Spoilers The Sandman spoiler-filled discussion thread

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Instead of continuing discussing the show in the news thread but with spoiler code all the time, I figured it was better to just create a whole new thread where we can talk about the show openly. The other thread can still be used for news related items, which hopefully will be aplenty for years to come.

I've been super excited about this series since it first was announced in 2019. I'm relatively new to the world, having only first started reading it a decade ago but I sure wish I had done so a lot sooner. It's some of the finest work I've ever read and I've been rereading yet again in preparation for tomorrow's release (just finished A Game of You).

Everything I've seen and read about this series sounds very promising and I trust that it'll will do comics justice. I mean, Neil Gaiman is very happy with them so I imagine I will be, too.

 

What a shocking twist! Morpheus was the one who killed Uncle Ben all along?! Who would have guessed!

 

I can’t believe it’s actually happening after so many years of false starts, to the point where I’ve been so lax about following news that the first I heard about the new show was from a banner on Netflix two days ago.

Super looking forward to it. First two books in the first season I heard?

From the trailers so far I think it looks spot on.

 

Yup, through The Doll's House.

One thing I'll be curious to see is how the show handles the solo stories. For the first two volumes, that's not so much of an issue since they can be easily folded into the main narrative. I'm guessing "Tales in the Sand" will be either at least partially covered with the first visit to Hell or part of "Season of Mists" next season. Likewise, I'm betting "Men of Good Fortune" will be weaved into the narrative of "The Sound of Her Wings."

However, what about stories that stand solidly on their own but are fascinating on their own like "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" or "Façade"? It's certainly easy to pepper each season with two or so solos, but there are a lot of solo stories to cover (and that's before thinking about "The High Cost of Living," "Time of Your Life" and others like them). Some of them like "Calliope" and "Thermidor" can also be folded in, but I think it's going to be a tight squeeze to get everything in with each season that covers two main arcs.

But I'm probably getting way ahead of myself. We have only one season so far. I'm just being overly optimistic. Here's hoping a lot of people watch the first season, especially in the opening week.

 

It's Netflix. I wouldn't be thinking about a second season at this point in time

 

@The Nth Doctor

Maybe a lot of the short stories can be ten minute segments cut down and embedded in episodes? I agree it’s be a shame to lose something like ‘A Dream of a Thousand Cats’, but I more see that as a 5-10 minute linking piece in an episode rather than an episode in itself.

It’s going to be really interesting to see how it all plays out and I hope it runs right up to The Kindly Ones/The Wake.

 

Yeah, I thought about that but I would hate to lose some of the vibrancy and depth of some of those stories. I certainly could see the three "Distant Mirrors" stories merged into an anthology episode (albeit a longer one).

Same here. Fingers crossed!

I also hope that after the series is over, we'll get a film of Overture. I cannot wait to see those visuals on a cinematic level!

 

It's not THAT rare to get a s2 on Netflix, but going past 3 is almost impossible.

 

It has been the last couple of years.

Scroll through these lists, watch them all die after one season, particularly after 2020

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ended_Netflix_original_programming

 

Most of those are things Netflix didn't bother advertising, with the highest profile failure being Cowboy Bebop. Most things Netflix pushes get to S3...

 

Flagship series get to continue, sure. I just wouldn't bet on this pulling in the numbers or demos it's first week to become a flagship. Fingers crossed though.

 

Since Stranger Things has only one season left and Grace and Frankie concluded this year, I don't see why The Sandman can't be the new flagship. Especially since it has large built-in fanbase from a beloved author who is directly involved. Unless it becomes too cost prohibitive like Sense8, I don't see Netflix prematurely pulling the carpet.

 

I just don't think Gaiman is as popular as you guys, I suppose. I love his work, but everything he does is cult hits. Nothing has really hit the pop culture zeitgeist to the extent of, say, Stranger Things. And The Sandman, which is decidedly an adult and very dark program, doesn't seem, to me, to be the thing that does it.

I'd be happy to be wrong though.

 

Will fans of the Lucifer show tune in to see a new take on their beloved character? That lasted a few seasons on Netflix.

 

I think you underestimate the level of impact the original run of The Sandman had on the comic world at that the time and how it's regarded today.

I doubt it since this show has a different Lucifer, has no connection to that show, and the show had very little connection to the original Mike Collins run that came from the Gaiman series.

 

BUT, do you overestimate the impact of comic book fans on other media? If Watchmen could flop, anything can flop.

 

Yuupppppp. The built in audience for any written work just isn't big enough to support a film or TV franchise on its own. It always has to appeal beyond the core audience. Can anyone think of any Gaiman TV show or movie that's been an unqualified (and IMMEDIATE) blockbuster hit? I can't. American Gods tried and failed. Good Omens is getting a second season 3 years after the first. But it's all cult.

 

American Gods was advertised so poorly that I didn't even know its a comic book show lol

 

The awful film or the award-winning show?

The first mistake of the film (aside from Snyder...) was trying to cram such a dense story into a two-hour film. I'm not a fan of the graphic novel but that was never going to work.

The same is true for The Sandman and that's why Gaiman never liked the film adaption attempts. This series is very different from the Snyder film so it's like comparing apples and key lime pie.

But Watchmen the series was critically acclaimed and had a lot of depth worthy of the original material (even if it wasn't an adaptation) and that's what The Sandman series has going for it.

 

It's not, it's from a novel. It's good.