‘The Sandman’ Takes A “Screw It” Approach To Adaptations
by Frank Martin
It is well known in comic circles that Neil Gaiman‘s The Sandman was in development hell for decades. So, obviously, the Netflix adaptation was released with great anticipation. Even before the show began streaming there was already a lot of hype and controversy as Gaiman made a lot of creative decisions and switching some casting around along with it. There was a lot of talk about if The Sandman could even be adapted as it was so well-made for the comic book medium. A lot of fans had faith, though, as he was in creative control. As it turns out, the controversy and speculation turned out to be irrelevant as the show took a very straightforward approach to its source material.
As with any adaptation, some things have to be changed from the original and fans are in constant contention about how much should change and how much should stay the same. Of course, it’s important to keep the essence of a story intact. After all, the story itself is what fans love and making an adaptation in name only would disrespect that community. A great example is the film Watchmen, which decided that teleporting a giant squid monster into New York City wasn’t particularly right for the screen. The Sandman has many of these comic book moments that seem just too ridiculous or odd for television. Gaiman and his collaborators, however, just takes a sort of “screw it” approach to the adaptation.
The show decides not to tweak its big comic book details and instead leans into them. A great example of this is the structure of the season itself. Most limited series on streaming services focus a season as a full block of storytelling. So most comic book arcs are spread out over the course of a season. The Sandman‘s is not. It gives each story arc the proper amount of time per episodes before moving on to a different arc, some of which are even a single issue long. This is adherence to both the pacing and the details of the story disproved the belief that The Sandman could not have been adapted properly. That’s not to say that an zealously faithful adaptation works in every instance, but The Sandman grasps just the right tone to make it succeed.
The Sandman is now streaming on Netflix.