I was a big fan of the comic book since I was a kid when it started. It has unique characters, and the stories are unique. In this way, the show stays true to the comic and the original creator Neil Gaiman's concept. However, it really portrays what people hate the most about "woke" ideology. And true to the woke ideological movement, anyone who has a disagreement with the way the show is portrayed is labeled a racist or a troll etc., etc. It's disappointing that when Gaiman responds to criticism, he is unable to defend it based on grounded logic or philosophy. And I admit, criticism of the show also lacks solid, intelligent arguments as well.

[spoiler] Some of the criticism is because the characters are comprised of a disproportionate number of LGBTQ+ and POC in sympathetic roles. This means that there are 0 (that's a zero) straight, white male characters portrayed as innately "good" or having any redeeming qualities. Until "fiddler's green" (excellently played by Stephen Fry) offers to sacrifice himself in exchange for the heroin named Rose Walker. Although it's not clear that fiddler's green is straight or a male. Many characters are non-gendered or binary, and it's confusing to straight males who watch the show. [/spoiler]


-warning more political soap boxing-

If you're a straight white male, don't attack people or troll them because they have a different belief. Your job is to understand them, and if they are wrong, you should try to convince them to understand where they are wrong.

If you're an LGBTQ+ or POC that encounters hatred for your beliefs, you too should strive to show you have a legitimate argument for your cause. Please stop shutting down free speech or using hatred and name calling merely because that is what you encountered in your life. You should embrace the free speech that this country was founded on. No it was not founded on slavery and bigotry - take a deeper look at that. Embrace the freedom we still have to discuss differences and live together with differences. If living together with differences is not what you think has happened in this country up to now, it is YOUR duty to make this country a free and tolerant place. That is what a true liberal is, a liberal is not someone who shuts down free speech or uses political power to dox and destroy lives. You should use your power to help others not enslave them to your ideology.

Watch the show as it actually gets better as it goes on, focus on the interesting characters and stories, nevermind the strange political messages embedded in the show.

I'll try to keep it short - never read Sandman - its always been on the pile of shame to read but never got around to it.

Up front - I hate the way they shot this, the vast majority of the footage is stretched, it's subtle enough to distract, it's like a mis-behaving anamorphic camera lense, it regularly causes shapes, actors heads to be mis-shapen and persists through the whole thing.

I dont care who is cast as what character, what their sexuality is or gender. What is important in this fiction is a story that will grip me or entertain me. In 2022 there are so much "content" out there the bar has been set and you need a better selling point than any of that controversy as this stuff is only going to become the norm; people have to focus on is the story good or not..

Episodes 5 and 6 won me over, episode 7 onwards lost me again. I can't remember the last time I saw a show and thought this isn't for me, this is great, this is good, wtf is this, OMG I'm so bored in the space of a single season. There's a lot of "ideas" and "concepts" in here, I can understand how they might be worth exploring in written fiction but I am not sold that it suited being adapted onto the screen. I'd be lying if I said I was entertained, enjoyed any of the "plot threads". I like Matthew the Raven, Stephen Fry is always reliable and Mark Hamill's character made me laugh (more to do with the voice actor than the character to be fair).

The rest I just found dull. Glad Gaiman finally got something adapted after all these years he is happy with, genuinely glad for him. This just wasn't for me. Enjoy if you did, definetly worth looking into that screen ratio "fix" if you can before watching.

This was my introduction to The Sandman. I had no comic book references to be made aware of or characters, just went into this series blind.

The first few episodes were good... the continuity was good and there were surprises along the way that I wasn't expecting to come up again as they were well downplayed to begin with.

The Constantine character was interesting to see it played as a woman, how 'different' and of course the character of Lucifer. I loved seeing these actors again and many other well known actors in guest roles.

Then there was just a wierd cafe moment that somewhat went predictably bad in a depraved way. Then the show just kept slipping... more bad white straight men, every extrovert imaginable, and the episodes just kept slipping in story.

