The Sandman review: Neil Gaiman’s ‘unfilmable’ comic book comes to Netflix

For the most part this is as ‘authentic an adaptation’ as might be expected

Gwendoline Christie and Tom Sturridge in The Sandman
Gwendoline Christie and Tom Sturridge in The Sandman
(Image credit: Netflix)

The Sandman has long been perceived as the ultimate ‘unfilmable’ comic book,” said Ed Power in The Daily Telegraph. Neil Gaiman’s opus, which was published by DC Comics from 1989 to 1996, surfs a zigzag, “dreamlike logic”; its characters “hopscotch between timelines”; and its “sheer 80s goth glumness leaves no space for Marvel-type quips”. Yet these qualities have miraculously been preserved in Netflix’s “gripping” ten-part series, developed by Gaiman and David S. Goyer.

In a cast that is “the stuff of dreams”, Tom Sturridge plays the mooching Sandman himself, an immortal who rules over the realm of dreams until he is captured by wizard Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance). From there, the action “leaps all over the place – spanning time, dimensions and genre”; and the result, for the most part, “is as authentic an adaptation as might be reasonably expected. For Gaiman fans, it’s finally game on.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up