Warning, this post contains mention of the works of Neil Gaiman.
There’s an interesting article over on OpenCulture, “Love the Art, Hate the Artist“. It was written before Sandman became just the 2 seasons instead of the 5+ it could’ve been, before Good Omens 3 was cut to a 90 minute special, before Dead Boy Detectives wasn’t renewed for season 2, and before Anansi Boys and The Graveyard Book were consigned to the bin of projects that will probably never see the light of day. All the impact of one man’s decisions affecting the lives and works of dozens, hundreds of other people. The article discusses Picasso, raises some issues around his problematic personal life and life choices. Do those things stop him from being seen as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century? (by some people. Personally, don’t like the stuff at all. Cubism can do one).
Which brings us to Mr Gaiman’s work.
Like many, I read Sandman when it first came out. Never as the single issues, that was worse than having to wait a week for the next episode of a TV show, always as the trade paperback collected editions. And I’ve still got them all. Good Omens is a masterpiece, a superb example of 2 men writing at the very top of their game. Neverwhere remains one of my favourite books and I’ve a real soft spot for the TV show – oh, how good that could have been if they hadn’t run out of money. Periodically I go back and re-read Sandman, either the whole thing or the edited highlights – the day I fail to be moved by The Sound of Her Wings, book me a trip to Switzerland, one-way. It remains some of the best storytelling in comic – and often other – form that I’ve ever read.
When Netflix announced a TV show, I was cautiously optimistic. Recent adaptations of books and graphic novels has shown people to take more care over creating a story faithful to the core of the source material that so many people hold dear. Dirk Gently, for instance, while not a faithful adaptation of Douglas Adams’ books is, at it’s heart, quite definitely Dirk Gently. And anyone who thinks otherwise can catch this kitten.

So yeah, a Sandman TV series. And then the first images started to emerge. Tom Sturridge as Dream (nailed it). Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death (not sure they could’ve found someone more opposite to how Death is portrayed in the comics while at the same time being utterly perfect in the role), Mason Alexander Park crushing it as Desire. Still not certain about Donna Preston’s Despair but then Despair doesn’t have a lot to do in the first few stories…
Season 1…
Season 1 gave us the slightly altered edited highlights of the first 2 trade paperbacks. A snip here, a tuck there, and we’ve updated elements. All the DC links are gone, Lucian becomes the sublime Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong), John Constantine becomes Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) and, frankly, is all the better for it – would’ve been nice to link shows together and use Matt Ryan but this works so well. And Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer? Wow. The show takes a while to get up to speed but by the time we get to episode 5 (24/7, an issue of the comic that is quite definitely brutal and which Audible did not shy away from in their adaptation) we’re definitely there. The changes that have been made fit and work well. And then we hit “The Sound of Her Wings”. Episode 6.
If you watch nothing else of this show, watch this episode. In fact, go and watch it now. I’ll wait.
Combining the stories from “The Sound of Her Wings” and “Men of Good Fortune”, this is as near to perfection as I’ve seen in terms of comic adaptations.
Right. We’re halfway through and have just fished book 1 – or just started book 2, The Doll’s House, as “The Sound of Her Wings” is reprinted there in my copy – and nicked a story from issue 14, which crops up a little later on in that book.
Again, Doll’s House is adapted and changed slightly, but the core of the story remains. The Serial Convention is there, The Corinthian (Boyd Holdbrook needs a series as this character!), Rose Walker, Lyta and Hector Hall, they’re all here. Brute and Glob have gone, Gault is here instead. Gault is a nightmare who is trying to change, to become more, to become better. She’s protecting Jed Walker from what is happening to him, giving him refuge from his awful life. And it works, it’s the same story but it’s not, it’s better, it’s right. And it all works out in the end. Lyta Hall falls pregnant within the Dream realm, just as she should. And we finish with another twofer, “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope”. Excellent adaptations both, pulling 2 of the stories from book 3, Dream Country.
So. Season 1, books 1, 2, and some of 3. That feels right. There’s 10 books in total, another 4 seasons to look forward to and, maybe, hopefully, some of the spinoffs – could we see a Books of Magic adaptation perhaps? Lucifer’s already been done, but I could stand to see Tim Hunter on the small screen…
And then there is The Event. In the words of Mitchell and Webb, don’t think about The Event.
Minds greater than mine have talked about it. I’m not going to go over anything here beyond stating that I’m very grateful to Netflix not to drop Sandman like a hot rock and to Amazon for at least giving Good Omens an ending, even if it’s not necessarily the one we all wanted. Actually, am I on my own here if I say that Season 2 of Good Omens was nowhere near as good as the first one. Sorry, Mr Finnemore, a purveyor of fine radio comedy and intellectual puzzles you may be, a replacement for Sir Terry you are not. I didn’t like it. Your mileage may vary.
Season 2…
Casting photos reveal Delirium and Destruction. Esmee Creed-Miles looks the part, Barry Slone I’m not so sure about.
So far, only the first half of the series has dropped on Netflix, so spoilers for anything up to episode 6.
Right. Strap in, we’re stripping out everything that isn’t directly Dream-related and we’ve got 8 books of material to go through.
The first 2 episodes clip through book 4, Season of Mists, tweaking the odd thing here and there, and dropping A Midsummer Night’s Dream from book 3 in as a brief aside when Dream meets Clurachan and Nuala. Delirium’s accent bothers me – too posh, too clipped, too perfect compared to her portrayal in the comics, and I’m not taken by her portrayal of the character here.

Book 5, A Game of You, is skipped entirely. Yes, I know, we set up Barbie and Martin Tenbones back in season 1, but all that remains is Wanda, reimagined as Dream and Delirium’s chauffeur in the events of Brief Lives.
Book 6, Fables and Reflections, and all the superb stories therein, are dropped almost completely. We take “Thermidor” and “The Song of Orpheus” and wind them into the main narrative of book 7 Brief Lives. But “Soft Places”, “Three Septembers and a January”, and the wonderful “Ramadan” are all missed out. Such a shame, such a missed opportunity. But Death still has the line from Sandman I want on whatever marker is placed to remember me.
And that’s us up to speed. In 6 episodes we’ve covered what were considered the essential stories from issues 19-50 of the comic.
I have to say that Delirium grew on me through the events of Brief Lives.
We’ve got 6 episodes left. Well, 5, as the last episode is adapting Death: The High Cost of Living and I am really looking forward to that one. In those 5 episodes, I predict we’re going to skip over book 8 entirely, cover the salient points of book 9, and possibly dip into the first couple or 3 issues of book 10 as closure.
Thankyou, Netflix. 2 seasons of Sandman delivered this well is more than we could’ve hoped for in the circumstances.
Update… Just 1 episode left
Spoilers, sweetie. Nuala is an absolute badass. The new Dream of the Endless has met the family. Eblis O’Shaunessy was cruelly cut from the series. We didn’t get to see the Great Necropolis or the Inn at the Worlds’ End. What we got was beautiful. And we got my favourite line from Merv.
Just “The High Cost of Living” left now. I’m going to be a mess if they’ve done that one well.