Why Netflix's 'The Sandman' Failed. [4:25-9:26]

New York Magazine also reports on these allegations, adding those from another four women. Many were fans in their early 20s or younger, and often invulnerable situations. Many claim Game of Thrones performed acts of BDSM without their consent. Game of Thrones is accused of sexual misconduct and grooming. Both Game of Thrones and ex-wife Amanda Palmer face charges for human trafficking. Game of Thrones strongly denies the allegations. This news is shocking, but the story is all too familiar, a predator using their position of power to prey on vulnerable people. Before I continue, I want to stress the importance of supporting victims. I'll leave links in the description for charity organisations which help victims of sexual violence. Though Game of Thrones hasn't been proven guilty, at time of recording, the nature and number of these allegations has already been devastating for his public image. Basically, every ongoing project he was involved in has either been shelved or outright cancelled. And his once very loyal fanbase are left with the task of re-evaluating their relationship to his work. I've just done a two hour video about how the actions of an author change the meanings of their texts. So if you want to hear me talk about this in detail, go check that out. The link's up here somewhere. Suffice to say, separating the art from the artist is impossible. When our understanding of an author changes, so does our understanding of their authorial intent. For example, the New York magazine article mentions the San Man story calliope, in which famous author Richard Matic imprisons the eponymous muse, using her to fuel his writing talents by habitually committing acts that would get me demonetised to describe. Although the story framed the author as a villain, and the story was published years before most of the alleged incidents took place, the parallels are still chilling. Where did this idea come from, Neil? But a text also has meanings beyond the authorial intent. We can't deny the San Man comics remain a very influential work. They still have meaningful things to say about change, identity and imagination. They tell stories about feminist and queer issues in ways which were very progressive at the time it was published. All that is still there, even if gaming's intent has become harder to understand. In calliope, Matic identifies as a feminist author. The story condemns Matic for the exact same performative progressivism that gaming himself is now accused of. And I'm not even going to try unpacking that, that's the purview of a qualified psychologist. I'm here to talk about adaptation. I will need to bring up gaming to discuss his creative decisions, and I'm going to speak mostly positively about the San Man comics, which might be awkward with this elephant in the room. So let's acknowledge the elephant and permit ourselves to have complicated feelings about art. Needless to say, the allegations inevitably raised questions about the future of Netflix's Sandman. January 2025, Netflix announces Sandman's second season would be its last. According to showrunner Alan Heinberg, the San Man series has always been focused exclusively on Dream Story. And back in 2022, when we looked at the remaining dream material from the comics, we knew we only had enough story for one more season. Are you sure that's the reason Alan, you still had like seven books left. To be fair, it appears the second season was already in post-production by the time the allegations came out. And the cast list released back in May 2024 included Barry Sloan as destruction, a character who appears quite late in the books. So, unless they caught wind of it ahead of time, it's unlikely the plot was altered because of the allegations. Either way, I don't buy Heinberg's explanation. It seems clear to me that plans changed at some point. Speaking in 2022, gaming himself hardly described it as a shortage of material. What we know that we would like to do in a perfect world as long as the audience is there, and people come out for it and people want it, is we want to tell the whole story of Sandman. What is nice is we have the entirety of Sandman to draw on. Whatever the reason, it looks like wrapping the show up ASAP was the right call. Season 2 did less than half as well on release, and never topped the Netflix charts. This might be because Netflix buried it, I don't remember there being as much marketing for season 2, or it might be because of calls for a boycott. That seems to be Heinberg's explanation. However, most fans I've spoken to simply lost enthusiasm,