The Sandman: Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope

 "Writers are liars."

I'm again following far too many series because pesky present day telly insists on throwing up The Rings of Power, Inside Man and (coming soon to this blog) Andor. Fortunately this is a season finale, so I now have only Hawkeye, Breaking Bad and films to balance with all those. Anyway...

This is a beautiful coda to what is hopefully not the only series of Sandman. Here we have two achingly beautiful, profoundly meaningful fairytales that are so very, well... Gaimanesque.

As one who has been the property of many feline owners over the years, I was both amused by and admiring of Dream of a Thousand Cats, a cartoon with many famous voices. It transcends its superficial resemblance to Animal Farm (the Prophet is stroikingly similar to Old Major) to reach annundeniable truth. Cats, much as we adore them, have utterly enslaved us, and would certainly kill and eat them if they could... well, except Ashi, and Badger, and Loki, and Gizmo. I'm their daddy, so I'm safe. Right?

So it indisputably true that a reality shift occurred not all that long ago, and before then we were much smaller than them, and hunted by them. This is undoubtedly true,

Calliope is much darker, using myth to explore male abuse and exploitation of women, and the ensuing hypocrisy. In this case Richard is stealing the ideas of Calliope, a woman, and taking credit... not exactly unptrecedented. Arthur Darvill is superb as a dark protagonist straight out of an updated version of Hammer House of Horror, while Derek Jacobi is exquisite as an elderly writer who owes all his success to the fact that he kidnapped a Muse, Calliope, while on holiday in Greece, the Muse who inspired Homer.

Richard finally gets his just comeuppance at the hands of Morpheus, whose tender relationship with Calliope- despite their past bad blood centred on theor son Orpheus(!) is deeply touching.

This is just a profoundly beautiful bit of telly.

The Sandman: Lost Hearts

 "It was a pleasure being human with you."

It is, perhaps, true, that the second half of this first season, adapting The Doll's House from the comics, while very good, has not quite matched what came before it. Yet this conclusion, season finale, really, though there isa coda to come, is nothing short of magnificent.

This is the stuff of fairytale. Dream's punishment of the collectors is grimly appropriate. His ultimate triuph over the Corinthian- whose eyes we finally see- has an air of inevitability once he persuades Rose. And Unity's dreamingly reading of the book of her life that would have been, in Lucienne's library, is not only poetic but utterly prefigures her beautiful sacrifice to save Rose, her family.

And Rose has lots of family. Her brother, yes, but also a family she chose. And they all live happily ever after. Even the ending of Fiddler's Green- a lovely man, and perfectly cast as Stephen Fry- is something lovelier than death. It's all very beautiful.

Yet it was all a trick by Desire, to get Dream to kill Desire's own granddaughter(!) and, it is hinted, trick him into breaking some rule by killing a descendent of the Endless. And it is hinted that the sublings fall into two opposing camps- Dream, Death and Destiny versus Desire, Despair and Delirium. Interesting.

Oh, and it appears Hell is going to war....

The Sandman: Collectors

 "I thought there'd be cereal..."

My Netflix issues are fixed. Normal blogging is resumed. Phew.

Things are moving fast. Rose as the vortex seems to be the unwitting cause of Lyta's being with her dead husband in her dreams... and her pregnancy. Yet this seems to be leading to instability. Cracks are appearing.

So what does Dream do? He continues to be an utter dick. After offending Lucienne last episode- and Matthew speaks for all of us when he criticises their mutual sulk, he tramples into Lyta's dream like a bull in a china shop, heartlessly crumbling her husband to dust and, if that isn't bad enough, threatening that one day he will come and take Lyta's baby. Yes, he's a mythically powerful and capricious god, but he's also a dick.

We see more of the serial killer convention this episode, and it's utterly, blackly hilarious. We also get to see more of the wonderful Gilbert, played with aplomb by the one and only Stephen Fry... and get to learn who he is. But we end with the Corinthian triumphant in a staggeringly excellent episode full of twists, turns and much coolness.

