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The final chapters of Netflix's The Sandman include smart changes, are kinder and warmer than the comics, and are definitely worth your time.
Posted in: Netflix, Review, TV | Tagged: The Sandman
The Sandman Season 2 Part 2: A Much Warmer Heart Than the Comics
The final chapters of Netflix's The Sandman include smart changes, are kinder and warmer than the comics, and are definitely worth your time.
The second half of the second season of The Sandman is a big improvement from the initial stiffness of the first half. It has a faster, tighter pace, more interesting characters, compelling new plotlines that weren't in the original comics, and smart changes that update and improve elements that did not age well from the comics. It is more compassionate and warmhearted than the comics, which makes it worth watching whether you read them or not.
Part 2 of Season 2 picks up with Dream (Tom Sturridge) facing his coming doom. Any temporary reprieve is sabotaged by the malicious plans of Loki (Freddie Fox, who only really gets cast as a posh baddie because that's what he's best at), setting in motion an even worse reckoning that affects Dreams' circle of friends and allies. If you've read the comics, you know the beats, but the changes bring some pleasant surprises along the way that are smart and make the TV series its own animal.
Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) plays a bigger part in the story in this adaptation, in the most unexpected subplot of all, when she's enlisted by Dream to undertake a mission with the new version of The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook again). Nothing Dream does can forestall the inevitable, but the journey is as fresh as when you read the comics. If you haven't read the comics and are discovering the story through the TV series, it has fresh rewards.
Season 2 Part 2: Not Perfect but Improved
It's too tempting to quibble about the details and some of the odder choices the TV version of The Sandman makes. In the comics, Nuala may look regal and beautiful with her glamour on, but looks like a plain wood elf without it. Ann Skelly is a beautiful woman in real life, and when Nuala removes her glamour, she's still… a beautiful woman, only with less makeup on. That's just Hollywood for you – there are no plain or ugly people on expensive prestige television.
There is a persistent theme in the TV series that was absent in the comic: the trauma of emotionally cold and abusive parents and the emotional injuries inflicted on their children. The Sandman, the TV version, is also a meditation on dysfunctional family love that's complicated. This involves several surprises not in the comics, including a reveal of who the parents of The Endless are (and they're emotionally aloof and abusive assholes, which is very English). Virtually every problem in the series is a result of abuse and family trauma, and every character is a victim of it, including Dream. The series becomes a journey in the attempts to heal that, and Dream's tragedy is that he fails because he can't make the leap.
Many of the reviews so far seem too hung up on comparing the show to the comics and how it falls short, rather than treating it like a TV series on its own. How many people want to watch it at this point if it's not their job to review it? If you watch the series on its own terms, The Sandman has many of its own merits and surprises. Many of the changes and additions are welcome since they update those story elements into a version that's more in keeping with the times, as not all of them have aged well. Part of the comics' appeal and vibe was from the high-mindedness that comes from emotional repression, which is very English. The TV series, being run by a team of Americans, acknowledges and addresses the traumas and tragedies of emotional repression. It openly acknowledges Dream and his siblings' dysfunctions more directly and suggests a way forward in our age of therapy and emphasis on mental health. Case in point: Despair's realm is not a pit but a place of safety for the sad, the depressed and the despairing before they can lift themselves up from it. It's a kinder and more positive and compassionate version of Despair than the comics version.
To Watch or Not to Watch with the Gaiman Scandal That's the Elephant in the Room?
It is hard to watch a story that has autobiographical elements (don't they all?) when you know of the allegations against the original author. This is not Neil Gaiman's The Sandman but an interpretation of it by a devoted team of writers, actors, crew, and filmmakers whose lives were enriched by the original work, and are creating a version of it that they hope is equally enriching to viewers, whether they've read the comics or not. It becomes more warmhearted where the comics remained aloof and chilly, reflecting the writers once again.
In light of the allegations against Gaiman, the TV series is now separate from him. It doesn't belong to him but to the writers and the fans now, and that context has transformed the second season of the TV series into a work that's healing, and also healing fans saddened and disappointed by the allegations against the original creator. It is kinder than the comics were or were capable of being. Like the comics, The Sandman wants to address all of life and how life is understood through stories. You could say the TV series reflects the story: the new storytellers improve upon the original author's flaws. For that, it deserves to be given a chance by you. You might rediscover the thrill of fresh insight you got from the comics, or discover them for the first time if you never read them before. It's for you now, if you'll let it.
The Sandman is streaming on Netflix.
The Sandman Season 2 Part 2
9/10
The second half of the the second season of The Sandman is a big improvement from the initial stiffness of the first half, with a faster, tighter pace, more interesting characters, compelling new plotlines that weren't in the original comics, and smart changes that update and improve elements that did not age well from the comics. It is more compassionate and warmhearted than the comics, and makes it worth watching whether you read them or not.
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