Writing a Morpheus Strip: a review of The Sandman

The Sandman

Based on The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg

Developed by Neil Gaiman & David S. Goyer & Allan Heinberg

Music by David Buckley

Executive producers Allan Heinberg, David S. Goyer, Neil Gaiman, Mike Barker

Producers Samson Mücke, Iain Smith, Alexander Newman-Wise, Andrew Cholerton

Production location United Kingdom

Cinematography Will Baldy, George Steel, Sam Heasman, Will Baldy

Production companies PurePop Inc., The Blank Corporation, Phantom Four, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television

Main

• Tom Sturridge as Morpheus / Dream, the king of dreams and nightmares, and ruler of the Dreaming.[5][6]
  • Ernest Kingsley Jnr as Kai’ckul, an aspect of Morpheus seen through the eyes of Nada.
• Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian, a Nightmare who escaped the Dreaming.[5]
• Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, the librarian of the Dreaming, and its ruler in Dream’s absence.[6][5]
• Patton Oswalt as the voice of Matthew the Raven, Dream’s emissary.[7][8]

Co-starring

• David Thewlis as John Dee, Cripps’s and Burgess’s son, whose endeavor to find “truth” jeopardizes the world. Gaiman described Dee as a character “who could break your heart and keep your sympathy while taking you into the darkest places”.[7][8] In the comics, the character of Dee is the DC supervillain Doctor Destiny.
• Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, an occult detective. Coleman plays two versions of the character: the present day descendant based on John Constantine, and her identical eighteenth century ancestor Lady Johanna Constantine.[7][8][9]
• Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar, the ruler of Hell. This series’ incarnation of Lucifer is much closer to the character’s original depiction in the comics than his depiction in the 2016 Lucifer television series. Neil Gaiman noted that it would be difficult to reconfigure the Lucifer version, portrayed by Tom Ellis, so he would fit back into The Sandman, although having Ellis reprise his role was considered.[5][10]
• Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, the personification of death, and Morpheus’ kinder, wiser sister.[7][8]
• Ferdinand Kingsley as Hob Gadling, Morpheus’ friend who has lived for hundreds of years.[11]
• Sandra James-Young as Unity Kinkaid, Rose’s benefactor who has recently awakened from a century-long slumber.[7][8]
• Kyo Ra as Rose Walker / The Vortex, a young woman searching for her lost brother who becomes a prey of the Corinthian.[7][8][12]
• Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall, Rose’s friend and a widow mourning her husband.[7][8]
• Eddie Karanja as Jed Walker / The Sandman, Rose’s younger brother and the ward of Gault, who protects him from his abusive foster parents via The Dreaming.

Recurring

• Joely Richardson as Ethel Dee (née Cripps) / Madame Daudet, Burgess’s fiancée and the mother of John Dee[7][8]
  • Niamh Walsh as young Ethel Cripps.[7]
• Nina Wadia as the Fate Mother
• Souad Faress as the Fate Crone
• Dinita Gohil as the Fate Maiden
• Asim Chaudhry as Abel, a resident of the Dreaming based on the Biblical Abel[5][6]
• Mason Alexander Park as Desire, the personification of desire, and Morpheus’ sibling.[7][8]
• Cassie Clare as Mazikeen, a devoted ally of Lucifer Morningstar.
• John Cameron Mitchell as Hal Carter, Rose’s friend and host of the bed and breakfast. Hal also moonlights as a drag queen and cabaret performer.
• Stephen Fry as Gilbert / Fiddler’s Green, a mysterious gentleman who becomes Rose’s bodyguard.[7][8]
• Mark Hamill as the voice of Mervyn Pumpkinhead, a chain-smoking janitor whose head resembles a jack-o’-lantern.[13]
• Donna Preston as Despair, the personification of despair, Morpheus’ sister and Desire’s twin.[7][8]
• Lloyd Everitt as Hector Hall, Lyta’s deceased husband, whose ghost hides from Death in The Dreaming.
• Ben Wiggins as Carl, Rose’s friend and house-sitter.
• Andi Osho as Miranda Walker, Unity’s granddaughter, and Gault, an escaped Nightmare from the Dreaming.
  • Ann Ogbomo portrays Gault’s true form, who seeks to become a Dream, protecting children from abuse.
• Cara Horgan and Daisy Badger as Chantal and Zelda, guests at Hal’s B&B.
• Lily Travers and Richard Fleeshman as Barbie and Ken, guests at Hal’s B&B.
• Sam Hazeldine and Lisa O’Hare as Barnaby and Clarice, Jed’s abusive foster parents.
• Kerry Shale as Nimrod, Danny Kirrane as Fun Land, and Jill Winternitz as The Good Doctor, serial killers.
• Lenny Henry as the voice of Martin Tenbones, a magical, doglike creature who appears in the dreams of Barbie.[14]

