Impressive Cheekbones If Nothing Else
September 25, 2021 2:31 PM   Subscribe

 
YES

current me and 16 year old me are catatonic with excitement rn
posted by Kitteh at 3:02 PM on September 25, 2021 [13 favorites]


i hope i hope i hope i hope i hope i hope….
posted by Silvery Fish at 3:03 PM on September 25, 2021 [3 favorites]


I haven't gone to the bookshelf to check, but to my memory the shots and dialogue here are very accurate to the original. So that's pretty encouraging.

I wonder how they're gonna make his voice all black and wibbly though
posted by rifflesby at 3:05 PM on September 25, 2021 [24 favorites]


This looks lovely, although it's not much to judge on other than that. Neil sounds very proud of it on social media.

I remember how much I wanted there to be a Sandman movie when I was in high school, although it would have had to be pretty terrible at the time. Watching this or hearing news about it gives me a strangely melancholy feeling that I can't unpack here.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:06 PM on September 25, 2021 [7 favorites]


Some extremely fucked-up shit happened to several female characters (and one trans character that I recall) in that series, so I'm a little trepidatious. I see Gaiman and two other dudes listed as writers..hm.
posted by emjaybee at 3:12 PM on September 25, 2021 [10 favorites]


I’ve been whittling down my queue, getting ready to unsubscribe from Netflix… but for this. Started reading SANDMAN with the first issue, and I’m hoping for a great adaptation.
posted by cupcakeninja at 3:18 PM on September 25, 2021


Well they certainly nailed the cheekbones and jaw. Sturridge has a lean face but nothing like that. Is that just great makeup and lighting? A little post-pro CG?

Charles Dance is good as a Gaiman Villain Type. I would have cast him as Lucien but I'm all for how they've reimagined that character for the show.
posted by Nelson at 3:22 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]




Oh wow! This is tremendous. It is even better than I imagined it in my head when I read the comics.
posted by rednikki at 3:31 PM on September 25, 2021


I’ve been whittling down my queue, getting ready to unsubscribe from Netflix… but for this.

Nowadays all the cool kids subscribe to one streaming service, watch everything they want to see, then cancel and subscribe to the next service, repeat ad infinitum. It's loads cheaper that way.
posted by nushustu at 3:40 PM on September 25, 2021 [8 favorites]


(woah, from the Tudum link: There's also an opening sequence for Cowboy Bebop, with a very cute Ein. i'm also unreasonably excited for stranger things 4 to finally arrive.)
posted by kaibutsu at 3:42 PM on September 25, 2021 [3 favorites]


Stephen Fry as Gilbert is a pleasing choice.
posted by microscone at 4:02 PM on September 25, 2021 [4 favorites]


Some extremely fucked-up shit happened to several female characters (and one trans character that I recall) in that series, so I'm a little trepidatious. I see Gaiman and two other dudes listed as writers..hm.

A lot of people have learned a lot about sexism, gender, and representation in the past twenty years. Maybe being a writer on the TV show will be a chance to fix old mistakes for Gaiman.

OTOH, I watched the first episode of The Orville the other day, since I've been hearing good things about it, and a whole plotline in that first episode was basically, "How much of a bitch is Adrianne Palicki's character?" and I saw that sexism was not dead and that fucked-up shitty people are still writing comedy, and it made me sad and angry.
posted by Orlop at 4:11 PM on September 25, 2021 [5 favorites]


I gave the Orville a shot last year, and it turned out to be best described as, “what if a guy really loved Star Trek and wanted to make a new Star Trek, but didn’t really get the lessons of Star Trek?”

Excited for Sandman! I love Kirby Howell-Baptiste, but the character poster I saw for Death seems to show she’s not a perky goth, and if she’s not I’ll be sad. Kirby would be a great perky goth!!
posted by ejs at 4:21 PM on September 25, 2021 [5 favorites]


I wonder how they're gonna make his voice all black and wibbly though

The only way to do that, IMHO, would be to get Andrew Eldritch in to dub his parts.
posted by acb at 4:27 PM on September 25, 2021 [8 favorites]


>the character poster I saw for Death seems to show she’s not a perky goth

Seriously? If I had to guess the one thing people want out of this show more than anything else, it'd be for Death to still be a perky goth.

