The Sandman, Season 1, Episode 9, "The Collectors," First Impressions!
First of all I’d like to just say that I’ve been listening to this song on repeat for days.
Okay, before I get to the meat of things, there are two very small pieces of criticism I’d like to get out of the way, because for all that is great about this show, there’s always going to be things that don’t work for certain people, and these just don’t work that well for me.
First is something I’ve already made mention of, but I’ll just say it again: I’m not too hot on them splitting the Lyta and Hector Hall stuff away from Jed’s Silver Age Sandman dream. Like, I get the why of it. I get that having Lyta actually suffer Hector’s loss, get him back, and then be made to suffer it all over again makes for greater motivation for her going on her eventual revenge world tour. I also get that establishing a relationship between Rose and the Halls and having her witness Hector being banished back to the afterlife gives her more motivation to have that coming clash with Dream. The mechanics make perfect sense.
I just don’t personally care for the execution, as in wanting to set all of those motivations up, both Jed and Lyta’s destroyed dreamworlds are made to be less interesting in the original version. Having Lyta spend years as basically a drugged-out pregnant doll controlled by Brute and Glob living in a facsimile of a Silver Age comic book onto be roughly ripped back into harsh reality and left to pick up the pieces when Dream essentially destroyed her life was fascinating. There was a very unnerving quality to the contrast that is now missing. What it’s been replaced with isn’t bad, per se, and I doubt any new viewers that haven’t read the comics would even notice that something is out of place. I’m just saying that she and Hector’s dream house feels kind of paint-by-the-numbers in comparison, like they’re making sure they hit all of the essential points to set up The Kindly Ones but didn’t put as much thought into making as weird and interesting than the original. Same with Jed. Yes, making him the Sandman instead of Hector was actually a cool idea. But I really do feel more time should have been spent on that, instead of one scene at the beginning and one scene at the end.
The second issue is the Walker siblings themselves. Now, I’ve read a lot of complaints about Vanesu Samunyai's performance as Rose being kind of flat, especially in comparison to the rest of the cast. I honestly didn’t feel that way my first watchthrough, but upon rewatches…yeah, hate to say it, but I do see where they’re coming from. There’s a lot of dull surprise at play, especially since Rose had been recharacterized as being much more active and taking greater agency than her comic counterpart, so there’s a lot of parts that could’ve had a lot more oomph in her reactions. As for Jed, Eddie Karanja is actually doing a pretty good job, especially when it comes to emoting, but there are a lot of moments when his natural British accent is really obvious. Then again, he is just a kid, so that’s pretty understandable. But yeah, none of this is honestly that bad, it's just one of the weaker points that could stand to get tightened up.
Okay, I’ve got my mild criticisms out of the way. Let’s about the motherfuckin’ Cereal Convention!
The Cereal Convention was probably my favorite part of The Doll’s House, so I was so happy in how much attention it got. They clearly had a lot of fun putting this all together, and it all feels very familiar. There’s Fun Land with his stupid hat (more on him later), there’s the lame puns (yes!), and there’s the collectors themselves.
At first I was a little bewildered at how many of them there were. Like, there can’t be that many serial killers active, can there? But I read an analysis on the storyline that made a lot of sense. The Corinthian has been wreaking havoc in his own twisted way for over a century, and as a living Nightmare he ended up infusing his own twisted dream into the world, inspiring dozens, if not hundreds. That’s actually pretty terrifying, to have so many monsters be brought together under his delusion.
And they were all here! We already met the Corinthian, Nimrod, Fun Land, and the Good Doctor, but there was Moon River! And there was the Connoisseur, though I definitely see why they cut out exactly what he specialized in. You see all of these deluded monsters strutting around, thinking themselves to be heroes, only to show the cracks in their own delusion, such as Fun Land’s childish outbursts to Nimrod’s evident annoyance at someone in the crowd making a mild joke. Like, these people are all incredibly emotionally stunted people, and for as much fun as bringing them all together definitely was, the show also showed just how pathetic they are.
And, okay, the panels! They kept the panels! I am so happy with how they did it, too! Having Gilbert wander around from one panel to the next was comedy gold! My favorite is the Women’s panel, where Gilbert is just nodding along in agreement to the rant about women not being taken seriously, only for him to go, “Hey, wait a minute…” That was great. Though I admit I do prefer my own take on how the Hammer of God sounds, as I always pictured him having this droning Reverend Lovejoy with a Texan accent voice, but it was still fantastic.
And yup! There’s the serial-killer fanboy pretending to be the Boogeyman, complete with his blog! If ever having someone victimized by these people was well-deserved, it was this guy!
There were a couple of changes that I wasn’t too keen on. For one, they cut out Gilbert’s telling of Red Riding Hood, which did play very well into the Fun Land stuff later, especially given his big wolf shirt. Also, I do prefer the seedy Bate’s Motel-look from the comics instead of the swanky Four Seasons here, but those are very minor complaints in the grand scheme of things.
And finally, having the Corinthian just kill Fun Land was an improvement, because while there was something weirdly poetic with how Dream neutralized him, this guy is a child murderer! I’m sorry, but if anyone doesn’t deserve any sort of redemption, it’s him!
All right, almost done here. I truly hope we get a second season. Please, Netflix, don’t Dark Crystal this one!
