Review: Netflix’s exquisite The Sandman is the stuff dreams are made of

Like many nerds of a certain age, I have long adored Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novel series; it was an enormous influence on my younger self. So I was thrilled to hear of Netflix’s planned adaptation when it was announced in 2019—but I also experienced some trepidation given the past misguided efforts to bring the story to the screen. That trepidation was unwarranted because The Sandman is a triumph. It’s everything I had hoped to see in an adaption, and it has been well worth the wait.

(Warning: Some spoilers for the original graphic novels and the Netflix series below.)

The titular “sandman” is Dream, but he is also called Morpheus, among other names. He is one of seven entities known as the Endless. (The other Endless are Destiny, Destruction, Despair, Desire, Delirium, and Death.) Gaiman’s 75-issue revival of the DC character is an odd mix of mythology, fantasy, horror, and history, rife with literary references and a fair bit of dark humor. There really is nothing quite like it, and the series proved to be hugely popular and enduring. One standalone story, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (The Sandman No. 19) even won the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, the only time a comic has been so honored.

The first season is largely based on the events depicted in Preludes and Nocturnes and A Doll’s House, with some additional elements drawn from or referencing later material. We open with Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) leaving the Dreaming to bring back a prodigal nightmare called the Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook). Before he can do so, he is captured by an occult ritual performed by an occultist named Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance), who sought to capture Death to bring back his son, who died in World War I. Dream refuses to yield to his demands, and while the aristocrat’s son, Alex (Laurie Kynaston), initially considers freeing Morpheus, he eventually becomes his father’s accomplice.

Dream is imprisoned for 106 years, finally breaking free in 2021. But the Dreaming has gone to ruin in his absence, and his totems of power—his helm, his pouch of sand, and his ruby—were stolen. He must recover the totems and begin to restore the Dreaming, which includes tracking down the Corinthian and other escaped dreams and nightmares. He must also deal with the emergence of a Vortex—a human with the ability to walk through the dreams of others, weakening the barrier between the waking world and the Dreaming and capable of destroying them entirely.

There is so much to love about this adaptation, but let’s start with the brilliant casting, featuring major names like Dance, David Thewlis (John Dee), Stephen Fry (Gilbert/Fiddler’s Green), Patton Oswalt (voicing the raven Matthew), Mark Hamill (voicing Mervyn Pumpkinhead), and Derek Jacobi (Erasmus Fry). With his lean build, razor-sharp cheekbones, and deep voice, Tom Sturridge makes a compelling Morpheus, even when Dream is being overly proud or petty or downright cruel early on—flaws that are central to the personal growth of the character over the course of the story. He’s not just a pretty emo-boy, and that’s very much due to Sturridge’s performance.