24/7 (The Sandman, Jamie Childs) Television

Diner time

So now we have it: a fairly big-budgeted adaptation of Neil Gaiman's celebrated fantasy series. Beautifully cast, ingeniously reworked, adequately directed.

Breaking it down: Sturridge is near-perfect, maybe a touch too plump to be Morpheus (perfect casting would be Keith Richards with his cadaverous cheekbones, maybe a hundred years younger)-- Sturridge at least captures Dream's mix of innocence and weariness appropriate for someone aeons old who isn't quite clued in to the daily details of mere mortals. 

Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian has that sexy predatory stride down. The Kentucky accent is a bonus: I always figured The Corinthian was American-- he has the brashness and arrogance-- and would sound like he's from a small town with agoraphobically wide-open plains.

Jenna Coleman I'd call a hilarious success-- she should make a career out of caring for or colliding with near-immortal entities; she has the smarts and more the chutzpah to call them on their ethereal I'm-thousands--of-years-too-old-for-this-shit nonsense. Sexy as a cis, sexy as a bi, this version of Clara Oswald (I know I know let me indulge my Doctor fantasies a bit) is more no-nonsense kickass, more morally ambiguous. 

O and Gwendolyn Christie makes for a majestic Morningstar. You feel like bending a knee and casting off all previous allegiances she's so splendid-- and so intimidatingly tall. 

The writing is a bit watered down, a de-emphasizing of horror in favor of drama-- I was prepared to be nauseated by the final revelation in "Dream a Little Dream of Me," found it sadder than anything. Was this in error? I don't know-- Gaiman as producer might be mulling over the comics' first few issues marketed as pulp horror and thinking we should start off on a different foot: more eerie than gross, more lurid than sadistic. He's said before that the Sandman really found its voice with "The Sound of Her Wings"-- everything else was groping in the dark. 

I do think it's a mistake to have Morpheus and Morningstar face off directly in "A Hope in Hell"-- in the comic Morpheus grappled with a lesser demon, and the sense that he's in mortal (or immortal) peril confronting a duke of hell (a mere lieutenant in the comics) while the Prince of Lies watched his struggles gave one a stronger sense of Lucifer being a formidable foe.

As for "24/7"-- I don't mind the showrunners with Gaiman's approval shuffling sexes, ethnicities, orientation; this is about Dream after all, and in his realm all including ethnicity and gender are fluid-- you might call this adaptation an application of that aspect of the Dreaming (Don't know if Gaiman actually used that reasoning, but he's welcome to it). I'm more bothered by the sex-- so one character reveals he's gay, another realizes she's bi, they have sex with their respective partners...and violence happens? Not sure that's the message the showrunners intended. Yes John Dee is manipulating their minds and feelings but where in the comics it's clear Dee's taking away their inhibitions then pushing their inclinations (not to mention imposing his own on them) to perverse and violent extremes, here the theme is 'honesty'-- the suggestion being too much honesty can cause chaos. Not sure the writers have really thought this one through, or if they have, not sure that what they intended comes through clearly enough.

I'm more bothered actually by the dream sequences, the transitions from dream to reality and vice versa. The digital effects are on the cheaper side, this being a streaming series, but you can do (I believe) surreal or disorienting effects or entire dream sequences without having to throw too much money at it: think Noah Hawley's Legion or better yet David Lynch Twin Peaks: The Return. Director Jamie Childs does his best but what's needed is more careful conceptualizing of what the sequence should look and feel like, with maybe less background music and more judicious use of sound effects (again think Twin Peaks). If I'm following a series about Dream and the Dreaming I want my sequences more dreamlike, dammit, and not some Hollywood notion of what dreams look and sound like. 

Doesn't help that the diner is the dimmest I've ever seen, and I've been to a few. Some of the strongest images in the original comic occur under standard-issue diner lighting: bright with plenty of fluorescents, and all the more unsettling for it. 

That said, this is an honorable attempt, not the least because of David Thewlis' interpretation of John Dee. The Dee in the comic was a mottled grotesque with barely understandable motives beyond the fact that he's been imprisoned for years and now that he's loose and possessed of unlimited power he wants to have fun, his way. Thewlis humanizes this villain, makes us understand the history of abuse and neglect that drove him to be the way he is. Maybe not the best Gaiman I've seen onscreen big or small (that would be Coraline or "The Doctor's Wife") but still worth catching.