The Sandman Has Its Flaws, but "24/7" and "The Sound of Her Wings" Are Near-Perfect Adaptations
Netflix's The Sandman is incredibly faithful to the original comic, sometimes to a fault. The middle two episodes, "24/7" and "The Sound of Her Wings", are double edged swords in this respect—while they hamper the series' overall pacing, they expertly adapt the source material and breathe new life into its characters.
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| My reaction after finishing Moon Knight |
Let’s begin with general impressions. When it comes to the overarching story, this initial 10-episode season of The Sandman does a great job of covering the first 16 issues of the comic, even if it isn't perfect. Dream is captured by a group of third-rate magicians, and after nearly a century of imprisonment, he frees himself and seeks out his stolen tools and vestments. From there, he must rebuild The Dreaming and track down the nightmares that escaped during his absence. As mentioned above, Netflix’s The Sandman is surprisingly faithful to the comic. All of the major characters—and plenty of minor ones—are present and excellently realized, and everyone from Morpheus to Mad Hettie is almost exactly how I imagined them (I'll also add that I don't find any of the gender/race "swapping" to be particularly egregious, as the actors embody their characters well enough). I was also impressed with the number of relatively “deep cuts” that could have easily been hand-waved away but were kept intact, namely Morpheus’ former lover Nada and Constantine’s struggles with PTSD (though in this case John has been replaced with Johanna).
The main issue with the series as a whole is that it is poorly paced for television. It lacks a clear central narrative, and while I do love The Corinthian as one of the chief Nightmares, he isn't a strong enough antagonist simply because he isn't much of a threat to Dream. Those who are unfamiliar with the comic (and even some who are) may find this lack of a strong throughline off-putting, and I honestly could not blame them. This is perhaps the most glaring flaw in what is otherwise a fairly polished series. 
With this said, I would like to return to the middle two episodes, which sit at the transition between the season's relatively distinct halves. Episode 5, titled “24/7”, is the final episode of the first arc, combining Sandman #6 and #7 into a lean psychological horror tour-de-force in which the recently freed John Dee unleashes the power of Dream’s ruby on unsuspecting diner customers and employees. The show wisely discards the grotesque features of the original Dr. Dee for a more grounded and unnerving version of the character. He appears to strangers as an affable, doddering old man, and as a result, they remain blissfully unaware of his true intentions until it is too late.
As for the characters in the diner, they are remarkably similar to their comic counterparts, and the few additions that were made, such as the marital strife between the power couple and Marsh being the waitress’ love interest, provide extra variables for Dee to manipulate with the ruby (I’m also glad that they ditched Gaiman's edgier attempts at gallows humor). These new insecurities allow Dee to quietly observe his subjects with the morbid fascination of a child playing with insects, nudging them in just the wrong directions until everything falls apart.
If I had to make one complaint about "24/7", it is that the introduction of the various side characters is fairly slow, causing the first 10-15 minutes to feel somewhat padded and aimless. However, the upshot of this is an intimate knowledge of the characters’ backstories and more probable cause for their inevitable conflicts. Where the comic made them feel like mere pawns in Dee's twisted game, the show almost turns them into willing participants, which makes their fates all the more tragic and haunting. 
The sixth episode, “The Sound of Her Wings”, may very well be the most faithful live-action comic adaptation that I have ever seen. After recovering his tools, his kingdom, and (most of) his followers, Dream wanders the waking world in a state of ennui. His big sister, Death of the Endless, decides to pay him a visit to cheer him up and remind him of their family’s responsibilities. As Dream watches his sister go about her work, he realizes that he has kept an old friend waiting. 
As with “24/7”, the pacing can flag a bit, but this time it is because the episode combines two separate stories from the comic (issues #8 and 13) that only share a thematic connection. As a result, the transition from one story to the other feels somewhat sloppy, and the comical zoom/fade doesn't help. One could also call “The Sound of Her Wings” a filler episode for how it does not advance the overarching plot very much at all. Sure, Dream's conversation with Death serves as a sort of epilogue for the season's first arc, but his long history with Hob Gadling is a standalone story that seems somewhat out-of-place in this episode. However, as comic fans will know, these stories establish two of the series' best characters who will (hopefully) appear down the line. Furthermore, 21 of the comic's 75 issues are relatively self-contained short stories that examine Dream's influence on the waking world and its denizens. The protagonists of these brief vignettes range from real historical figures such as William Shakespeare and Octavian to mythological beings like Calliope and Orpheus, and while all of these stories are worthwhile, one person's worldbuilding is another person's filler.
With this being said, I was floored by how much of Gaiman’s original dialogue made it into this episode. Everything from Death’s good-natured scolding to the background chatter about Faustus and Thatcher’s poll tax is preserved. The episode may feel disconnected from its neighbors, but its poignant ruminations on life and death are just as powerful as those in the original comics. It doesn't hurt that Death's and Hob’s actors—Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Ferdinand Kingsley, respectively—are simply excellent, effortlessly capturing the characters’ charm and wit. I hope to see much more of them in future episodes, as their performances were too good for one-off appearances.
Finally, I admire how "The Sound of Her Wings" handles Dream’s capriciousness. After the first episode of the series, I wasn’t entirely sold on Tom Sturridge’s depiction of Morpheus, though this may have been due to the character being trapped in a glass prison. Thankfully, each subsequent episode reveals more and more of his powers and flaws. Morpheus is the Lord of the Dreaming, but he can also be an egotist and a petulant navel-gazer. This is the same being who bristles when a mortal tries to befriend him and severely punishes those who defy him. Thus, I am thankful that the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman has not polished away Dream’s rough edges for the sake of winning new fans.
This same sentiment applies to the show as a whole. Aside from removing most references to the wider DC universe (Martian Manhunter, John Constantine, and Arkham Asylum, to name a few), Netflix’s take on The Sandman is surprisingly complete, if a bit disjointed. I honestly cannot think of another live action comic adaptation that handles the source material with such love and care.
Where can the series go from here? Well, if they continue to follow the comics, the next major arc is Season of Mists, which is probably my favorite storyline in the entire series. However, considering how the show handled Death's and Hob's introductions, I wonder whether some of the interstitial issues between The Doll's House and Seasons of Mists will be adapted. I would love to see "A Dream of a Thousand Cats"* and "Midsummer Night's Dream" in motion, but I'm curious how they would fit into the second season of the show. It's too early to tell. Nonetheless, I remain positive, especially since audiences seem to have enjoyed "The Sound of Her Wings". As of August 11th, 2022, it is the highest-rated episode of the first season on IMDB, sitting at a score of 9.3 with almost 3,700 votes (for context, the first episode is rated 8.1 with nearly 4,000 votes). If viewers, myself included, are willing to overlook the narrative hiccups that such "filler" episodes create, perhaps we will see more of these short stories in future seasons.
One can dream...