The Sandman: Playing House

 "I'm sure he's fine..."

This is, once again, rich and textured drama with much to say about dreams, both literal and in terms of ambition- Hal, whose ambitions were thwarted, quite rightly has words on that subject to say to Rose.

Yet drems, even nightmares, have dreams. Dream is too quick to believe all is solved when he "saves" Jed's night-time existence from Gault, who wishes only to give Jed some comfort as he is horribly abused in real life. She is punished by a hasty Dream, yet she has harsh and pointed worfds for him. All of us can change anf grow, even, I'm sure, if we are manifestations of abstract concepts.

Abstract concepts abound here. The nature of home. The temptations of dreams- for Jed, as the Golden Age Sandman, a nice touch, but also for Lyra, tempted into idyllic family life by the dreaming ghost of her dead husband. Drwams and ambitions versus the unambitious yet easy life.

Yet this is really about character- Rose, Jed, Hal, the whole wonderful Florida family. Dream, so kind to Rose and so unthinkingly cruel to Gault. Hal, who I hope comes to realise their dreams.

Loving this. Sadly,there';s not long to go.

The Sandman: The Doll's House

 "It's trerrible. We know."

Watching this episode brought back long- repressed and surprisingly vivid memories of the comic book. It was, again, much more faithful than one might expect. Yet it didn't quite manage, despite being very good indeed and extremely well made, to quite match the source material. Of course, I wouldn't have noticed this had I not read the story in its original medium, but it was my impression nonetheless.

Still, this is very good telly. We start with Desire and Despair, very odd twins, inferring that they are behind much has gone wrong, but then we turn to the tale of Rose, bereaved and charismatic, as she searches for her long-lost little brother with her equally bereaved surrogate mother (loved the sudden revelation she'd been talking to her dead husband), and travels to London to find a great grandmother... who is still alive despite falling asleep in 1916 when Dream was captured, aged 12. Yeah. This made sense in 1989, but these days it's best not looked at so closely.

Loved the serial killer convention committee, attracting the attention of the Corinthian. Loved Stephen Fry as Gilbert. Loved the whole Florida family. In fact, I loved the characters, the narrative and the whole damn thing. It's just that, somehow, the comic was more poetic.

The Sandman: The Sound of Her Wings

 "That's all there is, little one. That's all you get."

Yes, that scene... I'm a parent and it shook me deeply. I'm so glad they cut away before the mother's discovery of what had happened. But that's the point; death is taboo, and this episode faces it. The first half, covering the comic book issue of the same name, is actually almost entirely faithful to an original which can't really be improved upon. Kirby Howell-Baptiste, while not a goth, is perfect as Neil Gaiman's death: a lovely, caring person who finds meaning in easaing people's transition to the "Sunless Lands".

And that's the point; the Endless exist to fulfil their function. They are not gods, however aloof and arrogant they may seem. They are our servants, not our masters. And Dream, depressed after his recent triumph, gets a much-needed lesson from his very lovely older sister.

And then, after twenty minutes, we get to a faithful retelling of the tale of Hob Gedling, a man who is, essentially, seen to be cheerfully indisting, in a pub, that he will never die. As a resident of small town Leicestershire I could mardily point out that only in London, in pubs frequented by the likes of Chaucer, Marlowe and Shakespeare, do passing gods happen to grant immortality to ordinary blokes out of mere philosphical curiosity. But chips belong on plates, not on shoulders. And chips here in the provinces are both better and cheaper than in that London, of which I'm actually rather fond. Plus, I suppose, there are benefits to living in a part of the country where you can have an ordinary profession and yet own your own home. 

And perhaps two passing gods will do this for me sometime. I'm with Hob: life has its ups and downs; the downs are crushing. But life will always be rich and beautiful, and I will always want it.

So see you at the pub in 2122?

The Sandman: 24/7

 "The trouble with stories is, if you keep them going long enough, they all end in death, don't they?"

