Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show I'm your host Paul aka the Man of the your dreams...fff...---
Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show I'm your host Paul aka the guy who's videos send you
to sleep and this episode we're gonna be breaking down Sandman on Netflix.
This is an absolutely outstanding adaptation of one of the greatest comic books ever written
and it proves that sticking to the source material actually works.
Whereas showrunners have recently used shows like Halo and Resident Evil to tell their
own stories by stealth, Sandman embraces it's beloved franchise and shows that Neil Gaiman
knows best.
A film has been in the works since 1991 and has gone through the ringer with everyone
from James Mangold, Eric Kripke and even Joseph Gordon Levitt attached in some way.
The development hell is over though and the plot and ending have a lot to unpack from
it. This series adapts the first two arcs, Preludes & Nocturnes as well as The Doll’s
House and going off what happens after that we can pretty much predict exactly the way
that the show is gonna go. I wanna break it all down but up top I thought I'd talk about
comic property and some of the easter eggs. If you wanna skip ahead to see us tackling
certain sections in the video then timecodes will be linked below but I also hope that
you hit the thumbs up button if you enjoy the video.
Thanks.
Now incase you didn’t know, The Sandman is part of the supernatural wing of DC along
with Hellblazer and The Sandman spin off Lucifer. The original work is filled with nods to Batman,
Green Arrow, Etrigan, Mister Miracle, The Justice League and it's awash with DC characters
that are sadly removed from this entry.
This is obviosuly due to casting and rights issues and who knows, Discovery could've cancelled
the whole series for a laugh if it had been on HBO Max. Lucifer and Constantine...sorry
Constantine appear in the show too with their genders swapped so they dont clash too much
with the other live action versions out there. Lucifer was originally based on David Bowie
but Gwendoline Christie brings her own style too and judging by the ending we'll no doubt
be seeing her again very soon.
Anyway the comic was originally intended to be a revival of the 70’s comic character
The Sandman but Gaiman ended up creating a wholly different version.
However the show does have an easter egg that calls back to him when Jed dresses up in the
original costume. Other DC easter eggs appear in the basement when Jed suits up and these
include Captain Cold, Pied Piper, a maskless Psycho Pirate, a batman action figure and
also a flash one.
Now the show, much like the comic, starts with the capture of Dream by Roderick Burgess
in 1916.
Played by Charles Dance, Burgess is attempting to capture Death so that he can ressurect
his son who died during the first world war. Now in the series we meet lots of the Endless
and for the next part of the video I want to breakdown who they are and also what their
purpose is.
The endless are personifications of concepts like Dreams, Destiny, Death, Destruction,
Desire, Despair and Delirium. Though they refer to themselves as such, they aren't technical
Gods as Gods need to be believed in whilst these all exist either way.
They themselves also have specific rules attached to them too and they can’t really interfere
with the lives of humans even though they often do. They're also unable to form a romantic
relationship with mortals except again, Dream does it anyway but I’ll explain that when
we get to hell.
Aka Sunderland, having that.
They’re also not allowed to spill the blood of their siblings meaning Dream can’t just
kill Desire which is incredibly important to the ending and Desires plans.
Most also have their own domain with the main ones featured in the show being the dreaming
and desires Threshold.
Now Dream’s capture at the hand of Burgess was all part of Desire’s plan because they
resent Dream. Desire is an andrognyous Endless that can appear as male or female due to being
gender fluid and here they're played by Non Binary Mason Alexander Park who you may recognize
from Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop.
Now Burgess fails to capture Death and instead he takes dream. Episode 1 is a beat for beat
recreation of the first issue and we even have specific shots and panels that are referenced
throughout.
While dream is captured, a sleepy sickness sweeps the world with people either ending
up stuck in sleep or unable to. This is important as the young girl Unity Kincaid was unable
to actually awaken from her sleep which allowed Desire to start part of their plan.
Unity was destined to become a rare dream vortex which means that she connects all the
dreams and could potentially destroy them. It's important to bear in mind that this is
one of the rare instances that allows Dream to kill a human so remember that yeah.
Now Unity did not become the vortex due to Dream being imprisoned.
In the comics we learn how this had a major effect on the 20th century and it even led
to things like the second world war because people were unable to truly dream
At some point later, Desire impregnated Unity and during her sleep she gave birth to Miranda
which then led to Rose.
This means Rose became the dream vortex but as she was technically a blood relation to
Dream it means that if he did his job and killed her he would have unknowingly have
commited a cardinal sin against his family.
So that's what Desire is trying to do throughout the season in order to put him in the bad
book. The punishment for this means that he'd be hounded by the three witches we see who
themselves are based on myths and legend.s
Now each episode in the show roughly centres around an issue of the comic though there
are ones like episode six which combines two. However, Gaiman wasn't planning out these
massive arcs when he was first crafting it but in hindsight this allows the show to introduce
certain characters earlier. Nowhere is this seen more than in The Corinthian played by
Boyd Holbrook. Whole season I was like, is that, is that him? And he completely sinks
into the role playing it like no other character that the actor has taken on before. Whereas
the source material had him popping up in Issue 10, here he's there from the start.
