"The Sandman" started life as a series of comic books - a series that had a significant and lasting impact on comics, and sent the author of the series - a young guy named "Neil Gaiman" - rocketing to fame. I didn't read the actual comic books, but I was working at the Merril Collection at the time they were published and that meant I heard about the series quickly and started reading the graphic novel collections. I was one of the many, many people who thought that the series was pretty much the definition of "unfilmable." As a result, I approached this TV series with a mix of fascination and trepidation, buoyed by the good reviews. And you know ... I'm totally okay with being proven wrong.
Tom Sturridge is Dream, the main character. He is one of the Endless, the embodiment of all humanity's dreams, and governs the dreams of every creature in the universe. The first episode - as in the comics - sees him captured in an arcane ritual in 1915(?) by Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) who was actually trying to capture Death (who is also one of the Endless). He's held captive for over 100 years, until an accident frees him. He's pissed - and his absence has changed a lot of things.
For some reason I loved (even more than the rest of the series) the Hob Gadling story arc. In the greater scheme of things, it's merely to make a point about Dream maturing slightly and perhaps better understanding his own place in the universe. But I like the Hob Gadling character (played here by Ferdinand Kingsley) and I like the story arc that goes with - and, like the rest of this TV series, they did a damn good job of it.
Many characters have shifted gender or skin tone from the source material. In the original, Death appeared as a very pale skinned Goth-looking young woman. But like the other Endless, she changes form at need. So it doesn't matter that in the TV series she's black: they picked a young woman (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) who captures the spirit of the character perfectly. She's great.
Lucien, the Librarian of the Dreaming (a favourite character of mine) has become Lucienne. He was older, male, white, and scarecrow-thin. She's now female, black, and fairly young-looking, but again: they caught the spirit of the character, and that's more important than skin colour or gender. Fortunate for them that this is about concepts and ideas more than skin or gender because they could choose the best actor for the job regardless of other characteristics. They've filled several parts - some very small so far, like Merv - with big names who were happy to take small parts to be involved in a property they love. Mark Hamill has about four or five lines across 11 episodes as Merv, but he apparently jumped at it because he's a huge fan.
One thing I can't answer to that intrigues me. How would this look to someone who didn't grow up with the comics? It must look batshit crazy. "Preacher" comes to mind as a similarly bizarre comic-turned-TV-series.
Another strange thing that happened in the comic-to-TV translation: this feels darker to me. That doeesn't make sense, because the comic book had the same sequences, for example the same convention of serial killers. But it feels different when it's glossy colourful frames on a comic book page to when you see talking, moving people on a TV screen doing the same horrible things. They're presenting the same material - but the change of media has a bigger effect than I expected.
They've changed a number of smaller plot points while accurately maintaining the larger story arcs. The thing that intrigues me the most is that this version of Dream seems to be ... learning, accepting that he's made some mistakes and slowly trying to remedy them. The comic book version was far more unbending. And the outcome of the entire series was predicated on his inability to change. And yet - Lyta Hall has already had her baby, which suggests that the original end-game is still in the works. I like that this Dream is a bit more flexible ... but I don't know how they can resolve the series in the same way having gone down this path. I'm more than willing to find out though, as it's been extraordinarily well done so far.