a point in time when Death felt lonely, but eventually, she figured out she’s not alone. She has the responsibility of partnering with all of these people.
Howell-Baptiste is sensational. Death is full of empathy for humanity and quite fond of her younger brother, Dream. Death’s take your brother to work day only takes up half the episode.
The episode flashes back to the 1300s. Death introduces Dream to a human named Hob Gadling in a tavern. Gadling boasts he will be the first human to live forever. Dream believes a long human life would be a curse, not a blessing. He makes a deal with Death. In 100 years, Gadling will want to die. Death grants Gadling’s wish for immortality, which Dream relays to Gadling.
Every 100 years Gadling and Dream will meet. Gadling will tell Dream about what had changed over the last 100 years. They meet every 100 years and we get to see each meeting until 1989 when Dream was imprisoned. Throughout the centuries, Gadling has run the gamut from rich to poor, children dying, slavery and much more. In spite of everything, his will to live never dies. The Sound of Her Wings ends with Dream and Gadling reconnecting in the present day.
A perfect episode of television. Equal parts sadness and hope, which is kind of what the best dreams are made of.
Changing Dreams into Nightmares
In addition to searching for his stolen objects, Dream is trying to track down two lost nightmares and one dream who are interacting with humanity in the waking world. These three beings represent the statuses that dreams and nightmares can take on.
The Corinthian is the biggest antagonist working against Dream in the living world. He’s supposed to help humanity give in to inhibitions in the dream world. However, he has actually been carrying out this task in the waking world and feeding off their inhibitions. His work has led to the rise of serial killers to the point that a Cereal Convention is held at a hotel. Holbrook is tremendous, charismatic and terrifying at times. The Corinthian represents the worst aspects of a Nightmare in the living world.
Gault is the other nightmare who fled the dream realm. She’s different than The Corinthian. Gault is fed up with fulfilling her role as a nightmare and decides to become a dream in the waking world. She tries to help a young boy become a superhero called The Sandman in his dreams. Dream eventually catches her and proclaims everyone has a role to play. Even he, the god of dreams has strict guidelines he must adhere to and he imprisons her.
The escaped dream is Fiddler’s Green. Played in a jovial fashion by Stephen Fry, he protects Rose Walker on earth and reports back to Lucienne as well as Dream. Unlike the two nightmares, Fiddler’s Green is a beautiful place people dream of, not an entity. He represents dreams at their best. It’s actually Fiddler’s Green who gets through to Dream.
These three escapees help Dream realize that even dreams and nightmares need to change alongside of humanity.
Dream Vortex
The Doll’s House (episode 7) introduces another new character who has a tremendous impact on the series. Rose Walker, a seemingly ordinary human is actually a Dream Vortex. A phenomenon that randomly occurs every few hundred years. Essentially, the phenomenon gives a human the ability to interact and travel into a person’s dreams. Basically, she has the same powers as Dream, but could destroy both the waking world and the dream realm.
Rose isn’t particularly interested in that though. She was separated from her brother after her parents’ divorced. After her mother’s untimely passing, she is trying everything to find her brother who is with a different family. She isn’t alone though. Lyta Hall was a friend of her mother’s and is accompanying Rose overseas. Rose meets her great-grandmother who until recently had been asleep since Dream’s imprisonment. Lyta is grief-stricken over the loss of her husband months prior.
She keeps having vivid dreams of her husband, which appear to be caused by Rose. Lyta even becomes pregnant during a dream, which manifests itself in the real world. Dream catches up with Rose. At first, he helps Rose try to locate her brother by traveling through dreams. It’s a ruse though. He’s using her ability to get to Gault.
Her power forces Dream into a dilemma. He’s convinced he must kill Rose since she is the Vortex. In the end, the interaction with Rose forces Dream to change just a bit.
The Sandman Final Thoughts
From beginning to end, The Sandman is a fascinating exploration of humanity. The series starts out showing the worst in humanity through Roderick Burgess and John Dee played to subtle perfection by David Thewlis. Then proceeds to show the best of them with Hob Gadling and Rose Walker. Imperfect, yet beautiful and full of hope.
Here’s hoping Netflix greenlights a season two ASAP.
The Review
The Sandman
PROS
- Fantastic casting across the board. Kirby Howell-Baptiste is a revelation as Death.
- The Sound of her Wings is the best episode of television this year. Sad, moving and full of hope.
- The exploration of humanity from good to evil is outstanding.
- Can dreams, nightmares, deities and human beings alter the path they were created for?
CONS
- The exploration of hell was the weakest aspect of the series.
- Patton Oswalt as a talking bird took me out of some scenes, but also added interesting layers at times.
