Cliff Notes – Don’t let the Neil Gaiman accusations ruin Netflix’s best fantasy show
- The second season of The Sandman continues to explore profound themes, despite the overshadowing allegations against co-creator Neil Gaiman, who denies the accusations of sexual misconduct.
- The series excels in its stunning visuals, strong performances, particularly from the cast portraying the Endless, and a well-crafted script that enhances the narrative beyond the original comics.
Don’t let the Neil Gaiman accusations ruin Netflix’s best fantasy show
‘We do not choose to be created, nor do we choose how we are made.’
In the first season of The Sandman on Netflix, these words are uttered by Lord Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), otherwise known as Dream.
In the context of the show, Dream is referring to everyone’s lack of agency in their inception. It’s essentially a slightly pretentious way of saying ‘you can’t help where you come from’.
Going into season 2, Morpheus’s words feel especially apt due to the large shadow cast over the show by its co-creator, Neil Gaiman.
The 64-year-old fantasy author, who wrote the comics The Sandman is based on, stands accused of sexual misconduct by eight women.
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Gaiman has denied the allegations. ‘I’m far from a perfect person,’ he wrote in a statement shared on his website in January. ‘But I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.’
However, following the allegations, which Gaiman vehemently denies, The Sandman’s second season has been marred by its association with the once beloved author.
Which is where I come into this story. You see, The Sandman is a story that means an awful lot to me, even now following Gaiman’s fall from glory.
The Sandman, with its philosophical musings on the nature of change, has always tickled my pseudo-intellectual fancy, and as a gloomy pale guy with dark hair with a preference for long coats, I’ve always felt a certain kinship with Dream.
It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that I approached the second season of Morpheus’s adventures with a strange mixture of excitement and dread.
I couldn’t wait to see the story I loved again, but also, I was aware the spectre of Gaiman would linger over the show, like a bad dream you can’t wake up from.
Of course, before we begin, I must mention Gaiman’s alleged victims and how important it is that their stories are heard. This, at the end of the day, is a TV show, and their experiences matter far more than any Netflix series.
If, after you read their testimony, you decide that the Sandman season 2 isn’t for you, then I completely understand.
As for me? Do the accusations levelled against Gaiman spoil the series? Thankfully, no, given there’s so much more to the series than one man, although they do mar it somewhat.
In my opinion, The Sandman season two is every bit as beguiling, bold and brilliant as the first, managing to somehow elevate the source material.
But what makes the series so good?
Well, there are three elements as far as I’m concerned. The first is the spectacular visuals. The Sandman, by its very nature, deals with the ethereal and the ephemeral.
It’s testament to the incredible skill and dedication of the show’s art departments then, that they make the impossible seem possible without rendering it mundane.
Across the series, you’ll visit gorgeous locales and realms beyond comprehension, yet they all feel as tangible as your local neighbourhood.
Similarly, the various gods, demons, and other ghoulies and goblins aren’t uncanny CGI monsters; they feel like living, breathing people you might meet on your commute (although if you’ve ever met a hobgoblin on your bus to work, we feel sorry for you).
A large part of that comes down to the second part of the show I want to praise: the cast.
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, in the cast is fantastic, and I can’t think of a single performance that took me out of the show.
I can’t lie that does make reviewing the series a bit tricky as I can’t praise everyone involved, but I can say it’s those playing the Endless who I found most impressive.
Playing the literal embodiment of fundamental forces can’t be easy, yet Kirby (formerly known as Kirby Howell-Baptiste) as Death, Mason Alexander Park as Desire, Adrian Lester as Destiny, and Barry Sloane as Destruction are simply sensational.
If I had to call out anyone for a special prize, though, it would be Esmé Creed-Miles as Dream’s younger sister, Delirium.
Delirium, by her unpredictable nature, can be a hard character to like, but Esmé makes her the most relatable of the Endless, even giving Tom a run for his money.
Speaking of which, Tom is magnificent as Dream, and Morpheus feels less like a character he‘s actually obligated to play and more like a role he was born to bring to life.
Of course, even Tom, with all his prodigious acting talent, would be nothing without a script to read, and it’s here that I think Sandman season two is at its strongest.
The writing is simply brilliant, it’s stripped-back synthesis of all Gaiman’s best ideas, with the comic’s occasionally ponderous pacing banished to the nether realm of bad TV.
I know there has been speculation that The Sandman is ending early due to the allegations against Gaiman, but I promise you, after watching the show, the pacing feels incredibly natural and far better thought out than what we got in the comics.
Sadly, though, we must now address the elephant in the room: Gaiman. As much as I tried to dismiss the man from my mind, his fingerprints are all over the show.
The show makes effective use of his great ideas, making changes to trim some elements that seem less savoury in light of the allegations against him, yet this is still his story at the end of the day.
As such, I felt a queasiness during the show’s first story arc, where we learn Dream effectively abused a woman who dared to try and leave him, something made worse by Morpheus looking like an idealised version of the writer.
It’s icky and there’s some subtext there I didn’t quite like.
Yet ultimately, I really enjoyed The Sandman season two, and to take this back to the opening quote, Dream can’t help who made him.
So maybe we shouldn’t let the circumstances of his creation rob us of arguably the best fantasy series Netflix has ever made.
The Sandman season two is available to stream now on Netflix
