There is a point middle of episode six of Netflix‘S Sand sellers—The most successful segment of the first season is by some distance — in which Tom Sturridge’s Dream is talking to his sister, Death (masterfully played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste), and immediately It was immediately clear that, for all his strength and fearlessness, he was still a sulky teenager when he talked to anyone in his family. It’s a welcome moment for a number of reasons, not least because it gives the character a previously unseen empathy, but also because, for a brief second, it’s as if engrossing. The original 1990 comic that it adapted has been skillfully translated to the screen.
Unfortunately, that moment of recognition — the feeling that what’s on screen is a perfectly musical reproduction of the original in another medium — isn’t something the rest of the series can. maintain. For longtime fans who were hoping that the Netflix series would be like the comics and maybe more—I mean, the comics are great, but does it have Gwendoline Christie? Exactly – the end result can be a disappointment, and for the most unfortunate reason: It tries too hard to stay true to the source material.
While the show’s creators have clearly made changes—most notably in the first five episodes, recreated to highlight elements tied to the Justice League and other DC heroes (Published by DC Vertigo Sandman)—There was a feeling throughout the season that Neil Gaiman’s scripts were a real gospel. As his words enthrall, this happens over and over again, even when the show’s credibility is at stake. It’s reminiscent of quip Harrison Ford did for George Lucas on the first set Star Wars: “You can type this shit, but you can’t say it! Move your mouth while you are typing. “
Similarly, the pacing of a program is influenced by its fidelity to its source material. Sure, Dream has to visit Hell to regain his leadership, but a 24-page comic book and a 50-minute TV episode are different beasts, and it’s a nerve-wracking feeling. throughout the season. It’s no coincidence that the sixth episode feels so much more alive and dynamic; it combines two completely separate issues together to form something new.
If the show’s dedication to Gaiman’s writing is a flaw, it’s the fact that it doesn’t share the same desire to stay faithful to the comic’s image. There are certain moments where specific panels are purposefully recreated on screen — Sam Kieth’s artwork from the first issue, in particular, gets a lot of attention in the opening episode — but overall The show feels more generic and colorless than what the cartoonists had created three decades earlier. Hell, once again, is surprisingly gray compared to the palette Robbie Busch created in 1989 Sandman #4, despite what may happen in terms of visual effects in 2022.
None of this to say that Sand sellers is a calamity, or devoid of any merit; The cast is almost uniformly great and does a lyrical job that almost always makes up for the shortfalls in the script. Especially David Thewlis as John Dee, utterly compelling in a badly scripted role; Similarly, Boyd Holbrook’s Corinthian is also viewable, injecting those all-important Timothy Olyphant vibes into some of the dialogue that would otherwise be horizontal on the page. It must be said that the villains of this piece are a lot tastier than most of the others. It’s hardly a mistake of Sandman alone, though. (Much was given by fans about swapping the races or genders of characters from the comics to the screen; honestly, the end result was the impression that the show’s creators put make the right decision in most cases.)