I must say, though, they found an actor for the lead role who is of sufficiently angular construction that he looks like he was drawn by Dave McKean.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 4:47 PM on September 25, 2021 [10 favorites]


Those are indeed quality cheekbones.
posted by humbug at 5:20 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


Character posters for Dream, Death, and Desire.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:26 PM on September 25, 2021 [3 favorites]


to my memory the shots and dialogue here are very accurate to the original. So that's pretty encouraging.

Unless it's the opposite! I have not forgotten the obsequiously faithful Watchmen movie vs. the inspired-by, inspired, and inspiring TV show. Sandman isn't Watchmen, and in particular it doesn't have Watchmen's relationship with invoking and subverting genre tropes, but I kind of hope it doesn't continue to be this much of a shot-for-panel remake.
posted by babelfish at 5:32 PM on September 25, 2021 [2 favorites]


(I am excited to see my good friend** Asim Chaudhry as Abel though, what perfect casting.)

**We have not met, just he was on Taskmaster and everyone who's been on Taskmaster is my very good friend
posted by babelfish at 5:35 PM on September 25, 2021 [6 favorites]


Of course, to my distaste, there have been Gaiman fans who are outraged that Death is a black woman, not the perky white girl goth they've been drooling over for years.
posted by Kitteh at 6:00 PM on September 25, 2021 [2 favorites]


No reason a black Death can't be a perky goth Death. I am personally acquainted with more than a few perky Goths of Colour. There's too much fun to be had with her costuming otherwise, really.

Some extremely fucked-up shit happened to several female characters (and one trans character that I recall) in that series, so I'm a little trepidatious. I see Gaiman and two other dudes listed as writers..hm.

There were substantial changes in the right direction made in both Good Omens and American Gods (for what AG is worth) that tell me that Gaiman is very aware of the changes one can make to the source and still be true to the original. I'm personally wary about this series based largely on how much of a shitshow AG was, but Good Omens has upgraded my anticipation from hiding-under-the-bed to watching-around-a-doorframe.

As for Wanda, the trans woman in question, Gaiman is reportedly determined to make sure there are trans writers working that season.
posted by Jilder at 6:05 PM on September 25, 2021 [10 favorites]


Oh, I agree! It's just irritating that fault must be found.

It looks like from the Wikipedia entry for the show that the cast list definitely points to Preludes & Nocturnes and The Doll's House as the trades they're covering. I want to give a giant high five to whomever signed off on Boyd Holbrook as the Corinthian. His appearance absolutely nails murderous dream you want to bang.
posted by Kitteh at 6:16 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


I haven't gone to the bookshelf to check, but to my memory the shots and dialogue here are very accurate to the original. So that's pretty encouraging.

I've already found two teaser-to-comics comparison videos up on YouTube: Netflix Geeked and StoryDive.

Personally, I care more whether it will be good rather than whether it's accurate to the comics. But the behind-the-scenes sneak peak from June already told us it's going to be visually impressive.
posted by davidwitteveen at 6:39 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


After a very long day, I arrived home to a text from a friend about this first look for "The Sandman". I was immediately wary, as I'm not sure adapting it to film/tv would be a good idea. So I avoided the trailer and waited for a shift in mood from that very long day. A meal and shower put me in a better frame of mind, but it wasn't THE frame of mind, imo, to see the first look at such a venerated story from my early days.

Then the sun slowly shuffled home and the house became dark and YES that was the perfect time to watch.

Sadly, I was not impressed. It's been awhile since I've even looked at the early comics, but it is about Dream. Sure there's another characters, meaningful characters that will matter greatly, but its. about. Dream.

So why show the tired tropes of evil and seances and conjuring spirits with barely a hint of Dream? And it's a sequence from the early issues, which were a bit boring and pedestrian. It would have been far better to show us Dream being Dream or a hint of it, rather such a small scale sketch.

Hopefully later views or a trailer will be more impressive.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:48 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


Charles Dance STENTORIAN VOICE is best STENTORIAN VOICE
posted by lalochezia at 7:46 PM on September 25, 2021 [14 favorites]


Gaiman points out that Tom Sturridge's introduction here is what we can expect from Dream vocally (and I imagine they may put some otherwordly touches on it during production). It's pretty intense.

