Why Netflix's 'The Sandman' Failed. [14:26-19:27]

because the doll's house was written to be jarring. It's not just a different protagonist, it's also a different tone, genre, and style of story, again, very intentionally. Because, as the second storyline, it establishes a formula. Neil said he chose to do the doll's house and risk interrupting the previous tone of the book, because he knew if he didn't, he ran the risk of becoming another X-Men. Looking back, that decision actually changed the entire direction of the book. This was a crucial moment for the comics, which laid the foundation of what they would eventually become, specifically building its narrative to be capable of experimenting. But when the show reached this same moment, it went in the opposite direction. Without a clear delineation between the first two stories, the show attempts to ease the transition. It takes the villain of the doll's house, the Corinthian, and adds a subplot about him running through preludes and nocturns, setting him up as the overarching villain of the whole season. And it takes this throwaway reference to Rose in the comics and expands it into a full cameo, introducing her ahead of time, presumably, so she wouldn't be a complete stranger by the time she became protagonist, which clearly didn't work. They were trying to make these stories fit the structure of a conventional TV narrative. And when that failed, they misdiagnosed the problem and doubled down on this approach. Heimberg is right that the second season does focus exclusively on Dream, skipping almost every story that's not primarily about him. Which might seem like a reasonable compromise. Sure, it's a shame to lose some of these stories, but at least what you're left with is a straightforward, singular narrative about one character which an audience can follow. Right? Dream does have an arc which develops throughout the comics, but for the most part, his stories are connected thematically, rather than narratively. They still change in tone, genre, and style. So, trying to sell Dream's story as a single narrative thread also leads to structural problems. The scenes between stories in Season 2 are never quite so jarring as in Season 1, but on the whole, this season feels much more cluttered and disjointed, leapfrogging across the remaining storylines. We start with Book 4, Season of Mists, in which Dream's main motivation is rescuing his ex-lover nada. In the comics, Dream's backstory with Nada is told in a standalone story. The show skipped this, presumably because it wasn't relevant in Season 1, but then Season 2 comes around, and Nada is immediately very relevant. So they wedge her story in, not only mid-episode, but mid-scene. There's sense in framing it as Dream telling the story to his sister, but it's a ten-minute sidebar about backstory in the opening scenes of the season. It really slows the momentum. In the comics, Nada's story is very clearly finished by the end of Season of Mists. She's reincarnated and will never remember Dream. But the show tries to ease the transition into Book 7, brief lives, by having Nada take the role of Dream's other ex, Thessaly. That's fine, it's more about Dream's moping anyway. Yet, they continue to reference Nada as if her story is unresolved. Instead of being reincarnated, Nada vaguely leaves for the waking world, and Dream joins Delirium's quest, hoping to find her there. Then there's this scene where he mistakes a stranger for her, and he makes out with an illusion of her in Delirium's realm. Again, this makes some sense. Nada's been Dream's main motivation thus far. It'd be weird if she was suddenly forgotten about mid-season. Except that is exactly what happens. Her story doesn't lead anywhere. Once Dream kills his son and brings the kindly ones upon himself, Nada is never referenced again. She doesn't even turn up at Dream's funeral. And even though avoiding changing protagonist was, like, you know, the whole point, the show is forced to do it anyway. In order to understand why Dream kills his son, we need to know his son's story. In the comic, Orpheus's tale is told in a couple of standalone issues, which, of course, the show skipped. So, as with Nada, they wedge him in that instantly becomes relevant, which is halfway through an episode. After 25 minutes rattling around various plotlines, a flashback with destruction, wanders funeral, Dream making up with Delirium. Suddenly, it's the Orpheus show for the rest of episode 5, and half of episode 6. Okay, look. I don't want to be too hard on the show. There are many scenes, even whole episodes which work well and adapt the comics very thoughtfully. But overall, the show is weaker than the sum of its parts. Because it doesn't matter how well a scene or a story has been adapted