I realise that, currently watching the last episodes of Breaking Bad, I'm spoiled for superlative telly, and everything else looks distinctly inferior, pretty much. Yet, by any ordinary standard- although, as far as my quarter century memory can recall, it's reasonably true to the comic- this is a sublime episode of telly.

The premise is simple. John Dee (not that one) has Dream's ruby. And he goes to a diner, for a coffee, surrounded by a handful of perfectly ordinary people. On the surface, they are mundane and everyday, like us all. But scratch beneath the surface- and he does- and, like all of us, they have interior lives rich and as conflicted as any play by Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller.

Jogn wants an honest world. one without lying, including to ourselves. This leads to terrible violence and self-mutilation. It is hardly a happy world.

Because we need lies. They console us. We need the consolation of lies in this random, godless world. One day each one of us will die, and there is nothing beyond. Who can blame us for choosing not to examine that unsettling fact too closely?

This is sublime telly, quite different from previous episodes. Dream and Dee, wonderfully, are not the stars. We are.

The Sandman: A Hope in Hell

 "I am hope..."

Why does Lucifer not just counter with despair, or nihilism, or some such dreary bollocks? Never mind; I usually tune out suring any but the quirkiest of fight scenes, but this one is so beautifully poetic- and, though I remember the comic book only dimly, I believe it's faithful, more or less. So is the evocative and myth-like scene with Nada, a woman he loves but has sentenced to Hell because he does not forgive her after ten thousand years. This is powerful stuff, like the ancient myths.

Meanewhile, John Dee, cynical, insane and troublingly powerful, meets Rosemary, a damaged yet kind and good woman. Yet this does not comfort us. Those masterful scenes of tension in the car and the petrol station, and his cruel killing of the shoipkeeper, show us he is capable of casual cruelty. So his casual kindness to Rosemary, even if it gives her immunity from harm, is merely a sign of terrible capriciousness. This man is dangerous.

I love the poetic depictiuon of Hell, even if it doesnt quite import the idea from the comic that the punishments of the damned arise from their own subconscious. I love the stoicism of Dream. I love the humanity of Matthew, although he's a crow. This is beautiful telly.

The Sandman: Dream a Little Dream of Me

 "What's the point of you...?"

This is a pivotal episode and, as far as I recall, faithful to the comic. Much of it is set-up. Hence we're introduced to the splendid Patton Oswalt as Matthew the Raven, and we have those incredible scenes between Ethel and John, which are textbook examples of how to do exposition well, culminating in her sacrificing her life (aged 116!) so her son may have the Amulet of Protection, presumably an extended lifespan, and all sorts of powers... so naturally he kills a guard and escapes. He won't do anything bad, right?

We also have Mad Hettie (yay!), a princess marrying a demon footballer, and Meera Syal as a delightfully human vicar.

But, yeah, this is all about Jenna Coleman as a gender-swapped John/Johanna Constantine who, nevertheless, is the character. And yes; Coleman is significantly better than Keanu Reeves in the part. But this is a nice little chacter piece, with a nice and surprising little bond between Constantine and Morpheus. This is good telly.

So, off to Hell. Should be fun...

The Sandman: Imperfect Hosts

 "He almost never murders me before lunch..."

After a deep and emotional first episode, the second episode feels curiously mythical, and deliberately so. Dream is reminded of his siblings in a way that in turn reminds me of Roger Zelazny's Amber novels, which I love, and so does Neil Gaiman. Yet this masterpiece takes that influence and adds so much.

Dream is questing for his three artifacts which will restore his realm. He seeks cryptic advice from the Fates, advice which I'm sure will define the outline of the season. Yet against him is the Corinthian and the modern Ethel, an art dealer, and her son in his asylum... John Dee. And there's a name with alchemical associations.

Triumphantly, though, we have Cain and Abel, shown surprisingly faithfully to the comic book (as is the whole episode, if I rightly recall) and portrayed superbly by Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry, whose speech at the end is profoundly moving. As is the sacrifice of poor little Gregory, a faithful pet put down.

Are we all pets to Morpheus, to e put down when needed? This is a fascinating protagonist, and a lushly superb, if short, bit of telly.