The Netflix adaptation of The Sandman was pretty good overall and well worth watching. I loved the first season quite a bit. Some people didn’t like that many of the characters changed race and/or gender from their appearance in the comics, but that didn’t bother me. However, I did hesitate before watching the second season due to recent revelations regarding creator Neil Gaiman. I ultimately decided all the other people working on the series both in front of and behind the camera shouldn’t be punished for Gaiman’s sins, so I did end up watching it. That said, I don’t blame anyone who skipped it.

When the revelations about Gaiman came out, it really devasted me. I didn’t mind so much when other actors, musicians, comedians, writers, directors, etc. were revealed to be horrible people, but Gaiman was one of my favorite writers. I loved The Sandman (in fact, the reason this blog is called Mania Delight is because one of the characters from The Sandman, Delirium, goes by Mania in ancient Greece and before that was known as Delight). I once considered Gaiman’s novel American Gods to be a perfect novel. I also enjoyed The Graveyard Book (an homage to The Jungle Book) and Neverwhere (which felt like a Douglas Adams novel.) Now, I can’t bring myself to read anything by him. I’m worried other favorite writers of mine will turn out to be horrible people as well.

Anyway, back to the television series. When they announced there was only enough material for two seasons, I didn’t believe it at first. There are over 70 issues of the comic spread out over 10 volumes and the first season only covered the first two volumes. How could they wrap the story up with just one more season? Then I remembered much of The Sandman consisted of stand-alone stories in which Morpheus barely makes an appearance (Volumes 3, 6, 8, and 10). Also, Volume 5: A Game of You has basically the same plot as Volume 2: The Doll’s House, so that could easily be left out as well (they do include the character of Wanda from A Game of You in a different plotline).

So what’s left does fit into a single season: Volume 4 in which Lucifer gives up being ruler of Hell, Volume 7 in which Dream searches for his brother Destruction, and Volume 9 which wraps up the story. I didn’t like the second season as much as the first. For one thing, they talk about the inevitability of Dream’s death throughout the whole season to such an extent it becomes tedious. I remember his death being more of a surprise in the comics, although I haven’t read them for a while.

Also, we aren’t told explicitly who Puck and Loki were working for in the comics, leaving us with a bit of mystery. When the Corinthian asks, Puck says “I could answer you endlessly” implying that it’s one of the Endless and Puck does indeed name one of the Endless in his conversation with the Corinthian but it’s kind of hidden (just look for a word that starts with “D”). However, the television adaptation takes the mystery out of it and simply tells us Puck and Loki were working for themselves.

I also didn’t like that they included Father Time and Mother Night from Sandman: Overture. Suddenly giving parents to The Endless wasn’t necessary in either the comics or the television show and their appearance in the series added nothing to the plot. Also, characters like Delirium and Chaos should have been more animated. They shouldn’t have had a flat delivery. This made their appearances less fun.

The penultimate episode in which they hold Dream’s wake was one of the most boring episodes of a television series I’ve ever watched. It was hard to watch it all the way through to the end. I was also puzzled by the decision to add romance to the plot, pairing off characters who weren’t couples in the series (like Constantine and The Corinthian) for no apparent reason. All the coupling off didn’t add anything in my opinion.

However, I did really enjoy most of the series (the last episode based on Death: The High Cost of Living was great) and I do think it’s worth watching overall, although that might just be my nostalgia talking. It was a treat to finally see a live-action version of one of my favorite comics. I think they did a pretty good job overall. I’d also recommend The Sandman/Doom Patrol spinoff Dead Boy Detectives which was also a lot of fun and works well as a stand-alone series if you haven’t seen the other two series it’s a spinoff from.