The Sandman spoiler-free review: Open-minded comics fans will love this show

The supernatural side of DC comics is probably the best comic book content there is. But, sadly, we’re still years away from seeing Constantine in live action again or any similar character. Fortunately, we now have the live action adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s iconic The Sandman comics currently streaming on Netflix. And, there are in fact two Constantines in this show, not John though.

The series is 10 episodes long and follows Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, as he tries to get his tools back after he manages to finally escape from his imprisonment by the mortals of the waking world. His imprisonment obviously had a very bad impact on his realm and the waking world, too, and now Dream has to repair everything.

For those who don’t know about the character, Morpheus is the Lord of dreams. He rules over his realm called The Dreaming, and he creates and controls dreams and nightmares. Interesting stuff!

The show explains everything perfectly and it doesn’t require having any prior knowledge of the character or the world to enjoy.

Netflix’s The Sandman is as good an adaptation that could be made of the comics

Right from the start, Netflix’s The Sandman has its own identity. It feels very comic-booky. The tone is dark. The story takes the characters to various realms (including hell) and multiple time periods, too.

As everyone could already tell from the trailers, the show definitely cost a lot and it looks fantastic. Some of the shots are straight from the comics. Even some conversations are word for word the same from the comics. They definitely spent a lot of time planning and making this series. The effort is quite visible. This is truly one the best comic book shows of the year along with The Boys.

The series is created by Gaiman himself and David S. Goyer. So it’s very accurate and the elements that aren’t accurate to the comics still work.

Tom Sturridge is perfect as Morpheus. He just feels like someone who has lived for thousands of years and the character’s personality is visible from his subtle expressions. The entire cast is amazing. People were complaining about Gwendolyn Christie being Lucifer in this series but seriously she’s great as well.

The writing in this series occasionally hits very hard. It’s consistently great but episode 4-6 are definitely the best ones in this season. Though the second act of the show (episode 7-10) are not as good as the first six, they’re still good enough. The series certainty has some amazing deep dialogues about dreams!

Open-minded Sandman fans will definitely love this show. It’s understandable that adaptations are different or else there’s no point to their existence. Especially in this case when the adaption is mostly shot for shot, word for word accurate. And, if the creator of the character is making the changes then no one should have problem with the differences unless, of course, they’re actually bad. Which is not the case here.

There’s a lot of character development for Morpheus. He starts as a strict God-like figure who really didn’t like changes or wasn’t as empathetic towards mortals other than his duties. But, over the course of the series, he learns the importance of changes, choice, and, surprisingly, friends.

Netflix’s The Sandman is seriously as good as they could’ve made a live-action adaptation. It might not be the best thing in every way, but it’s satisfying enough for a first season. People will definitely demand for another season. Lets just hope Netflix doesn’t cancel this. This is definitely worth a watch, it’ll draw you in right from the first episode!

Overall rating: 8.5/10