andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2022-08-04 12:41 pm
andrewducker) wrote2022-08-04 12:41 pm
Thoughts before Sandman is released on TV
I first encountered Sandman with, I think, issues 8-12 in a cardboard box in a second-hand bookshop in Medway somewhere. I don't remember which bookshop it was, as it wasn't one I was in often. It was the summer of 1990, and I then set about buying all of the back issues and the several issues which had been produced since, as collections weren't something that was reliably produced for comics, and even when they were they were frequently released out of order. Comics, at that point, rarely produced a single coherent story for many issues, and it wasn perfectly normal to just fine to dip in and out of things, and be able to read things in whatever order you fancied.
All of which is to say that I've been a massive fan for 32 years now.
There have been fan-casting discussions since I first discussed comics online (first on the Monochrome bulletin board, and then on the Rec.Arts.Comics hierarchy), although I never took part in them myself. I did keep tabs on various terrible attempts to make it in the past (in 1998 there was a script which made Morpheus into Lucifer's brother. There was a producer who tried to insist on a fight with a giant mechanical spider, which then ended up in Wild Wild West.) It seemed unlikely, to me, that there could be a *good* adaptation of Sandman into a movie. And, frankly, given the levels of CGI at the time, I think I was right. Also, the chances of any writer compressing 75 issues of comic book into a movie seemed rather unlikely to me. I'm glad none of those got made.
But now they're making a TV series of it. And the level of CGI available today is frankly amazing. And they're putting 18 episodes of the comic into the first series, which means four seasons if they want to get through all of the main story, which feels about right. And Neil Gaiman is heavily involved. There's clearly no barrier to making the best possible Sandman adaptation.
So why am I nervous?
I'm nervous because I'm not actually sure that a great comic book translates into a great TV show, or a great movie, or a great novel, or a great computer album, or a great roleplaying game, any other medium. Things are what they are, and dialogue that works for one may sound awful in another. What works in imagination may not work well when you see it, and vice versa. This is why I've not enjoyed any adaptations of Terry Pratchett, with the exception of Troll Bridge, which doesn't feel like any of the other adaptations.
And so I'm worried not that they'll do a bad job, but that the best possible job will still not produce something great, and that I will be disappointed and left flat by it. I really hope I'm not.
All of which is to say that I've been a massive fan for 32 years now.
There have been fan-casting discussions since I first discussed comics online (first on the Monochrome bulletin board, and then on the Rec.Arts.Comics hierarchy), although I never took part in them myself. I did keep tabs on various terrible attempts to make it in the past (in 1998 there was a script which made Morpheus into Lucifer's brother. There was a producer who tried to insist on a fight with a giant mechanical spider, which then ended up in Wild Wild West.) It seemed unlikely, to me, that there could be a *good* adaptation of Sandman into a movie. And, frankly, given the levels of CGI at the time, I think I was right. Also, the chances of any writer compressing 75 issues of comic book into a movie seemed rather unlikely to me. I'm glad none of those got made.
But now they're making a TV series of it. And the level of CGI available today is frankly amazing. And they're putting 18 episodes of the comic into the first series, which means four seasons if they want to get through all of the main story, which feels about right. And Neil Gaiman is heavily involved. There's clearly no barrier to making the best possible Sandman adaptation.
So why am I nervous?
I'm nervous because I'm not actually sure that a great comic book translates into a great TV show, or a great movie, or a great novel, or a great computer album, or a great roleplaying game, any other medium. Things are what they are, and dialogue that works for one may sound awful in another. What works in imagination may not work well when you see it, and vice versa. This is why I've not enjoyed any adaptations of Terry Pratchett, with the exception of Troll Bridge, which doesn't feel like any of the other adaptations.
And so I'm worried not that they'll do a bad job, but that the best possible job will still not produce something great, and that I will be disappointed and left flat by it. I really hope I'm not.
no subject
Umbrella Academy has drifted a long ways from the comic at this point. That's fine -- they grokked the underlying spirit of the comic, and that's the important part. Frankly, IMO the TV series is much better than the comic.
I've watched many, many TV and movie adaptations from comics, and the question is always, "Do they get it?" Do the producers and directors understand the important parts of the comic? And do they know how to produce a great TV series or movie? If both of those are true, I generally don't care much about the details.
(V For Vendetta is my great disappointment. In many ways it was a fabulous adaptation, but they didn't seem to understand what the story is about, with the result that the ending message is almost exactly wrong.)
The canonical example here, tying back to Sandman, is Lucifer. The TV show understood that the fundamental theme of the comic is the topic of Free Will, and they held onto that closely, while very deliberately changing everything else -- the TV show starts at the same place as the comic, but then diverges wildly in every respect, especially the nature of the title character. And much though I loved the comic, the show is better: the characters are more engaging, the story (much though it wanders) is more coherent, and it's just plain more fun.
I'm a couple of episodes into Sandman so far, and generally enjoying it but reserving judgement. It's a fine adaptation, but a little bit ponderous -- hopefully it loosens up a little as it goes...
no subject
I feel similarly about Watchmen as you do about V for Vendetta. Looks amazing, message is wrong.
no subject
Okay, good -- simply the fact that it is, at its heart, a love story tells you how different the interpretation of the character is, and that's why it works so well. The Lucifer of the comic is basically a force of nature, largely unyielding, unchanging, and a tad unsympathetic, so the story mostly had to be told with others as the viewpoint characters. The show's Lucifer is very much the co-lead, and he has a lot of arc over the course of it. Indeed, in general it is the story about a lot of cosmic beings learning to be better people.
The movie, absolutely. The sequel TV series, OTOH, I thought was a loving and brilliant homage to the comic -- very different story, but sharing more of the comic's DNA than the movie did, and IMO arguably better than the original.