I first learn Neil Gaiman’s Sandman collection once I was in highschool–about 5 years after the preliminary run of the comics had ended. This meant omnibus editions, which had been the one factor I might discover at my library anyway. The collection instantly sucked me in with its mix of serialized quick tales emblematic of single-creator runs and bigger narrative arcs which you could actually dig into with collected editions. Spread all through The Sandman’s episodic tales is the theme that the world is typically randomly shit, and all of us need to work extraordinarily onerous in absurd circumstances to maintain our desires, hopes, and love alive.

The Sandman (the Netflix model) doesn’t hit fairly as onerous. The horrific realities of life–that it’s generally random and unreasonable–had been smoothed over for the present. I loved the present, I assumed it was well-made, well-acted, well-written. It’s a superb present (nice at occasions), and price watching. But I discover it onerous to imagine that somebody will watch the present and perceive why the comics turned such a phenomenon, why these designs and characters have lasted 40 years, why Gaiman turned a such a sensation in sci-fi and fantasy circles, and why to today individuals credit score Gaiman with actually inventing tropes which have plagued quick fiction mags within the many years since.

The Sandman is a superb present, but it surely doesn’t have the identical edge that seared the comics into my reminiscence as one thing that was disturbing and pleasant . The comics walked this fantastic line with an absence of grace and nuance which may have come from Gaiman’s age or might need simply occurred as a result of it was the early ‘90s and this was a DC/Vertigo comic. An example of this is when Constantine has to go find his ex-girlfriend, who has kept the pouch of Morpheus’ sand. The sand is in comparison with a drug (type of like heroin), and his ex counts down from 100 every time earlier than she rubs a little bit bit extra into her pores and skin. She’s proven emaciated and hurting, however in ecstasy. It’s a horrible analogy for habit, but it surely exhibits the depraved duality of this writing—the place the fantasy of drug use is made actual, but it surely’s additionally worse than anybody can think about. In the present this incident is way much less troubling; Constantine’s ex nonetheless has the sand, however as a substitute of utilizing it to gas an habit, she merely holds it and desires, shedding herself in reminiscence. It is the kinder, softer model of this story.

I don’t want my exhibits to be good. I don’t want the Sandman to be good. There are just a few occasions the place I actually felt that the present was capable of stability grim actuality with a determined feeling of unfair circumstantial horror. When Death gathers the newborn in his crib, when Jessamy is shot, when Jed Walker will get abused by his foster mother and father; these are the few moments of random brutality that jogged my memory of the comics, however in all of those moments, there was nonetheless a reservation on display. They have diverted the horror. Even the diner interlude was much less callous than the model within the Worlds’ End assortment of the comics. There was nonetheless feeling there, a stage-y reservation. Netflix’s Sandman desires to inform us the world is brutal, however the present doesn’t experience it the way in which the comics did.

This side-step is nicely demonstrated when Morpheus goes to Cain and Abel’s dwelling so as to take again Gregory and make himself a little bit extra entire. When Cain says “It’s not fair,” Morpheus solely replies, “No, it’s not.” And then he basically kills their pet. (Funnily sufficient, within the comics, that is a lot much less disturbing; Morpheus solely destroys the brothers’ contracts and never their guard-gargoyle.) But even when taking part in with unfairness, the present nonetheless seeped itself in sentiment. This second was drawn out, and was framed as a selfless act. Even as a beloved pet is dissolved into nothing, there’s something so palatable about this second. It is straightforward watching. It is sensible, in a maudlin, sappy type of means. The collection desires you to really feel that pathos, but it surely doesn’t wish to disgust you.

The comics demonstrated over and over that life is shit since you had been within the flawed place on the flawed time and generally that’s simply how life works. Sorry, 26-year-old Neil Gaiman says, life sucks. Hope’s on the market although, if yow will discover it. I wished the present to be like Legion, but it surely’s way more Lucifer. It’s grounded in a means that the comics by no means had been. Part of that is in all probability as a result of it needed to be, as a result of it’s Netflix; you possibly can’t afford to show one thing this costly into one thing that explores the mundane, regular, typical horrors of assault, habit, suicide, and serial killers and simply do a faucet dance, screaming “that’s life!” as an odd and mercurial god metes out his model of hyper-specific justice. Netflix must make The Sandman make sense. And so it does.

At the start of the collection there’s a little bit of voiceover from the Dreamlord as we watch his raven, Jessamy, flying over the realm of desires. Dreaming is supposed to present you a world the place you possibly can “face your fears and fantasies.” Then Morpheus says that he should management each desires and nightmares “lest they consume and destroy” those that dream.

This seems like a fantastically apt description for what Gaiman has accomplished within the collection. He has excised the actually nightmarish elements of his creation and left one thing far dreamier, way more in keeping with modern audiences, and way more digestible. Netflix’s Sandman has had its edges blunted. The hits nonetheless hit onerous, however they don’t chew into you with fairly the identical sharp fervor of the unique. I’ll absolutely admit that to many, this would possibly look like nitpicking; you could be hit with both finish of a hammer and nonetheless really feel the influence. But to me it was that claw that bit into me, the crunch of horror that I keep in mind, the anger and frustration, the way in which that upset caught to the roof of my mouth whereas studying. I used to be indignant. I by no means actually let The Sandman go. While watching, I discovered myself wishing that the present damage extra. It by no means did.

I absolutely acknowledge that the absence of what makes me wistful for The Sandman of the ‘90s is exactly what people love about this version. There is something satisfying about watching a nightmare make sense. What we have in the Netflix series is a wonderful, if sanitized, version of Gaiman’s comics masterpiece. And if we’re going to look at a dream, I don’t thoughts this one. This present is the product of a permanent hope that this, and each model of Dream of the Endless, will reside on for an extended very long time. It is sensible. Dreams, as Matthew says, don’t fucking die.

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