The Sandman Review

Looking for a weird series to check out? Well, it’s only weird if you’re not into fantasy. Personally, I love mystical worlds with a hint of horror. “The Sandman” is based on a comic of the same name and is now a Netflix series. It tells the story of the Sandman, also known as Dream or Morpheus, played by Tom Sturridge. Morpheus, the personification of dreams, is one of the Endless.

Who are the Endless, you ask? They are personified siblings born from the cosmic entities Night and Time, each ruling over their own realm. There are seven members of the Endless, but only four appear in the first season: Dream, Death, Desire, and Despair. Just for fun, the others are Destiny, Destruction, and Delirium. Notice a pattern here?

The series kicks off with a group of people involved in some sort of occult, led by a British aristocrat named Roderick Burgess. They attempt to capture Death, played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste, to gain supernatural powers and increase Burgess’s power and wealth. He also wants to resurrect his eldest son.

Roderick steals Morpheus’s totems of power: his helm, a pouch of sand, and a ruby. These are eventually stolen by his ex-lover, Ethel Cripps, who is pregnant with his child. Around 1916, the occult uses the totems to summon Death but instead captures Dream.

Morpheus’s imprisonment causes an epidemic of “sleepy sickness,” lasting the 106 years of his captivity. Due to a mistake, the magical seal is broken, and Dream can influence everyone’s dreams and plot his escape to restore his realm.

They say, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” but they didn’t know about a scorned mystical being. The hell that Dream unleashes upon the world is diabolical. He manipulates the minds of the men who kept him locked up by turning their dreams into reality.

Once Morpheus is freed, he goes out to retrieve his stolen totems. Along the way, you see how the totems affect humans. We also get introduced to the other three beings of the Endless. Each totem he finds leads him to a sort of side quest. Each quest appears to be impossible to obtain but somehow, he manages. 

After Morpheus retrieves his possessions, he’s visited by his sister Death, who helps him find his purpose so he can fulfill his duties as the ruler of the dream realm. We also get flashbacks to the Middle Ages, where Morpheus meets a man named Hob Gadling, palyed by Ferdinand Kingsley, who wishes to never die. Death grants his wish, and Hob and Morpheus meet once every century at a tavern.

We see that Morpheus continues to meet with Hob because he’s lonely and friendless. Hob is the closest thing to a friend he has. Even during Morpheus’s 100-year captivity, Hob kept their meetings at the tavern. Fast forward to the present, Morpheus returns to the tavern spot, hoping to see Hob, but finds it has been sold.

But don’t worry, my lovely friends, there’s a new tavern called The New Pub just a block away. And guess who’s there? Hob! The two reunite, and Morpheus, who has always rejected human emotion, finally acknowledges Hob as a friend. Cue the single tear.

This series has so many layers that it will keep you thinking long after you’ve finished watching. Even if you aren’t familiar with the comic book, like I am, this series will keep you glued to the screen. I give this series 4 out of 5 acorns.