Sandman (TV)

[Jeff of Earth-J]

It's difficult these days to discuss a television show when all of the episodes drop at once and everyone watches at his own pace, but the Paper Girls discussion (short as it was) went all right, so let's try one for Sandman... let's say an episode a day, clearly labeled. SPOILERs allowed, but please don't get ahead of the discussion.

EPISODE ONE:

I wasn't even planning to watch this one until one of Tracy's friends (who knows we read comics) texted her today and asked, "Have you guys read Sandman?" We recommended Paper Girls to her and she liked it, but she discovered Sandman on her own. She's already watched all the episodes. (I think there are ten.) We just watched the first.

So far, so good... very much like the first issue. What few changes they made were acceptable, and probably improved the story for a TV audience. My expectations for a Sandman TV show are high, but my expectations that they'd be able to pull it off were low. I show some photos of the guy playing Dream but he didn't look convincing to me. He played the part very well, but I would have preferred his skin to be alabaster white. Very well-done overall. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Tracy just told me we received a text out of the blue from our niece. We try to keep in touch and call her every month or so, but this is the first time she's reached out to contact us in a long time. She said she watched Sandman and now wants to buy a collection. 

Regarding the varying length of the episodes, that's the same thing I discovered when I watched the new Star Trek series. 

[JD DeLuzio]

I'm a huge fan of the graphic novels, while my wife has never read them. We both liked season one of The Sandman.

They make changes for all kinds of reasons-- it's not like the source material isn't still there to read, in its original form. They have time to reconsider and tighten plot connections (some of which improve the story and some of which feel unnecessary), they have a different time frame to which they must adjust (I rather liked how they maintained the Hob Gadling story, adjusting only the end in a rather clever way because it's 2022), and they want to be more diverse (though, typical of current American media, that diversity largely ignores people of Pacific Asian background). The main reason, of course, is that comics and TV are two very different media. Some of the interesting complexities and rough edges are missing, but it works, and the cast of The Doll's House nail their roles.

We re-watched the incredible fan film version of "24 Hour Diner" after watching the Netflix ep. The 2017 film is worth seeing. It presents a faithful and darker version of the story, but also one that plays very like a comic book being acted out. The Netflix ep has its flaws, but it plays like a conventional short narrative film, which is what they were after. And sometimes fidelity to the source proves problematic. Dr. Dee in the fan film looks exactly like the comic-book rendering. My wife, who had to avert her eyes a few times at the horror elements, had trouble not laughing any time the fan film showed Dee close up. His design works fine in a comic, but it looks, well, comical in live-action, and not in a good way (several of you are reviewing a key point from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics about now).

[JD DeLuzio]

Some additional thoughts:

-The casting of Cain and Abel makes sense if you consider the pre-DC source of those characters ;)

-Yeah, Oswalt is pretty much perfect.

-I wonder if they'll be able to get Dinklage to play Lycius.

[Richard Willis]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

...... some photos of the guy playing Dream but he didn't look convincing to me. He played the part very well, but I would have preferred his skin to be alabaster white. Very well-done overall. 

It's now clear why they didn't make The Endless characters alabaster white, as they are in the original. Kirby Howell-Baptiste is excellent as Death. Presenting her in really-white-face would have been a disaster.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"They make changes for all kinds of reasons..."

The combination of issues #9 and #13 into a single episode (6) is a good example of that. On paper, the Hob Gadling issue marked the thematic center of the story (in much the same was the "dead boy detectives" will for "Season of Mist"), but it works better on TV to marry the themes of Life and Death in a single episode.

"Presenting her in really-white-face would have been a disaster."

Definitely. I think they could have made Dream alabaster white and not his siblings, though. If I have any problem at all with Howell-Baptiste's portrayal it's that she perhaps wasn't "perky" enough. 

Speaking of bringing characters to screen, Azazel was absolutely perfect, just exactly the way Kelley Jones drew him/it. I can hardly wait until "Season of Mists" is adapted for TV, 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

EPISODE 11: Has everyone watched the additional episode that dropped today? It is "Dream of a Thousand Cats / Calliope."

Something odd is going on. First, my contacted wanting me to send the Amazon listing of the Sandman Absolute Edition. then our friend texted to let us know about the additional TV episode. (She cried through the entire first half.) 

[Richard Willis]

If I have any problem at all with Howell-Baptiste's portrayal it's that she perhaps wasn't "perky" enough.

Her performance wasn't as perky, but it was written as more compassionate. The comparable sequence in the original had a guy who had lived a couple of centuries dying in a stupid accident and a baby dying in a crib. The guy was philosophical, happy that he had lived so long. The baby (who had lines) was unhappy to have died so soon. Death said to both of them "you got what everyone gets. You got a lifetime."

EPISODE 11: Has everyone watched the additional episode that dropped today? It is "Dream of a Thousand Cats / Calliope."

Annoyingly, Netflix constantly sends me emails but they didn't alert me to this. I guess the IMDB mistake showing an eleventh episode wasn't a mistake at all. I'll watch it in the morning.

[Richard Willis]

The story behind episode 11 (from Variety):

Interview

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"Her performance wasn't as perky, but it was written as more compassionate."

It's interesting/fun to compare the adaptation (of anything, really) to the source. My favorite kind of essay to write in school was comparison/contrast. 

[Richard Willis]

I've seen episode 11 and couldn't be happier with it.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

So glad Episode 11 came up in this discussion! I saw some vague mentions on Twitter, but hadn't realized there was an additional episode to watch. I liked both stories: as usual they stayed pretty close to the comics. I'm glad they did not make Madoc's rape of Calliope explicit. Looking at my copy of Dream Country, I was delighted to see drawings by Colleen Doran and Charles Vess! I had completely forgotten they were there.

[Richard Willis]

Received another email from Netflix suggesting what to watch. Still no mention of the 11th episode. Maybe this is because they know I already watched it, but if not for the Round Table and other news sites I still wouldn't know.