Sandman
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Me, watching the first episode: I like this show, this is great!
Me, watching the second episode and sobbing my eyeballs right out of my skull: I don’t like this show any moreMy husband came home from work for his lunch shortly after I watched the second episode. And because I didn’t want to share spoilers with him, as I knew he was going to watch it as soon as he finished his shift, the only way I could explain to Insomniac what was wrong and why I was crying at my laptop was by announcing “Morpheus and I are having an argument. We are not friends right now.”
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Me, watching the first episode: I like this show, this is great!
Me, watching the second episode and sobbing my eyeballs right out of my skull: I don’t like this show any moreMy husband came home from work for his lunch shortly after I watched the second episode. And because I didn’t want to share spoilers with him, as I knew he was going to watch it as soon as he finished his shift, the only way I could explain to Insomniac what was wrong and why I was crying at my laptop was by announcing “Morpheus and I are having an argument. We are not friends right now.”
I watched that episode right before going to the gym, so I had to explain to my trainer he wasn’t pushing me too hard, just a cartoon dream wizard broke my heart.
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@GF It definitely did not help that my senior dog was sitting at my feet while I was watching. “Broke my heart” is the right phrase.
On an unrelated note, does anyone else feel like they did Gwendoline Christie dirty with the hair and costuming? She is so statuesque and stunning, but I feel like every scene with her just involved a shapeless robe made by the high school theater production’s costuming mom and the world’s dumbest haircut, to the point that it was distracting.
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@Aria Nah, that was deliberate. They wanted to present Lucifer as androgynous since the Devil does not have a crotch, which I honestly don’t think they committed hard enough to pull off (and I’m very curious how-slash-if they plan to dress her for an adaptation of that beach scene in later issues of the story). I do kind of think they should have found another enby for the role if that was their desire,* but I will say she does stress me the eff out wondering what Lucifer will do to people.
*Rimshot. Speaking of Desire, I need to check names, because I’m almost positive the person playing Desire in the show voices Desire in the audiobook.
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@GF Ohh, I realized they were going for androgynous, and I’m totally down with that. But there’s androgynous and then there’s just badly dressed and I feel like they did the latter when they could’ve given us, like…
(
Or (with a different top)…
Or my personal favorite:
Though that last one overlaps with Desire a fair bit.
Mostly, I just really, really hate what they did with her hair. It’s so unflattering and she’s just wonderful. Sigh.
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I’m mad! So mad! Finished it I NEED SEASON 2!
I loved it!
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@BloodAngel Seen up until 24/7 so far. I like it so far. I don’t know if I love it, but I definetly like it.
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Finished it. I’ve loved these comics for years and I’m beyond happy with what they’ve done. And holy shit Morpheus himself is astonishingly well done.
I draw things! http://www.mahaldoodles.com
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@WhiteRaven I hope you enjoy it!
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Also, both of my older kiddos are reading the comic cause of the show! They are taking turns with it in the same room. Just finished the first one today, been reading all day!
They watched the show with me now they demand more!
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Just wrapped this up. Phenomenally well executed. I thought it was particularly interesting the lengths they went to cast many characters as close to the comic depictions as possible.
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I watched an episode with my husband and I am intrigued. But I will not be watching this alone.
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@junipersky Keep tissues nearby, is all I’m saying.
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I’d quibble with a few things, here and there. The first couple episodes were a bit heavy on that sort of “gentlemen, as you all know, we are cops” sort of exposition with Lucienne and Dream. A few scenes would’ve done better for a couple more seconds before the reveal. Abel’s murders are a bit less visceral than I would’ve liked. Some of the visual direction in hell wasn’t as strong as I would’ve liked. I wish they’d kept Alex’s Eternal Waking.
There are some other things that are active improvements over the book. Dee is a much stronger antagonist overall, and the way his arc is handled makes Ethyl’s amulet a much more integrated part of the story. Having Lucifer stand as Choronzon’s champion makes their antagonism much more personal. Introducing Merv and Matthew earlier is better because Merv rules and Matthew a) makes the “Dream and his raven” thing integrated from the start and b) lets Matthew take the useful narrative role of “clueless newbie who needs to be exposited to.” Integrating Rose and Lyta from the start is going to pay off in later seasons (knock on wood and curse the name of Netflix). Gregory was a much more clear and present narrative beat than Cain and Abel’s letters of commission, even if I hope Dream brings him back for later seasons.
I also liked how they really integrated the Corinthian in both the Burgess and the Vortex plots, making it feel a lot more unified overall. And I loved their take on Kirby’s Sandman.
I’m biased because I’ve loved the comics for at least twenty years, but overall, I loved this. Every casting choice was perfect and I want to see more.
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@insomniac I’d be inclined to agree with you re: the heavy handed exposition in the first couple eps, except that oh my god after we watched them I still had to explain all that shit to my dad that the show had just painstakingly explained. It just goes to show, I guess…
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I love it, great adaptation, 9/10
1 star deducted for bad styling. Lucifer is the worst offender, in the cheap PVC outfit and the TERRIBLE HAIR COME ON, but I also had a really hard time with Joanna Constantine’s intro outfit. Def could have gone with a different costume designer imo
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@insomniac I’d be inclined to agree with you re: the heavy handed exposition in the first couple eps, except that oh my god after we watched them I still had to explain all that shit to my dad that the show had just painstakingly explained. It just goes to show, I guess…
Oh, for sure–Sandman is a lot of fairly high-concept fantasy being delivered quickly, I completely understand that you need to do a lot of exposition.
I just dislike the specific method of “character A tells character B something both characters already know,” no matter how dramatically it’s done. Between the two, I’d say stick with Dream’s voiceover to deliver exposition,; that makes no pretense of being anything but speaking directly to the audience to fill us in on what’s what and doesn’t make me wonder why Lucienne’s exposition isn’t being responded to with “…yes, I know. I’m Dream.”
It’s not a dealbreaker or anything, and I really do understand that exposition is always hard to pull off well. Moreover, in this case it is fundamentally not for me (I know the Sandman cast better than some branches of my own extended family, I don’t need an exposition). Like I said, a quibble, something that I felt could have been better in the first two episodes.
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I quite enjoyed the first season.
One minor thing - it’d have been cool (but probably legalities prevented it) to see some of the Sandman-inspired characters crossing over by the actors who played them in other shows. Lucifer and Mazikeen, John Constantine, etc.
It was really fun though. Probably the best comic book adaptation I’ve seen, and for a title I never thought was filmable.
