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. 

[Richard Willis]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

She's Lady Johanna Constantine... and it is pronounced with a long "I" (-TINE) rather than a long "E" (-TEEN).

From what I've seen over the years, this tends to be the British pronunciation.

There was a "Lady Johanna Constantine" in the comics, too, but at this point I'm not certain what (if any) relationship she has to that character. It may simply be a bid to diversify the cast a bit (as with Lucien).

Maybe it was for diversity, but I'm inclined to think that a lot of viewers have seen John Constantine elsewhere. Making comparisons between the actors would just be distracting. I wasn't sure I would like the switch, but they pulled it off.

DOCTOR DESTINY:
Good job of revealing just enough about his past to move the story forward without bogging it down with all that JLA nonsense those new to the character couldn't care less about (yet it's there for those who do).

Unless I missed something, the only connection is the ruby. They managed to use Arkham Asylum without calling it that or including any of its notorious inmates.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"...the only connection is the ruby."

I meant it's implicit, like Arkham Asylum, there in the background for those "in the know."

[Jeff of Earth-J]

EPISODE 4: So far the series has maintained a roughly one-to-one issue-to-episode ratio. Issue #4 is when Morpheus went to Hell to retrieve his helm, but the TV series gets a leg up on the source by following the ruby plot as well. It looks as if they've changed the particulars quite a bit, but at this point we're roughly caught up to issue #6. If they're going to do "24 Hours," now's the time; otherwise, TV's version of "Sound and Fury" should be next. Good adaptation!

[Richard Willis]

They called iit 24/7

Jeff of Earth-J said:

EPISODE 4: So far the series has maintained a roughly one-to-one issue-to-episode ratio. Issue #4 is when Morpheus went to Hell to retrieve his helm, but the TV series gets a leg up on the source by following the ruby plot as well. It looks as if they've changed the particulars quite a bit, but at this point we're roughly caught up to issue #6. If they're going to do "24 Hours," now's the time; otherwise, TV's version of "Sound and Fury" should be next. Good adaptation!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

EPISODE 5: This is the aforementioned "24/7" so were up to issue #6 ("24 Hours"). Again, an excellent adaptation. But that's not what I want to talk about today. Tracy's friend has expressed interest in reading the series, but was unsure how to go about it. (She's never been in a comic book shop in her life.) I offered to put together a "sampler" of issues for her, but she's interested in reading the entire series from the beginning. My collection is in a variety of formats, and I have "Preludes and Nocturnes," "The Doll's House" and "Dream Country" only as a slip-cased set of tpbs. I offered to loan her those, but she's concerned about damaging them and would prefer to read them in HC and keep them if she likes them as much as she expects to. We've invited her to our LCS this weekend. I'll provide her with a list of the volumes in order if she decides to go the Amazon route, plus I'll probably loan her those samplers before she commits. I'll let you know how it goes.

Then, last night, just as we were settling in to watch the fifth episode, a friend of mine whom I talk to maybe once a year called specifically to discuss the show, but we put it off because he wanted to discuss the whole thing. Everyone I know who's watched it, it seems, has binged it. I may have to pick up the pace of this discussion.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I don't generally like watching more than one episode per day of anything, but now I'm feeling some pressure to finish it today so that we can meet one friend and take her to our LCS on Saturday (if she decides to read the entire series start to finish, Tracy and I will read it a long with her) and so that I can discuss it with my friend in St. Louis as well. To that end, I skipped Ultraman Tiga and Dark Shadows last night so that we could watch three episodes of Sandman. 

EPISODE 6: This episode is an adaptation of issue #9 (Death) and #13 (Hob Gadling). Those stories are good complements to each other, especially the way they were presented.

EPISODE 7: Ah, "The Doll's House" begins at last! (I was beginning tohave my doubts, despite Richard's assurances.) Interesting how they worked Lyta and Hector Hall into this version. Also: the "cereal convention."

EPISODE 8: It makes perfect sense to me that Jed, rather than Hector Hall, is the "Sandman" in this version; it's exactly the kind of scenario a kid would fantasize. I also heartily approve of replacing Brute and Glob with Gault. "Even a nightmare cane dream." Classic stuff!

We plan to watch the final two episodes tonight.

(I guess we'll have to wait for season two for Plippy Ploppy Cheesenose.)

[Jeff of Earth-J]

EPISODE 9: "Collectors" coincides with issue #15.

EPISODE 10: Issue #16.

Very impressive they way they managed to condense "The Doll's House" (eight issues) into a mere four episodes. 

This discussion didn't take off the way I had hoped, but thanks to Richard Willis for participating. 

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Sorry I didn't pitch in more, but I watched the episodes in batches. So it wasn't a full binge, but it left me incapable of discussing individual episodes in detail. I agree that the condensation of storylines was very well done. But the series still only covered two of the ten TPB collections! I wonder if the hope is that the show will get five seasons?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"So it wasn't a full binge, but it left me incapable of discussing individual episodes in detail."

I know what you mean. That's exactly the same problem I had with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"I wonder if the hope is that the show will get five seasons?"

Hope so!

[Richard Willis]

The show has received a lot of publicity, at least online. 

I recommended it to a non-comics friend who likes ghost stories. Haven't heard if he watched it.

Netflix never shares info about how many viewers watched a show. Hopefully, we will hear about new season order(s) soon.

[Richard Willis]

Richard Willis said:

According to Wikipedia, the episodes have a "Running time 37–54 minutes." Neither Wiki nor IMDB give specifics by episode.

This is an excerpt from a Den of Geek interview with Seth McFarland regarding his show The Orville:

This is certainly the season that felt like what I always wanted the show to be. I think the differences between what we were on Hulu and what we would have been on (FOX) are pretty clear. You don’t have to dig too deep to figure out what those are. You certainly can’t do an episode that’s an hour and 20 minutes on a network – it would have to be a two-parter. So we really wrote our stories, the way they wanted to be written.

It’s the only big complaint I have about the network model. You’re still based on a pre-existing time constraint that almost never works exactly for the story you’re trying to tell. A story takes the amount of time it takes to tell. Not every story is exactly 43 minutes long. It just depends on the story, and the story should dictate its duration as opposed to the format.

I have noticed some of the episodes of shows designed for some of the streaming services have varying lengths, depending upon what's in an episode. I think this is a very good thing.

[Richard Willis]

Apparently, it is possible to find out ratings for a Netflix show. Deadline has shared the following:

The Sandman followed the growth trajectory Netflix would like to see for a new series, with its Week 2 hours viewed (127.5M) almost doubling the Week 1 tally as more subscribers discover the Neil Gaiman adaptation.