The Sandman is probably Neil Gaiman’s most famous works. Originally a comic book series in the late 80’s/ 90’s, the character captured the hearts and minds of fans across different generations. The world is inspired by mythology but with a modern twist, and it has become a staple in the world of fantasy novels and comics. I’ll be honest, while I haven’t read the comic books, I do know a lot about the character and how he fits into the DC Dark universe with Lucifer and Constantine. So I was excited to see the Netflix adaptation and once I started—I was hooked.
There’s something eerie and fantastical about this world and these characters who were all portrayed as being multidimensional. While the series was slower than other fantasy stories, there were a lot of layers to peel back in order to get the full idea of the scope of this world and these characters. I found myself lost in each episode and the different story lines that played out over the course of the season.
Though, I must admit, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The story unfolds at a snail’s pace at times and it requires a lot of patience. There were episodes that seemingly had nothing to do with anything until the very end and there is so much to this world, you’d be forgiven to think that a lot of the episodes were serving a world building purpose.
But if you have the patience to really get into it—and I mean really get into it, you’ll be in for a treat. This is escapism at its finest and at the end of the day, isn’t that why we plonk ourselves in front of the TV and watch these stories?
The Sandman is streaming on Netflix currently.
