A New Dream: Netflix’s The Sandman and the Art of Adaptation

BY NICOLE LEE

ADAPTATION is a tricky art. This isn’t a surprise, since taking anything from its original context is bound to create issues, even before you begin to run up against issues with how loyal fans of the source material might take to the adaptation. We’ve seen any number of failed adaptations, from fiascos like the Percy Jackson movies to the CW’s infamous Riverdale TV show, both of which distorted their source material to nigh-unrecognizable degrees –but for every Shadowhunters , there’s a Game of Thrones (so long as you ignore that last season…) or a Big Little Lies . But good adaptations are still few and far between, and even rarer is the TV show that manages to adapt its source material correctly – especially when said source material is something like a comic. So why even adapt to begin with? Why do we take chances on stories that are, ostensibly, already perfect the way they are?

There are a couple of cases for adaptation, but to tell you the truth, they all tend to boil down to two main reasons. The cynical reason is, of course, money. Beloved franchises will always rake in cash, especially when you promise die-hard fans a newer, shinier version of the cast of characters they already know and love. You don’t need to look much farther than the omnipresent chokehold the MCU has on pop culture today. Whether or not we can really call all of the MCU entries successful adaptations remains to be seen (Civil War, eat your heart out), but the box office numbers don’t lie; the MCU is an undeniable example of just how much money can be made from adapting pre-existing stories for the gold and silver screens. The other reason is passion: sometimes, when someone loves a story enough, the driving force for adapting it to the screen is to try and get said story out to a wider audience. Certainly, the profit doesn’t hurt, but the best adaptations are, first and foremost, labors of love.

We have our reasons for adaptation (cynical and optimistic), but the question remains: what makes an adaptation good ? How do we decide that? Some might default straight to accuracy –an adaptation can only be good if it’s a faithful one. In some ways, this isn’t incorrect. Accuracy is important for an adaptation, if only because an adaptation sets out to do just that – adapt.

Of course, there’s bound to be leeway with how strictly an adaptation adheres to its source material; film and TV have constraints, same as any other form. On the surface, it seems like films have more time to work with: the average TV episode ranges anywhere from 22 to 45 minutes long, whereas movies can range anywhere from an hour to close to three hours in length. However, this is a bit misleading – though we’ve since left the land of cable TV seasons (22-24 episode seasons) behind for the not-quite-greener pastures of streaming services, the truth is that even at their absolute shortest , TV series tend to have much more breathing room. A film has around an hour, maximum, to sell you on its characters, its plot, and its premise. Meanwhile, a TV show can take the time to introduce all three to you slowly. The truth is, TV offers us a lot more leeway when it comes to developing characters and stories with depth, especially so when it comes to adapting long-form pieces of media like a book series or a video game. We find, a lot of the time, that the biggest issues with adaptations tend to be that they don’t give themselves enough time to introduce the work to the audience; instead, the work gets cherry-picked and truncated in order to fit itself into a set runtime. This is more often than not the biggest issue with movie adaptations – the Percy Jackson movies fall partially into this pitfall. So medium is important. But that’s obvi - ously not all. Plenty of adaptations we spoke about earlier that were god-awful were TV adaptations. So why does The Sandman work?

Let me backtrack a bit. For those of you who may have never heard of The Sandman before, here’s a super quick summary: The Sandman is a DC series created by beloved author Neil Gaiman, who you might know from his other works, like Good Omens , American Gods , or Coraline . Starting in January 1989, the series ran for a little over seven years, ending in March 1996, on its 75th issue. The Sandman follows Dream of the Endless, known also as Morpheus, Oneiros, or – pretty obviously – the Sandman. He’s one of seven siblings born from Night and Time who are anthropomorphic representations of universal concepts, known as the Endless. Dream – also pretty obviously – represents dreams, and governs over them. The series follows Dream after he is captured and held captive by a mortal magician for 70 years, as he rebuilds his fallen kingdom and begins to grapple with the concepts of change and mortality. The original comics had tieins to the DC universe we know now: the first issue actually features various villains and characters from across the DCU, and characters like John Con - stantine and Doctor Fate are actually not Gaiman’s own characters, but rather various characters taken from other DC comics. While the series initially presented itself as something that might have been closer to a collection of connected stories, later volumes revealed a carefully planned plot progression that slowly unfurled into a tragic, beautiful tale. The Sandman was a series that was ripe for adaptation; it was considered one of the most influential comics of its time, had a dedicated fanbase that still held a deep and enduring love for it, and was a series that could be, in some way, connected to a cash-cow, superhero franchise. But we all know by now that none of these factors guarantee a good adaptation. So it begs the question: how did Netflix do it?

I could talk about a lot of things that went right with Netflix’s adaptation of The Sandman . Chief among them are two key decisions: the choice to separate the adaptation from DC entirely, as well as the DCU, and the choice to have Neil Gaiman as an executive producer, as well as a general creative overseer. In an interview with TUDUM, showrunner Allen Heisenberg said, “Every script, every prop, every costume, all the sets, everything gets Neil’s eyes and his feedback.” Having

Gaiman involved ensured that even if the adaptation didn’t follow the comics to the letter, every decision made would be in the spirit of the original comic. The decision to separate The Sandman from the DCU would also prove to be a good choice: aside from the fact that the DCU remains a relatively unpopular cinematic universe in comparison to the MCU, allowing The Sandman to exist within its own onscreen space meant that the universe as a whole would be free of both DC-related baggage and the requirement to “make sense” in the DCU today. This meant making some key changes in terms of the characters who would eventually make up the key cast of Season One, though –most notable among these changes are the characters John Dee and Johanna Constantine. In the original comics, John Dee is, in fact, Doctor Destiny, a long-running Justice League villain. Johanna Constantine is a female version of famous DC warlock, John Constantine – who is arguably one of the most famous DC characters outside of the “Big Three,” composed of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. But how does this tie into the adaptation as a whole? What does all of this, when combined, mean for The Sandman as a piece of media? To tackle this, I think focusing on one episode of The Sandman (“24/7”) will help us bring it all together. For all intents and purposes, “24/7” should not work well as an episode. The Sandman has always been considered an “unadaptable” piece of media, and “24/7,” which is still known as one of the most graphic comics of all time, plays no small part in that. However, the production decision to focus more on the psychological impact of the plot, rather than John himself, is part of what makes the episode work so well. In choosing not to stay 100% faithful to the original comic, Netflix’s The Sandman is able to hone in on what, exactly, makes “24/7” horrifying, and in turn make it something that could actually be both filmed and aired. In striking a fine balance between faithfulness and adaptability, Netflix’s The Sandman manages to create an adaptation that feels familiar to new audiences, while also perfectly capturing what drew audiences to the comic all those years ago.