if it feels out of place. Again, this might be down to the differences between comics and TV. Comics are inherently more literary. They can use both third or first-person perspectives, or even a mixture of the two. And the regular breakpoints between panels, pages, chapters and books provide more natural opportunities to shift focus. Whereas live action is more reliant on actor performance, with the audience more firmly rooted in an outside perspective, making it more suited to character-driven narratives than thematic ones. And the structure of TV drama is more rigid with a greater sense of continuity. So maybe TV drama just can't tell the same sort of anthology-style narrative. Then again, anthology shows do exist, serving a fresh plate of characters and stories every season, or even every episode. And anime doesn't seem to struggle adapting the arc structure of manga. In the age of streaming, where runtimes and release schedules are no longer dictated by advertising slots, why can't we be more experimental with the structure? The Sandman comics were revolutionary for experimenting with comics as a medium. So it's surprising how conventional the show's narrative is. It's trying to tell a simple protagonist-led narrative, a typical superhero story. Precisely the sort of thing the comic was constructed to avoid being. But look, I want to keep an open mind. Maybe it's possible to make Sandman into a traditional protagonist-led TV show. Like I said, the first book translated to TV pretty well. I'd say the strongest episode of the whole show is 24-7, which focuses mainly on adapting issue 6 of the comic, but greatly expands upon it, fleshing out and humanizing the characters. It captures the vibe of the original, but changes the details, pivoting towards performance and dialogue. In other words, playing to the strengths of television. It could have continued doing monster-of-the-week style episodes like this. Sure, it would have been less true to the story of the comics, but might this have been more true to the spirit of the thing? Well, maybe. But there's still the issue of the overarching narrative. And on that front, the show suffers from another identity crisis. Because, okay, it's focusing on Dream's story, but it doesn't seem certain who Dream is.
{# E23 (Nick, ruling section 1 answer 10): quoting a bill or a court opinion works
the way quoting a news article works. Select a passage above and the same panel
opens: the passage goes to the official you choose, with this document's own
address as its source and its own type. #}