The Sandman is an ambitious attempt to bring to life an extraordinarily imaginative universe ★★★★☆

As a non-reader of The Sandman (the comic book series) and moderate connoisseur of the oeuvre of the English fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (so, the high word is out) we found the first episode of the big new Netflix series The Sandman but a difficult affair. It’s as if before an evening of fun board games you first have to immerse yourself in the rules of the game for an hour before it gets cozy. Gaiman’s oeuvre, in which he projects his own version of mythology onto a partly recognizable world, is difficult enough to film. In 2017 an attempt was made with American Godsof which we once thought the first season (in 2017) was very successful (but the second season soon got bogged down in obscure nonsense and mythical gossip).

It’s looking good though, and ten episodes later we’re glad we’ve finished the ride, because The Sandman is an ambitious attempt to bring to life an extraordinarily imaginative universe, in which beautiful stories are told with the help of some top actors. The title figure itself is one of the nicknames of Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) who, from the Dromewijk, is either the Dreamingrules over our dreams and nightmares. In the world of The Sandman hell is a real place and Lucifer is a character (Gwendoline Christie), as is Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Kain and Abel and of course the twin sisters Desire and Despair.

Visually there is a lot to gain from the series, and the many fans of the comic series also think that successful images have been found to illustrate the drawn world of The Sandman to bring to life. In the first episode, Morpheus is captured by a mortal, causing chaos in the dream world for almost a century. When Morpheus is finally freed, he must search for his permanent attributes, which in the wrong hands could cause disaster, and ensure that a number of escaped nightmares are kept in check.

The Sandman doesn’t really like the complex mythology that is rigged here; the fun is more in the fact that each episode takes a different turn, and that top English actors (David Thewlis, Stephen Fry, and Derek Jacobi, to name a few) pop up all the time, as if The Sandman the natural successor of dr. Who is. When the central quest has trickled down a bit, The Sandman get off to a good start.

Be sure to check out the sixth episode (‘The Sounds of Her Wings’), one of the best television hours of the past year. Morpheus goes out with his sister Death in a tour of mortal men, an experience that naturally leads him to the central solitude in the life of the immortals, to which he himself belongs. What would happen if he immortalized a human with the help of his sister? Wouldn’t that provide the opening to a normal friendship? The way this theme is then ingeniously developed is fantasy at its best.

Ten episodes are followed by a bonus episode with two separate stories, including a short animation film by Hisko Hulsing (Dreams of a Thousand Cats), also known for the animated series Undone on Amazon Prime. It indicates that The Sandman also Black Mirror-like potential for future single episodes and movies.