Just before Dream is captured, he is about to unmake The Corinthian who is a nightmare
that has gone rogue because he resents being unable to interfere in the waking world. Roderick
ends up being helped by the Corinthian so that he can cause chaos without worrying about
being captured by Dream.
In his absence the dreaming has fallen into disrepair and various dreams and nightmares
have escaped including Fiddlers Green played by Stephen Fry.
His tools were also taken including his mask, ruby and sand. These allow Roderick and his
followers to live long lives but all this ended they were taken by his mistress, Ethel
Cripps.
Ethal became pregnant and Roderick wanted to terminate the baby and thus she ran away
before she was forced to.
Now This child became John Dee played by David Thewlis which changes things up from the comics
slightly. In that his role was played out by Doctor Destiny and he was the one who ended
up in the Diner issue which is pulled across to the season. Destiny was kept in Arkham
Asylum in the source material whereas here it's just a mental health facility that he
escapes from after getting the reverse Uno card.
Dream is freed when Roderick's other son Alex breaks the circle spell and he takes revenge
on his capture. Unfortunately they don't do the forever waking curse that Dream puts on
them in the comics. It's one of my favourite parts of the entire run and it basically has
a character having a nightmare, waking up panicked, seeing that everything is ok before
that then turns into it's own nightmare, forever and ever.
Really horrifying fate but they simplify it quite a lot here.
Dream then goes to meet Lucience and the rest of the series is about him getting his mojo
back.
Other than being near comics accurate thanks to neil gaimans efforts in pre-production,
what is so great about this show is that it really and truly feels like a TV show.
Most episodes have a beginning, middle and end and unlike other comic book streaming
shows we don't get this stupid 6 hour movie thing that I think really hurts character
development and pacing.
Now as part of his plan to get each of his tools back he must consult The Three which
are also known as the fates or the kindly ones. They're sort of like the witches in
Macbeth though Shakespeare does appear in the series too. We see him making a deal with
Morpheus and in the comics we actually saw that he went onto craft Midsummer nights dream
which got it's own issue centred around it.
This will probably pop up in Season 2 but either way the tree speak in riddles and help
him locate each item.
Eventually he gets them back and along the way he encounters John Dee, Constantine and
also Lucifer. During his journey through hell we see a woman reach out to him called Nada
who we learn more about in the source material.
Dream took a mortal form and the pair ended up falling in love with each other despite
it being forbidden. According to the Myth the Sun saw what they had done and it melted
her city which led to her taking her own life. Dream saw this as a rejection of him and he
condemned her to hell.
Eventually in the comics Dream ends up apologising to her for the torment that he forced her
to endure and he offers himself to her again. However she once more rejects him but rather
than doing a Henry The 8th he decides to take the mature route and he offers her a place
in the Dreaming if she ever wants he. He ends up having her reincarnated as a baby on Earth
which yeah, good on you mate, only took 3000 years.
Now here Dream goes head to head with Lucifer in order to get his helmet back. There's also
the mention of Anti-life which you're probably familiar with if you know Darkseid from DC
comics.
Constantine will also likely pop up again and if we do get a season 2 then we could
return to hell for her to get back the kid who ended up being trapped there.
Either way him getting back his tools wraps up the first major arc in the season and that
sets things up for the Corinthian and Vortex storyline that follows.
Episode 6 is my favourite in the entire run and this puts together two storylines from
the comics namely The Sound Of Her Wings and also Men Of Good Fortune. I'm currently working
on a full breakdown of just this entry alone but it beautifully adapts two of the best
entries in the soruce material.
The first part has us following death as she goes about her business and this shows Dream
that he needs not to be isolated from humanity and that he should find purpose in his job.
On the opposite side of this is the story of Hob Gadling who Dream builds a friendship
with after meeting him several times across 100 year increments. We also meet one of Constantines
ancestors which ties back to Dream discussing how he'd met her family before in centuries
long gone.
Now along with them its this part of the season that brings Jed and Rose into the fold. The
pair are siblings with the latter being forced to separate from him. This has led to her
searching for him and her storyline is very much about a family reunion with her also
finding some Unity...with Unit...f**king hell who writes this sh*t.
Anyway it's time for Jared's easter egg corner.
-
Ok so along with Rose is her friend Lyta. In the comics she was actually the daughter
of both Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman. Her husband also has ties to the source material
too and he's the character Hector Hall. Hector Hall is the son of both Hawkman and Hawkgirl
and he himself ended up becoming a Sandman in the comics.
In the show we watch Hector impregnate Lyta in the dreaming and incase you were wondering
who this actually belongs to, it's Morpheus.
This will no doubt be explored in a second season and it's one of the big things that
we leave the season wondering about.