I'm surprised the Crow, Matthew isn't depicted as gay, as every other character seems bent in one form or another in this series. My daughter is gay so I don't have a problem with it in the right context of movies and entertainment.
But too much is too much. It started grinding the show into bits.

I watch shows to be entertained not indoctrinated.
I had high hopes for this show going into it... the first few episodes were good, fun and interesting.

I can overlook the boring but still seemingly mandatory gender swapping on occasion showrunners still think or believe is novel, courageous, new, and empowering, but it's not.

I slept on my thoughts before I put them here, it didn't change my perspective and the last four episodes were lack lustre. I had high hopes for this series as I started it but over the course of the season toward the end I find I'm probably not returning if there is a Season 2.

The series is amazing. Well acted, shot, written! It's quite frankly the best show I've seen this year by far. The main storylines are satisfying and they lay some pretty good grounds for future seasons, even without the last scene which is amazing btw!

And you know what's funny... [spoiler]Rose's storylines would feel pretty rushed up in any other series especially near the end, but somehow, it felt really natural the way they did, it got some urgency. I just wish they had some time to build up some characters better, or show off more, like Constantine, which is fucking cool, even though it can get guffy sometimes. I hope they're able to bring some other sotrylines form the comics, and keep it as concise and as we'll thought as this season.[/spoiler]

And let's talk about hell. How lovely is Gwendoline on that character. It's so frightening and so kind at the same time. She's amazing. What a nice depiction of the lightbringer and maze. They should teach something to the lucifer series made by cw(I know). [spoiler] It's a shame we see so little of her.[/spoiler]

And desire. The way he moves, talks, express. Wtf, His voice is so effing amazing, it is almost like they increase the reverb just a little bit, and overlayed some deeper voice on his. I get chills every scene hes in.

But not everything is that great though. I get that this is a tv show, and they had to cut some corners somewhere, but Damm some visual effects are downright ugly as hell. And what's up with those incars scenes. I don't think I ever saw such bad incar screens like this. A lot of them look low resolution and low fps as hell. [spoiler]Specially when Rose is going to the convention.[/spoiler] wtf is that? Looks like you're playing a YouTube video from 2008 shot at 240p, upscalled to 8k, while moving the window around, plugged to a high latency panel, on a rapebarry pi. It's really aweful. I can't believe that they didn't notice that.

Also, some people might say that the first episodes are slow. I would argue that that was somewhat necessary. [spoiler]That way you feel a little bit the passage of time, and just a glimpse of how it might have been for the Sandman all those years. Could it have been done better? I don't know, I'm not a writer. I just know that it would feel realy rushed if they had shown just a few scenes form that century the way in other series usually do, and I'm pretty tired from series showing flashbacks amid episodes all the time, since it was a couple of episodes, to explain it as time goes. It can be better, I'm just staying that this way worked better for me. It helped to believe that that was something really bad for him, though they don't explore it that much (his feeling about it). Almost exclusively the side effects on his realm. I think it would have been silly to watch him on a revenge journey, but maybe there were better ways to explore that. They say that he changed and all, after admitting being wrong about Rose, but I don't know. It felt kinda cheap and superficial.[/spoiler]

Otherwise, it is amazing! Go watch!! You're wasting time reading this!

Sadly it ends. Haha
Can't wait for the next season.

Ignore the homophobic, racist and everyphobic reviews, but maybe also avoid this show.

Neil Gaiman might be a good writer, but as with American Gods, the moment he gets involved with live-action adaptations, the quality apparently goes out the window. Kudos to him for defending the casting choices though.

A few episodes of season 1 stand out, episodes 1, 4, and 6, to be specific. The rest are fine but just not worth it. The mid-season climax leaves a lot to be desired and apparently is so insignificant that it has no lasting impact on the world and no one bothers to mention it again. By the end I had lost so much interest in it that I didn't even bother to return for the bonus episode, and it allegedly has a cat. I love cats.

The casting is mostly good, but there's just too many plot holes and pointless guff.

Maybe season 2 will be better, who knows.