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.