The Sandman (TV Series)

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The Sandman is a 2022 Netflix show, based on the comic book series of the same name by Neil Gaiman. It premiered on August 5, 2022.

A hundred years ago, a sorcerer called Roderick Burgess tried to imprison the Angel of Death. He ended up miscalculating, capturing a mysterious man with a helmet, ruby and a pouch of sand. On finding out the man is the Lord of Dreams, Roderick tried to use Dream's captivity to bargain for powers.

Dream is now free. He has taken revenge on his captors. There is a problem, however: most of his realm's dreams and nightmares are running rampant on Earth. Dream has to get them back, by any means possible, before they harm humanity. Some have already started the harm.

The series stars Tom Sturridge as Dream, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death.

Tropes used in The Sandman (TV Series) include:

Abusive Dad: Roderick Burgress is not winning any father of the year awards. He physically abuses Alex, blatantly using him as a servant rather than a son.
Adaptational Attractiveness: John Dee in the comics was a shriveled man with a haunted expression in his eyes. As David Thewliss plays John, he is fairly handsome, just looking lost before realizing he can get his ruby back.
Adaptation Expansion: The Corinthian gets more to do here by appearing in the first arc rather than being the Arc Villain in Doll's House. Dream ended up on Earth hunting down the Corinthian, who escaped to become a real-life nightmare. That allowed Roderick Burgess to capture him.
Adaptational Heroism:
- For what little it's worth, John Dee has a smaller body count compared to his comic counterpart. He doesn't want to kill anyone stopping him from getting his ruby, and spares Rosemary, giving her his amulet of protection. And indeed when he gets the ruby, rather than use it to kill people For the Evulz, he notes how everyone in the diner has dark secrets and uses its power to make all the negativity and resentment come out, along with the passion and confessions.
- One for Dream; while he does save Rose's life in the comics, he does plan to kill her if her Vortex powers awaken which they do, explaining that if he doesn't, she'll have the power to destroy Earth and infinite worlds. Here, he's adamant that despite her powers, she's not the one causing the problems in the Dreaming and agrees to help train her on how to use them to find Jed, if she helps him track down errant dreams. Rose is the one who offers to sacrifice herself so that she doesn't hurt her friends or family, realizing that her powers are too dangerous after they inadvertently empower the Corinthian.
Adaptational Villainy: The Burgesses had one thing in their defense in the comic book; they had no idea about the harm they were causing to the world and had mistaken Dream for Death during his centuries-long captivity. When the Corinthian tells Roderick, as well as Alex, what they really imprisoned, Roderick uses Dream's items to make himself rich. Alex has it worse in that he nearly frees Dream a few times, but hesitates.
Adaptational Wimp:
- Dream in the first arc is less powerful than he was in the comics, owing to spending a hundred years in captivity rather than seventy. He remade his palace with little effort in Preludes & Nocturnes; here, to even summon the Fates he has to sacrifice Cain and Abel's mount Gregory.
- Unlike in the comics where Gilbert figures out that Corinthian is holding Jed hostage and manages to rescue the kid while con events distract the nightmare, while ordering Rose to recite Morpheus's name if she ever finds herself in danger, he doesn't have that option here. Corinthian makes it clear that if Fiddler's Green tries anything funny, Jed dies. Gilbert opts to return to the Dreaming and surrender to Morpheus, begging him to save Rose and Jed. Dream is all too happy to provide backup support.
Adult Fear:
- The scene where Mr. Kincaid finds out his daughter Unity is asleep and not waking up, and realizing that she's not responding to him. He orders his wife to call the doctor, fearing Unity must be deathly ill. As Dream narrated, Unity wasn't the only one that fell victim to this sleeping sickness. Others had chronic insomnia or somnambulism.
- The sad part about Death going about her rounds is that everyone she reaps has very mundane deaths. A violinist recites a prayer in Hebrew before he passes on sleeping peacefully, a husband drowns while on vacation with his wife and begs Death to let him tell his wife the code to his phone, a baby succumbs to SIDs while the mother is getting a bottle, and Franklin dies in a random street accident.
- Rose's quest to find her little brother Jed after their parents separated in a divorce. Since their parents died recently, she wants to to become his guardian and reunite with him. The foster care agent is no help, refusing to give information because she says that Rose can't raise Jed with her lack of income. She finds out belatedly that his foster parents were abusive, and a serial killer kidnaps him as bait. Rose has no choice but to meet with the Corinthian at a designated spot, preparing to exchange herself for her little brother.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: One man begs Death to let him talk to his wife, to say goodbye and give her the code to his phone so she has the travel information for their vacation. She apologetically shows him that he drowned a few minutes ago, so it's too late.