I forgot Kirby Howell-Baptiste is playing Death! What an excellent choice I can't wait.
posted by greenland at 7:47 PM on September 25, 2021


have read sandman -- pretty much my introduction to comics and the only thing i seriously followed, never having taken to that format as a child. what great storytelling; what breadth! (will recommend mckean's cages as a starkly beautiful series). don't know anything about this project. this looks fine. i recall burgess (? -- the british country gentleman who seeks to capture death) as a more portly, bald, jowly aleister crowley-looking guy than (those above seem to be saying) charles dance. was pleased to see the helmet looking about right. do i understand this will be serial television? and they're planning to do the entire comic run (inferred from "trans-writers on that season" which should be ... several seasons in, which is promising. i don't think i've seen and liked a production of a neil gaiman writing that i had read and liked. good omens was pretty good (but still, somehow, boring); american gods was quite uneven and i eventually gave up. did not love coraline. probably missing a few, yet, then again, not missing them. anyway, looking forward to this, now. and cowboy bebop. frankly can't imagine any production of either doing justice to its source material.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:21 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


Character posters for Dream, Death, and Desire. I'm not familiar with every name in the cast, but the ones I know seem inspired choices. Mason Alexander Park will be fine as Desire, I'm sure, but that has for almost a decade seemed to me to be a role that cried out for Ruby Rose.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:42 PM on September 25, 2021 [2 favorites]


The early 2000s BBC adaptation that lives in my imagination will live on after this is forgotten.
posted by goatdog at 9:20 PM on September 25, 2021 [2 favorites]


Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer. That is all.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:59 PM on September 25, 2021 [11 favorites]


Kirby Howell-Baptiste's bit on the Tudum thing was very perky, so I have a feeling she'll nail it.

And Tom's voice! I mean, the audiobook is nice and all, but much as I love Charles McAvoy, TOO TENOR. This is a proper baritone "wiggly white letters on a black background" Morpheus voice.

Also casting a musical actor as Desire was perfect. Desire should be played by exactly the sort of person who does Hedwig and Emcee from Cabaret and Norma Desmond. Exactly that energy.

So: optimistic. Less cautiously so with each bit.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:31 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: Personally acquainted with more than a few perky Goths of Colour.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:40 PM on September 25, 2021 [5 favorites]


My brain, upon seeing Morpheus sitting, staring forward:

“Oh look, Bernard from Black Books”

Hopefully I’ll be able to unsee that
posted by Kattullus at 11:47 PM on September 25, 2021 [5 favorites]


So: optimistic. Less cautiously so with each bit.


This is how I feel. I want this to be so good! Thus far it is looking like it will at least be pretty good!

Sadly, I was not impressed. It's been awhile since I've even looked at the early comics, but it is about Dream. Sure there's another characters, meaningful characters that will matter greatly, but its. about. Dream.

I just did a reread of the Sandman and I don't think this is accurate. Yes, the overall plot is about dream, but a huge amount of the comic has dream nowhere to be found. Dream is sort of the crux around which the vents of the comics spin, but the comics are, imo, about much more than dream, and if they can capture that in the tv show that would be amazing indeed. If anything, I'd expect them to go too far the other way and make the TV show too much about dream, since tv shows want a clear anchor like that, and having just reread the comics, dream really isn't that sort of anchor. Like the middle 40% of the comics are almost completely dreamless.
posted by wooh at 12:38 AM on September 26, 2021 [10 favorites]


To echo the lack of Dream as a focal point, Game of You as my first entry point to A
Sandman, and I was wondering if I’d picked up the right book at first, as Dream is barely in the story at all. The stories that I remember (and on a recent reread) and enjoyed the most were the ones that had the least of him, specifically A Game of You and World’s End, though I am very much looking forward to Season of Mist.

