Critique: “The Sandman”, the Netflix series really does justice to the Neil Gaiman comic?

When the world of comics was still considered a children’s entertainment, there were three works that defined the dark and mature era of the ninth art, ‘The Return of the Dark Knight’, ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Sandman’ by Neil Gaiman. Now, the Netflix adaptation comes after many years and attempts at adaptation, but is it up to the task?

Since last August 5th, is available on Netflix’The man of sand’ the fantasy series with 10 chapters starring Tom Sturridge as Morpheus or The King of Dreams, one of the seven eternal beings, more powerful and ancient than the gods themselves.

For those who don’t know him, ‘The man of sand’ It is based on the graphic novel of the same name written by Neil Gaiman. and published by DC Comics, which later moved on to the Vertigo imprint, the company’s most grown-up and mature storyline. The comic was well received by critics and received major literary awards during its existence.

Also, ‘The man of sand’ is portrayed by Tom Sturridgewhich gives life to Morpheus, along with Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, Gwendoline Christie from “Game of Thrones” as the new version of Lucifer Morningstar, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death or Death and Boyd Hoolbrook as Corinthian, among many others.

Was it worth the wait to finally see “The Sandman” series?

As with the aforementioned “Return of the Dark Knight” and “Watchmen”, the first adaptation of “The Sandman” has a lot of weight on its shoulders, because it would not just be the time when Morpheus’ story would be brought to the screen, but, in addition, it should also meet the expectations of one, if not the best, story that has been seen in the ninth art.

However, you must judge it for what it is, a 10 episode series that tells the story of Morpheus, a being more powerful than the gods themselves and who is mistakenly brought into the waking world by a Satanist who wants the return of Death his son to him. , but since he’s not who he wants, he locks him up for more than a century.

Morpheus is stripped of his tools of work, such as his helmet, a ruby ​​and his sand, with which he controls the world of Reverie, and that, being absent in his kingdom, humanity begins to have problems of not being able to. make you sleep. , or not waking up from an eternal sleep.

One of the first complaints i had when i saw ‘The man of sand’ were his special effects, which are sometimes quite convincing and credible, but at other times, and what seem to have been the easiest, they barely succeed, bordering on mediocre. Although at no time were they bad enough to stop watching the series.

That yes, despite the start of “The Sandman” being a bit slow, there are brutal and so well crafted moments in the Netflix series, that it’s exciting to think about what they can do over the next few seasons, if it’s because the level, even if it is not that of the comic, it manages to touch, at times, the hypnotic of Neil Gaiman’s work.

Furthermore, it is to be applauded that, in a series like this, which I would dare to say a bit of a niche, Netflix has allowed explicit violence and deep and complex themes that, otherwise, would have been censored in other series. Although, and as in most of the fantasy or fiction genre, as far as the series is concerned, the rhythm sometimes comes to hinder the narrative.

Actually the pacing wouldn’t be something that stands out, but being ‘The Sandman’, the narrative in the comic was so fluid that I would have liked to have seen better editing work. However, it’s never a hassle that dulls the experience of watching a fantasy series as dense as this one.

Finally, I won’t be the first or the last to report it, but as has happened to many, the image of ‘The Sandman’ looked weird, I also changed the screen or monitors several times because I thought my device was a thing. But no, the strangely flattened proportions they chose were entirely deliberate by the creators, as Netflix claims.

Even so, “The Sandman” works flawlessly in its first season and sets the stage for a story that could span many years into the company’s future and become the saga they were looking for so much, and that is so much acclaimed by critics and subscribers. generalists.