-
That wasn't that bad, now The Corinthian wishes to use Rose as the Dream Vortex for
his evil plans. Thus he ends up kidnapping him. To make matters even more complicated
we learn that Gault has too been using Jed. If you're confused about what's going on with
her she's basically a nightmare that wants to become a dream. The comics didn't really
have Gault and instead they had Brute and Glob who were the ones that were messing with
Jed's head.
However what they did have is the Cereal Convention which is a big event for serial killers.
-
The book expands on this a lot more and we discover that the Corinthian spent a lot of
time on earth twisting people into violent killers like him. The source material had
a lot of fourth wall breaking moments in it as this was presented as a type of comic con
and with the book being a comic...yeah you get it it.
Rose is accompanied by Gilbert aka Fiddlers Green and with Gault now back, it’s just
The Corinthian that needs to return as Dreams last missing creation.
Now whilst Rose’s dream vortex gains strength, Dream becomes vulnerable.
This is why the Corinthian tries to convince Rose that Dream is the bad guy because she
has the potential to weaken him until the point of death.
Dream ends up coming out on top though and he ends up destroying the Corinthian leading
to the main villain of the season being taken out.
Now at this point the show felt a bit like the Return of the king extended edition with
us getting lots of different endings.
With Rose we watch as the Dream Vortex starts to rage and this is why several of the dreams
start to collapse into one.
Luckily, Unity makes a sacrifice taking Rose’s heart she becoming the dream vortex which
leads to her death so that the domain can stabilise. Now because of this Desires plans
are over and Dream threatens the character in a scene that's lifted straight from the
comics. Those had the pair developing an uneasy truce between each other but I do hope that
Season 2 goes beyond that and that we see the two clashing once more as Desire is by
far the most mysterious villain in the entire thing.
They were actually Dream's favourite sibling at one point but anomosity grew between the
pair as he retreated to live a life of solitude. Now Lucifer drops probably the biggest tease
for an arc in the second season and we watch them close out by saying they'll do something
that will make God Angry.
This kinda also goes against the source material too as when we see Lucifer again in the comics
they say that they're ditching hell and closing it.
However the show looks like Lucifer may lead hell to war against Dream but what would make
god far more angry is Lucifer leaving to go to earth like the comics.
With hell closed in the comics, Lucifer would need to choose who to give the key to which
led to many different deities petitioning to rule hell. Azazael the creepy being that
speaks to lucifer was one of these so expect to see them back once more.
Now I would expect that we will follow Dream as he heads into Hell once more to free his
former love Nada if the show picks up on that arc. With Hell expanding everything could
end up being in turmoil and it may be Dreams forgiveness of the character that makes Lucifer
stay their hand. They could end up seeing that forgiveness is extremely important and
possibly call off the invasion, close hell and then continue like what we had in the
comics.
Now as for my thoughts on it, I think there were some really really strong entries here
and a lot that perfectly captured the comics. The opening episode, diner one and death one
were all excellent and I think that they're something fans are gonna like. However I don't
think it's perfect and there are some bits here and there that I think could've been
explained better for new comers. This includes Desire's plan, some of the realms and also
more about what was really happening with Rose.
Still though what we got is one of the most solid adaptations of the work that I think
we could have.
The show is stunning at points and it's laced with so many cool little details. Even things
like the signs being gobbldegook in Episode 8 because text in dreams comes out like that.
However I think that the ending kinda dropped the ball a bit with us getting half an hour
of teases rather than a climactic end to everything. The Corinthian kinda went out in an understated
way and I jsut wish that had been more of the main focus rather than the Vortex and
then ten minutes with Lucifer scene.
Still I'm complaining about very minor things in the grand scheme and hats off to those
involved for bringing us the best adaptation that I think we could've got. I've not really
seen Tom Sturridge in much but he brings a very somber, slow talking Dream that has a
great presence to him. He's enigmatic and though he's probably difficult to relate to,
he's arguably one of the best portrayals of an entity like this that we've ever had.
I really hope that the show is popular and I think that those who love the source material
will find a lot to like here.
Netflix are pretty ruthless when it comes to cancelling things but hopefully they actually
give this a chance so we can get the full arc as it does get better and better.
In the end I'm gonna score it a solid 8/10 which has the dips due to the way things were
wrapped up.
Still though, entries like episode 6 had me crying throughout and it's something that
I'll probably revisit a lot as it's own standalong thing.
I'd obviously love to hear your thoughts on it all so make sure you comment below and
let me know.
We’re running a competition right now and giving away 3 copies of Doctor Strange In
The Multiverse Of Madness On The 15th Of August. All you have to do to be in with a chance
of winning is like the video, make sure you subscribe with notifications on and drop a
comment below with your thoughts on the episode. We pick the comments at random at the end
of the month and the winners of the last one are on screen right now so message me @heavySpoilers
if that’s you.
If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect
scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it’s definitely worth
checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll
see you next time. Take care, Peace