As far as the first look, the summoning scene, it just seemed a bit too busy for me. I always had the image of it being Burgess surrounded by his cowed supporters, and a very hushed sort of thing. Maybe not the most showy thing though.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:21 AM on September 26, 2021


A huge amount of the comic has dream nowhere to be found

True. The comic was more like an anthology series of stand-alone tales, with Morpheus himself often playing no more than a cameo role. I'd love it if the TV series took the same approach but it doesn't seem likely. I'd forgive them if they did a special animated episode adapting Dream of a Thousand Cats, though.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:30 AM on September 26, 2021 [5 favorites]


My main fear with Sandman the TV show is that it will be good, but it won't be the Game of Thrones level success they're sort of hoping for it to be and then it will not get completed. I mean...given the content they covered, it'd need a lot of seasons to cover the whole run. Which if they actually do would be a dream come true...adapting the comic in a thoughtful, considered, and patient way. But if at any point the numbers drop, Netflix is gonna drown this in the bathtub. They spent a lot of money to get the writes and produce this first season.
posted by wooh at 1:56 AM on September 26, 2021


I don't think the perky gothness of Death is all that important compared to the capacity of love and warmth that comes from a figure that's a representation of our most primal fear. In the 1980s, a goth made sense, but she updates herself every so often. She's not going to be a goth forever.

Also I am very interested to know how Wanda plays out - like it's filtered through the 80s, but that was the first time I'd ever seen gender essentialism identified and attacked, and you could see Gaiman trying to say something important back before there was a great blueprint for that issue, or when merely representing the unfairness of it was enough.
posted by Merus at 2:34 AM on September 26, 2021 [11 favorites]


What's missing for me is distinct sense of mood. Good Omens and American Gods had distinct moods that communicated what they were about. The Sandman hasn't telegraphed anything similar, which makes it appear fairly ordinary. Hopefully later looks or trailers will correct that.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:00 AM on September 26, 2021


pleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuck
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:33 AM on September 26, 2021 [6 favorites]


What's missing for me is distinct sense of mood

It’s literally 52 seconds of footage.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:34 AM on September 26, 2021 [7 favorites]


It’s literally 52 seconds of footage.

Well, to be fair, look at the cowboy bebop opening credits that came out. It's nothing but mood -- but absolutely nothing else, lol.
posted by wooh at 5:44 AM on September 26, 2021


The Cowboy Bebop thing is opening credits. It's nothing but mood, there's no coherent anything happening except establishing style. This teaser for Sandman shows us an (abbreviated) scene from the plot. Almost entirely one set, one set of costumes, one makeup, one narrative action. It has less room to establish mood. I mean they cast Stephen Fry as Gilbert; that's a whole mood for you and a very different one.

Gonna gripe a bit about what we were shown though, the ritual felt super hokey to me. Like a Scooby Doo level of witchy seriousness. That may be deliberate, there's more than a bit of camp in the comic too. I mean it's hard to look back on Crowley and Thelema as anything but really silly. But the book plays it seriously, in high camp comic book style, and I'm curious how that's going to translate.

Good points made in the thread about Sandman being a bunch of disconnected stories. I think I'm most looking forward to a Fables & Reflections adaptation. It's a bunch of one-offs which greatly simplifies the production but also makes it impossible to have any sense of episodic story. I could imagine them skipping these entirely but I sure hope not. The Song of Orpheus and particularly Ramadan are favorites. A Dream of a Thousand Cats is also a fantastic standalone (from an earlier run) and as Paul Slade said it pretty much has to be animated given all the important characters are actual cats.
posted by Nelson at 7:49 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Since Sandman at its core about storytelling, I think it would be a misstep for them to skip over the standalone pieces that examine different ways in which stories can be told.

Plus, it might help with the "mushy middle" effect that some of the Netflix Marvel shows were plagued by when they tried to stretch out too little plot over too many episodes. It was always a bit baffling that they didn't just slide in a few standalone ones that would do some of the character/worldbuilding work without watering things down too much. Comics have that long history of fill-in issues, so it's not like it's something they wouldn't have a model for.

I think Gaiman made a few hints on Twitter that Dream of Thousand Cats is indeed in the works, so that's a good sign.
posted by quizzical at 8:11 AM on September 26, 2021 [4 favorites]


If the show is successful it's hard to imagine they won't adapt Ramadan. It's an immensely famous issue. It's just a question of if the show can survive that long :)

Honestly I'm super excited for them to get to, well, anything. I just want it all. That said, I am particularly excited about World's End. I just really love that whole vibe. I wanna see the Necropolis.

But damn, there's just so much I wanna see...I agree that I really hope they include one shots. Great to hear about Dream of a Thousand Cats! I hadn't seen that. Really great news.
posted by wooh at 8:46 AM on September 26, 2021 [2 favorites]


I don't think the perky gothness of Death is all that important compared to the capacity of love and warmth that comes from a figure that's a representation of our most primal fear. In the 1980s, a goth made sense, but she updates herself every so often. She's not going to be a goth forever.

