Preludes & Nocturnes and The Doll's House, the first two issues of The Sandman's comic book series, are adapted for the first series of this Netflix adaptation. The universe becomes unbalanced after Dream is imprisoned for more than a century, and the King must restore order to his realm.
The programme has been created with Morpheus/Dream (Tom Sturridge) as the common thread even though The Sandman is a story about stories and the comics may be read independently.
Sir Roderick Burgess, an occultist played by Charles Dance, imprisons Dream in 1916, shattering the fabric of the world because "if dreams go, so will humanity." People all around the world are afflicted by a sleeping disease as the dream realm burns to the ground. In addition to this, Gault (Ann Ogbomo), one of Gault's nightmares, escapes.
After escaping, Dream must find his tools—the helm, the ruby, and the sand—and correct the dream world so that everything is as it should be in the waking world. His journey leads him to hell, where he spars with Lucifer Morningstar (Gwendoline Christie). He also meets some of his siblings, including, Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), and Despair (Donna Preston).
When Morpheus was captured, Unity Kinkaid (Sandra James-Young) dozed off; she awoke when he escaped a century later. She gives birth while she is sleeping, and when she awakens she searches for her great-grandchildren Rose (Kyo Ra) and Jed (Eddie Karanja). Unfortunately, Rose is also being sought after by The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), a serial murderer who has a penchant for ripping out and devouring his victims' eyes. Dream is searching for Rose since she is the world-creating and -destroying Vortex.
The Sandman contains plenty of blood and terrible brutality, but it also has humour and insight. It is quite amusing to see the arguments between the Biblical brothers Cain (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and Abel (Asim Chaudhry). Who are arguing about matters like the names of gargoyles ("they always start with 'G'").
The cast is outstanding, with Sturridge taking centre stage as Dream, who starts out cold and distant but softens and humanises throughout the course of the show. The librarian Lucienne, played by Vivienne Acheampong, serves as a capable deputy to the Lord of Dreams, and Patton Oswalt plays Matthew.
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In addition to portraying her 18th-century avatar, who tries to mug Dream and Gadlin at one of their century meetings, Jenna Coleman plays detective Johanna Constantine. In the Dreaming, Fiddler's Green is portrayed by Stephen Fry while Pumpkinhead is voiced by Mark Hamill.
Even though the show has been updated and perfectly cast, Gaiman's language and writing is still as strong as ever. It’s also a nice touch that each episode is named as a book chapter. There was a lot to like about this first season. The cast work well together and it was a lot of fun to watch.
This first season was an adaptation of the first two volumes. Therefore as there are another eight to be developed, we can hope that there is a lot more excitement and entertainment to come from this show.
Performance | 4.7/5 |
Enjoyment | 4.8/5 |
Overall Rating | 4.8/5 |