Initial Sandman Review (up to Epsidoe 7)

Watching The Sandman on Netflix and loving it.

The casting is for the most part spot-on. I'm admittedly on the fence about Lucifer - I'd have liked a little more of David Bowie. Gwen Christie is not quite slim enough, and Lucifer comes across to me as kind of slim and ethereal in the comics and more androgynous. Christie is almost too feminine for the role. (Should probably mention that Michael Sheen is cast as Lucifer in the audio-book version.) But, Gaiman picked her - so, what do I know? Also Lucifer is hardly a lead.

Tom Sturridge is spot-on for Dream, he's perfect casting. I don't see how they could have done better. He is actually far better than James McAvoy who did the audio book.

Death, and the others also all work rather well. Jenna Coleman's take on Constantine works rather well for me. And I'm actually glad they did the gender flip.

I've been re-reading the comics and listening to the audio book - so
I can see where they made the changes, and surprisingly enough, they all work. Some kind of fix issues I had with the comics. Also, I was rather surprised by what they kept in the series. I'd have taken out the Will Shakespeare bit.

The major changes or alterations between the comics and the television series so far are:
( spoilers for both the comics and the television series )

**

I'm only up to episode 7. Episode 6 : The Sound of Her Wings - is a truly lovely meditation on death. And unique. I was rather impressed with it, and the casting for everyone is more or less spot on. (I would have traded the actor who plays Desire with the one who plays Lucifer, I honestly think that actor fits it more. I wish they'd gone with a non-binary actor for Lucifer - Gwen Christie isn't non-binary. On the other hand - the actor playing Desire is kind of perfect in the role - and a bigger role.)

The casting of Dream is perfect though. And so is everyone else. Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess is very well done. As is David Thewilis in the role of John Dee.

The production is spot on, and so is the writing.

Right now, my only real quibble is Netflix won't let me watch the end credit sequences. (It chops them off and takes you to the next episode immediately - which is nice, unless they create cool end credits.)

I actually think it's an improvement on the comics and audio book, altering some of the things that I'd had issues with in the original versions.