Also when I think of Death as a character, the description that pops into my head is of someone who is beautiful, practical, kind, and just a little bit odd*. All of which perfectly describes Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Simone in The Good Place. The moment I heard she was cast, I closed my eyes and pictured it and it felt very right.

(*In retrospect, this also describes Mary Poppins -- which might explain why Death is such a big fan in her first appearance in the comics.)
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:01 AM on September 26, 2021 [6 favorites]


Petrefax! (btw surprised that is still not somebody's band name)
posted by bitterkitten at 9:49 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


I really hope they include one shots

I hope so too. For all that some aspects of Sandman make tv adaptations difficult, the original format is really a gift to a showrunner willing to step aside from the idea that a show needs to be one thing, be it serialized arc based, episodic, or anthology - the comics were pretty mutable and as, fundamentally, stories about stories, were able to pull in one offs, mini serial arcs, and anthologies while everything was wrapped up in one meta story. I really hope the tv show takes the same flexible approach.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:47 PM on September 26, 2021 [2 favorites]


I have had some fun imagining what the TV show Lucifer would have been like if it had been Gwendoline Christie instead of Tom Ellis.
posted by Quonab at 9:42 PM on September 26, 2021


Yeah, it seems like taking a while season away to do one shorts is a no go for keeping your actors aboard... So I imagine we'll get one shots scattered around throughout the other stories, in the best case scenario.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:46 PM on September 26, 2021


Weird thing is that he looks just like someone I was at school with. Not now, probably, but forty years ago. Enough that I get a surprise whenever I visit YouTube.

It turns out his mum is also The Elephant Man's mother, though only in blurry flashback.
posted by Grangousier at 5:54 AM on September 27, 2021


After Good Omens, I trust Neil Gaiman to do this right. I thought American Gods was nearly unwatchable, and if you read between the lines of Gaiman's Twitter, he may have thought so too. At one point, a fan asked if Sandman would suffer from the same problems as American Gods, and Gaiman's response was basically "I was not involved with American Gods. I am running this show." Good Omens, in my opinion, showed that he is a sensitive creator and showrunner and is able to stay true to his original vision while also keeping it fresh and up to date.

My biggest concern about Sandman - any adaptation of Sandman, including the recent Audible version - is that the first volume or two is the worst part of the story. The pointless shoehorning in of other DC properties (Cain & Abel, John Constantine, John Dee, Martian Manhunter, etc.), the often grotesque and unnecessary violence, and a plot that doesn't really pay off until much later. The fact that the first two volumes contain the brutal "24 Hours" story in the diner and an actual serial killer convention makes it difficult for me to convince my family to give it a try.

Everything from Season of Mists forward is excellent, and the culmination of the story is absolutely brilliant. I'm just concerned that I'll have a difficult time stomaching the beginning or getting anyone else to watch with me. Anyone else have that experience?
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:14 AM on September 27, 2021 [2 favorites]


Ben Trismegistus, that's absolutely a worry of mine. My wife is emphatically not a fan of gore, but even more so is not a fan of any depiction of torture, even should it occur off-frame. Psychological torture is no more palatable. I'm expecting to have her just skip "24 Hours" altogether.
posted by Ipsifendus at 7:53 AM on September 27, 2021 [3 favorites]


I don't care how bad it is, I am going to absolutely adore it and have chills and thrills the whole way. I am one million percent aboard for this. I have no person in my life I can gush about this and Bebop with!! Argh!!

My one wistful imagining is a Wicker Man-era Christoper Lee as The Ritual Guy.
posted by Occula at 8:19 AM on September 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


I'm expecting to have her just skip "24 Hours" altogether.

She'd be in good company, at least.
posted by quizzical at 5:41 PM on September 27, 2021 [2 favorites]


A Dream of a Thousand Cats is also a fantastic standalone (from an earlier run) and ... pretty much has to be animated given all the important characters are actual cats

Maybe they could go the Andrew Lloyd Webber route with an uncanny valley CGI version. In a year's time we'd all be clamouring to see the asshole cut.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:56 AM on September 30, 2021


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