DISCLAIMER: I watched the whole thing in a COVID-induced fever-fugue state over the course of about 25 hours. Arguably, this only heightened the experience.
I dearly love the Sandman comics, it's no exaggeration to say that my first read of them was a revelation. They changed my life, opened my eyes to a new way of telling and relating to stories. but the techniques and presentation that were so well-suited to comics seemed doomed to make them a poor fit for film/TV. I never really got my hopes up over the years at this or that news, and until I heard Gaiman discussing details of production earlier this year, I didn't really let myself believe it was happening. too much could go wrong, and even Gaiman's support only meant so much after Martin's fervent defense of the latter seasons of Game of Thrones.
I avoided spoilers, promo materials, and even forced myself just to skim conversations friends were having about it before I got around to watching it. Having watched it, my reaction is...mixed.
It's a very well-made show, the most important casting choices are all excellent, the CGI is beautiful, and the story is adapted and presented faithfully and appropriately. at times I felt myself transported to the feeling I'd had reading the comic, those highs are really hard to nail and at times, they did it.
But I have reservations in spite of those positives. I didn't have any major issues with changes from the comic after the first episode; that is, the first ep changed little enough that I found the few changes distracting and pointless (seems to have been mostly an effort to make Alex a more dynamic character through various ways). later eps changed more to the point it didn't seem worth critiquing differences when the shape of whole subplots could be different.
Ultimately, I think they didn't change enough to justify this version. There's a certain sense that the whole production is kind of gratuitous. Recreating beautiful, heartfelt moments from the comic is a nice idea, but they're delivered with so much emphasis that it feels like the show wants to stop and wait for you to applaud whenever one of the characters says something iconic. It stops feeling natural and strikes more theatrically. One of the most glaring character traits of comic Morpheus is his lack of self-awareness, but show Morpheus never lets you forget that he's *performing*.
There are other ways the show's production is doomed to fall short of the comic. The surreal landscapes and impossibly vivid grotesques featured in graphic detail in the comic have been narrowed, simplified, or simply removed. This is probably in service of saving money on CGI so that the more up-close, character-oriented stuff can be better, and the CGI that remains is generally really high quality. Sandman TV's visuals are certainly trippy, but usually in the service of adequately realizing one of the less-trippy visuals from the comic. That's a legitimate artistic resource allocation choice, and I think the choices mostly make sense, but the overall effect is underwhelming compared to what's presented in the comic. Maybe some people are so desperate for live-action versions of their favorite works that they don't mind those compromises, but I can't help but feel a little sad for the visionary limits associated with those costs.
There are basically two avenues to take in this kind of project: make something that depends and expands on the original work, or make something that works as an alternate interpretation or introduction to the original work. They clearly went with the latter choice, and I don't blame them for that. And this is no alternate interpretation, but an earnest attempt to repackage the same story for a modern TV audience. It's an effort to expand the Sandman audience to people who might not want to read 35-year-old comics. It seems successful in that regard, but that choice means its appeal is necessarily limited compared to what might have been created with a different goal in mind, and being aware of that makes me feel a little disappointed, even though I understand what would appeal to me most would be a far less commercially viable product (ain't that always the way).
All in all that's to say I'm really glad this was made, I'm glad there is an audience for Sandman stories, I'm glad there are producers willing to fund efforts to tell those stories. The issues that were adapted for Season 1 are by far the most straightforward and easily-adapted to film, so I'm optimistic that future seasons may dig more deeply into a comparatively philosophical, cerebral storytelling approach (though I shouldn't get my hopes up too much, as most viewers would probably find that stuff pretty boring). But for now, as much as I enjoyed being reminded of the stories I've grown around, my appreciation for the series never really transcended being grateful for the really vivid reminder.
Last point: although the casting is generally great, I have some concerns about the seemingly pervasive choice to cast as many parts as possible with black actors to the exclusion of other non-white actors. Maybe that's primarily a factor of the demographics in southeast England -- filming in America it might have been easier to cast people of asian, middle eastern, or other non-white appearance. At any rate, it doesn't detract from the stories except in how obviously sparsely populated the show is with actors who aren't white or black. Given the subject matter, it also means the show seems particularly intent on killing or traumatizing black people. A change for diversity's sake is harmless enough, but a series of changes that happen to depict the suffering of one group over and over again for no clear reason just starts to feel uncomfortable.
UPDATE: Netflix released an 11th episode over a week after I finished watching the series, and it's a fantastic adaptation of two of the comic's best issues; one entirely CGI, and the other almost entirely without. They were so well done it raised my opinion of the entire show. We have so much to look forward to.
