The Sandman - Netflix

Although I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan, I've never read The Sandman, as I just can't relate to comic books and graphic novels. I'm not a very visual person, and I like a story to contain (far) more words. Nonetheless, I was aware it was considered something of a big thing in the genre, so watched the Netflix version with interest.

The first episode is distinctly on the slow side - I know at least one person who gave up part way through - but it's worth persevering to make your mind up, as things certainly change gear after a while. However, I do think the series has an underlying problem in the way it has apparently been painstakingly based on the individual comics. This gives an extremely episodic approach, making it almost impossible to produce a really top notch drama series.

The problem is not having mostly separate stories in each episode - I like that. But if a series is take that approach, it needs two other things to support it - a group of good recurring characters and a strong story arc across the series. It's even better if it can also incorporate humour despite the subject matter - that's why Buffy the Vampire Slayer was so brilliant. That had all these elements. But The Sandman lacks most of them.

I really thought things were improving with the introduction of Jenna Coleman's character in the third episode. Johanna Constantine is a perfect foil for Tom Sturridge's well played, but frankly morose Dream/Morpheus. There was enjoyable interaction between main characters and that humour gave useful contrast with the darkness elsewhere. And then she was gone for the rest of the series (except a cameo as her ancestor). I also wanted to see far more of Vivienne Acheampong's excellent librarian, Lucienne. Unless Netflix fixes this with more recurring characters that appear in most episodes, this series won't hit the spot.

It's not that there can't be one-off episodes dedicated to a specific event and key character. Episode 6, featuring Dream's sister Death and a human who the pair grant a free pass from death in the fourteenth century, who Dream meets up with once every hundred years, is brilliant. But, for example, the fifth episode, primarily featuring a secondary character in a diner is just dull. And when a continuing story kicks in across episodes 7 to 10 (still not a proper series story arc) it has too much material not set in the real world, is convoluted and lacks the humour and energy of the Constantine episode. It's plodding by comparison.

Overall, the CGI is okay, but lightweight in places. The buildings in the Dreaming never looked real, and though you could argue that's how they should look in the Dreaming, it didn't appear to be intentional. The biggest CGI disappointment was the gargoyle Gregory in the Cain and Abel sequence of episode 2 - it was good in close up, but when flying it looked like something out of a video game. I do have one other moan on the visuals - the nighttime sequences, of which there are a lot, are very low contrast - even with my TV in dynamic mode it was sometimes difficult to make out what was going on.

Overall, interesting concept, occasional good episode, but needs a serious overhaul.

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