The Sandman: Grade the premiere from The Sandman: Grade, Netflix’s Vast Neil Gaiman adaptation
The Sandman, Netflix’s long-awaited adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s comics begins “in the world of waking that humanity insists on calling the real world as if desires have no impact on your choices,” the main character, Morpheus, tells us at the beginning of the series’ first episode.
We observe a raven following the carriage of a horse and taking off into an alternate world, Morpheus — aka Dream, the Lord of the Dreaming, also known as King of Dreams and many other names adds “There is a new life to come when you shut your eyes and enter my world.”
In reality, The 10 episodes of Season 1 episodes that started streaming on Friday plunge viewers into the Dream’s realm, a once beautiful and rich play area (think massive golden doors to a world where dragons play) which begins to fall apart when the lord of the kingdom leaves “to chase a rogue dream,” as he tells us. He is imprisoned for over one century.
In a second we’ll be interested in hearing what you thought of the Sandman’s debut. But first, a quick recap:
Morpheus (played by the Sweetbitter’s Tom Sturridge) sets off to hunt down the previously mentioned nightmare serial killer with eyes where they ought to be and that is known as The Corinthian (The Afflictive’s Boyd Holbrook). The fans of The Vertigo comics are familiar with the ruby, helm and the pouch of sand Morpheus is able to grab before saying goodbye to the dreaming’s library Lucienne (The The Witches’ Vivienne Acheampong). Then he swiftly tracks The Corinthian back to Berlin and is trying to put an end to the frightful nightmare, when we hear the sound of chanting and Morpheus is taken away to a different place completely.
He ends up naked and encased in a magical world created by a wealthy man named Roderick Burgess (Game of Thrones’s Charles Dance) and who’s trying to capture Dream’s sister, Death, instead. (Oops!) (Oops!) The Corinthian is on his way to Burgess’s home to offer the old man some tips. First, his accounts (the gem, helm, and pouch) are able to impart certain aspects of the power of Dream to those who own the items. The second reason is that no one should be able to fall asleep while in his presence, and the dream lord can’t escape.
The next day due to Morpheus his imprisonment the people do not wake from their sleep. One of them is a teenage London girl called Unity Kincaid; she’ll become an important character later in the season.
Burgess is unsuccessful in her attempts to negotiate with Morpheus however Morpheus, the spirit world being, won’t talk to the mortal. If we jump 10 years forward, Burgess has wealth, health and wealth thanks to Morpheus’s accessories. He ultimately conceives the young woman Ethel and demands she undergo an abortion. The woman then runs away… then she takes Morpheus the ruby along. We learn later her son is, named Johnny and he’ll be a part of the story in a subsequent episode.
In the end, the story is set in the future, and Burgess her child, Alex, is an old man… who is Morpheus kept in that space. As Alex’s wheelchair accidentally rubs off some of the magical marks that are holding Dream in captivity The prisoner is able to induce a guard to sleep, leading to a series of happenings that culminate in an opening in a vortex, and Dream being pulled into the vortex.
After that, Alex has a dream that Morpheus offers him the gift “of forever sleep,” the dream’s lord claims by blowing sand into his face and sending his captor to a nightmare sleep that he will never wake. In another place, The Corinthian — freshly killed that saw the victim’s eyes have been slitis aware of exactly what transpired. He mumbles on, and he’s not stopping whatever he’s doing until he’s changed the world “to be the same as I do.”
A severely weakened Morpheus is returned to his kingdom where Lucienne smiles happily at her… and then gently informs the king that their realm as well as his castle “are not the same as when they were when you first left.”
It’s not a joke. It’s a deserted area! Lucienne states that because of the time he was absent for several years, the land was able to fall apart, and a lot of its inhabitants left. However, Dream is determined to make things back in order to ensure that nightmares and dreams won’t take over the world of the living. “I created this world once, Lucienne,” he declares as the decrepit massive doors of The Dreaming draw closed behind them. “I will do it again.”