Guest

• Bill Paterson as Dr. John Hathaway
• Laurie Kynaston as Alex Burgess, Roderick Burgess’ son.
  • Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as young Alex Burgess.
  • Benedick Blythe as older Alex Burgess.
• Charles Dance as Sir Roderick Burgess / Magus, an aristocratic occultist.[5]
• Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain, a resident of the Dreaming and Abel’s brother based on the Biblical Cain.[5][6]
• Meera Syal as Erica, a vicar known as “Ric the Vic” who seeks out Johanna Constantine’s help with a demonic possession.
• Claire Higgins as Mad Hettie, a 280-year-old homeless woman and acquaintance of Johanna Constantine.
• Sarah Niles as Rosemary, a good Samaritan woman who helps John retrieve his ruby.
• Martyn Ford as Squatterbloat
• Munya Chawawa as Choronzon
• Deborah Oyelade as Nada, a prehistoric African queen who was once romantically involved with Morpheus.
• Sam Strike as Todd
• Emma Duncan as Bette Munroe, a waitress and one of John Dee’s victims.
• Steven Brand as Marsh Janowski, a diner staff and one of John Dee’s victims.
• Laurie Davidson as Mark Brewer, a diner guest and one of John Dee’s victims.
• Daisy Head as Judy, a diner guest and one of John Dee’s victims.
• James Udom as Garry, a diner guest and one of John Dee’s victims.
• Lourdes Faberes as Kate Fletcher, a diner guest and one of John Dee’s victims.
• Samuel Blenkin as Will Shaxberd, an aspiring playwright.
• Ian McNeice as a bartender
• Lewis Reeves as Philip Sitz, a man pretending to be “The Boogieman”.
• Roger Allam as the voice of Lord Azazel, a Duke of Hell.

I’ve wondered, from time to time, if Gaiman ever looked back on his magnum opus, The Sandman, and mused over what he might have changed had he the luxury of re-writes. Nobody, but nobody, writes a novel-length piece with two dozen major characters and hundreds of minor but plot-significant lesser characters without several, perhaps dozens of rewrites. The Sandman (original series) was written in 75 issues spread over eight years. Every month or so, 24 pages was published, and once in print, there was no going back and making a change because the author had a better idea of how a plot should unfold, or how a character might act or react.

Serial editions are the hardest challenge a writer can face. The pressure of such nearly drove Arthur Conan Doyle into early retirement. Steven King regarded his “three-pound dreadfuls” (inflation, you know) that resulted in The Green Mile as a fantastically difficult process. Yes, THAT King. America’s most prolific author. Author of The Tower series, and multitudes of long, complicated novels. Green Mile only had a half dozen major characters and a fairly linear plot. And it drove him to distraction.

The Sandman is widely regarded as Great Literature. It is an epic tragedy, one involving the plots, machinations, and motives of dozens of characters, many of which never even encounter one another. Most of the main characters aren’t even human, but rather “anthropomorphic manifestations” of dreams, death, desire, delirium, destiny, despair and destruction. It is profound, it is sophisticated, and would have been been compared with Shakespeare just as a stand-alone novel.

Seventy-five issues, eight years, no rewrites. Gaiman has said that he knew exactly how it was going to end from the first issue, which drew an incredulous “That cheeky bastard!” from another comics writer. I’ve no doubt that he did, in fact, know the ending. But only Destiny (a Gaiman Endless who has a tome that recounts all of existence from start to finish) could have known each step toward that ending.

So I’m sure Gaiman looked back on his work and his fingers twitched and tingled with the desire to make changes, improvements. Suppose Corinthian had an active role in Desire’s plot to get Dream to shed family blood? Suppose Johnny Dee was eloquent and thoughtful, but still utterly and malevolently mad? Suppose ‘Lyta started out as Rose’s friend?

So when I heard that Gaiman had a central and largely unimpeded role in the reworking of the Sandman opus for a 10 part Netflix series, I expected to see a fair number of changes, some major.

And there are major changes throughout. Some are startling, even jarring. Those “suppose” hypotheticals I had above? Those weren’t my ideas! Those are just some of the changes Gaiman made for the TV series.

Hard as it is to believe, nearly all the changes were for the better. Other changes reflected the narrative needs of a television 10-parter as opposed to a comic book 16-parter. Others simply reflected different social sensibilities between 1998 and now. Lucian is now Lucienne, short and dark skinned and female. Rose is African-American. Morpheus has eyes. Death is dark, but still cheery and cheeky.

The bones of the story remain utterly intact. Nearly all the changes strengthened the story, improved the flow, and sometimes made motivations and actions clearer.

Well-casted throughout, some of the choices were flat-out brilliant. Boyd Holbrook perfectly encapsulates the genial menace of escaped dream The Corinthian. Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones) was an utterly inspired choice for the beautiful angel Lucifer. David Thewlis seems so reasonable and pleasant as he sets about on a rampage that kills the crew and customers of a diner as he plans to destroy the world. The androgynous Mason Alexander Park is perfect as Desire. And one of the most pleasant surprises was England’s great comedian, Stephen Fry, as Gilbert, a dream anthropomorphic personation of G.K. Chesterton.

Tom Sturridge as Morpheus. Gaiman personally auditioned 1,500 actors for the role. Morpheus had to be perfect.

Morpheus is perfect.

They didn’t make the horrible mistake of trying to twist the pacing to fit nearly into the episodes of the ten parter, with the result that we move from one major story arc to another in mid episode. That, combined with Gaiman’s idiosyncratic story-telling, will make the television series a bit of a challenge to those not familiar with the comic book series. They will find the narrative confusing (it’s pretty strange to begin with) and the pacing might throw some for a loop.

Fundamentalist fans of the original will be furious at changes because Holy Writ must never be revised. À chacun son goût. And the usual clowns will be furious over the series being “woke” and not keeping everything white and boring.

But for those of us who loved the original, this series is an utter and absolute triumph, with Gaiman finally getting his re-write, aided by 30 years of accumulated wisdom. If you like being challenged, if you like change and a dream-like progression of philosophy and thought, then this is a great series.