Steve Long 
“The Sandman is one of the most faithful representations of a comic book series I have ever seen,” says Steve in his review
I recently finished the Netflix series The Sandman after having watched the first episode. Overall, I have to say that this series is absolutely one of the most faithful representations of a comic book series I have ever seen. Sure, it makes minor changes here and there to the source material. But those changes are considerate and not impactful to the overall product. Not only is it the most faithful comic book TV series, but it may also very well be my favorite TV show based on a comic book.
THE STORY
The show takes its narrative largely from the Preludes and Nocturnes collection but also adds in bits from The Doll’s House. As a reader of The Sandman comic book series, personally, those are my favorite story arcs and I feel like those in charge of this series did a masterful job of recreating them for a live-action setting.
Next, I’d like to talk about the casting. In doing so I first need to correct myself from the chapter one review about the actor playing The Corinthian. In that review, I stated that I was not familiar with Boyd Holbrook’s previous work when, in fact, I did not realize until a few episodes that this was the actor that played Donald Pierce in the 2017 film Logan. Don’t I feel foolish?
Anyway, the casting all over the place in this show is amazing. As I stated previously, Tom Sturridge is absolutely incredible as the title character. Patton Oswalt as the voice of Matthew the Raven is on point. Vivienne Acheampong as the librarian Lucienne is marvelous. I absolutely loved Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death. Perfection. With really only one exception, every role in this show was cast perfectly. The one exception in regards to casting that I will mention is Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer. While I thought the idea of casting a woman to play the role of Morningstar was ingenious, I felt like Christie didn’t embody the character as well as it could have been done.
VERDICT
As I said, this series adapted its source material very well. However, I echo my own statements that one does not need to have read the original material to fully enjoy this series. For those that haven’t read the books and are worried they won’t enjoy it, this is an easy binge. It won’t take much to get hooked. The story is imaginative, the characters are likable (or unlikable as they should be in some cases), the visuals, designs, and costumes are stunning, and the performances in almost every case are praiseworthy. The pacing is solid. Overall, The Sandman is an elegant masterpiece that does not disappoint.
The first season of The Sandman is streaming on Netflix now.
Steve is a fan of Star Wars, punk rock, comic books, and cats. In addition to writing for Future of the Force, he also sings for punk band Get Fired and hosts the podcast Rebel Rock Radio!
I never liked the art in the graphic novel series, so I haven’t read beyond V1, but this new tv series looks very intriguing!
The artwork in the series kind of threw me off from time to time as well but the story was incredible!