Bait and Switch: When Dream tells Rose that Matthew will help her in the real world, serving as his eyes and ears, Rose spots a bird on the beach. She goes to talk to it. Matthew is a few feet away; he corrects her that she was talking to a crow, while he is a raven. Good thing too, since the Corinthian was a few feet away as well.
Black and White Insanity: John Dee has this problem; his mother was a Consummate Liar, and his nightmares indicate that she tried to kill him. As a result, he hates liars. The reason why he spares Rosemary, however, is she explains that people lie out of fear. Fear that they will die, or their loved ones will be hurt. Realizing that he's scaring her, John gives her his amulet of protection, promising that now she won't ever have to lie anymore or live in fear. In the diner, this mindset and his power with the Ruby leads to multiple heart-to-hearts between characters, an orgyfest, and eventually violence where John Dee compels everyone to die. Dream has to point out the obvious: if you see their deceptions in a black-and-white context, it means that you don't see their hopes and dreams. Because dreams are fundamentally lies with grains of truth, and they motivate people to act and improve their lives.
Bullying a Dragon: Roderick Burgess makes demands of the captive Dream when learning what he really is from the Corinthian. Dream says that even if he could give those gifts, honor and dedication to his duty would have compelled him to refuse. He gets his revenge once he's out on Alex.
Cardboard Prison: Subverted with the mental hospital where John Dee resides, unlike with Arkham Asylum in the comics. There are security guards on every level; the one on John's floor is on a first-name basis with him and will shoot to kill, apologetically. Unlike when Dream returned John Dee to Arkham and exiled him from the Dream Realm in the comics, here he puts John in a peaceful sleep and tucks him into bed. It's implied that John will spend the rest of his waking life there.
The Cavalry Arrives Late: Dream arrives to confront John Dee just as he's killed all the diner patrons that were trapped with him. He doesn't react, except to ask if it was necessary, and pointing out that none of the people were liars. The episode ends with him walking away from the burning diner, having reclaimed his tools.
Developing Doomed Characters: The adaptation of "24 Hours" does this with the people that John Dee traps in the diner. They are eventually compelled to murder and maim each other, or die by suicide, but the women when ordered to tell John Dee his fate warn him that his future has hospital beds and prison bars. We find out that Bette has been crushing on Marsh for years only to learn that he's gay, and Bette makes it a habit to set up people of the opposite sex in the attempts to give them "happy endings" though she hopes one day to write a book about her customers. Turns out the so-called happy couple both have their ambitions overriding their love on their fifth anniversary, with Garry resenting that Kate doesn't respect him as she's the CEO of a pharmaceutical company where they work and Kate knowing that Garry is cheating on her. Judy receives more than a label as a "domestic abuser"; she talks with Rose via video call and admits to Bette that she knows she's not good enough for Donna because she smacked the latter and they've been having problems for a while.
Even Evil Has Standards: John Dee feels guilty for scaring Rosemary as she begs him not to kill her dog. He doesn't have a gun, fortunately, but he does have the amulet of protection. John gives it to her, saying that now no one can ever harm her.
Everyone Has Standards:
- Joanna Constantine is selfish and pragmatic, showing no qualms about exorcising a demon in front of his bride-to-be. She also begs Dream to not leave Rachel dying in pain, knowing that it's her fault Rachel ended up in this state.
- Likewise, Dream understands Joanna's cynicism better when seeing her nightmares of failing to save Astra from a demon exorcism gone wrong. He tells her that he's sorry that she suffers them, and bargains to make them vanish if she gets back his pouch.
- Matthew is appalled when he learns that Dream condemned a woman to hell for rejecting him.
Graceful Loser: Zigzagged. Lucifer may not like Dream per se, but she respects him. When he wins their battle of wits, she forfeits the helm on the demon owner's behalf but says that nothing protects him in Hell so why should she abide by Sacred Hospitality? Dream points out that Hell would have no power over the damned unless they would dream of Heaven. She lets him go without further argument, though Matthew can see that she's furious.
Heroic Sacrifice: Rather, villainous one; Ethel Cripps comes to visit her son John Dee in a mental hospital. She warns him that Dream is coming, but he scoffs that she said that every day they had to move to new towns. Realizing he needs proof, Ethel removes her necklace of protection and gives it to John, saying it will keep him safe from the Sandman. She proceeds to die in front of him, confirming that even if he gave it back, it would be too late for her.
Honor Before Reason: Dream notes he could have talked to Alex when the latter asked as a youth to not hurt him if he frees Dream. The problem is that Alex killed Jessamy, and broke a rule of the Dreaming. So Dream remained silent. Death calls out Dream for this later, saying that his stupid honor is why he was kept captive for so long.
Hope Spot:
- Joanna Constantine realizes that she left the bag of sand at her ex's place. Rachel answers the door, upset that Joanna ghosted her, but willing to hear her out if Joanna apologizes since she was worried Joanna's line of work had killed her. Joanna does, saying that it was stupid and selfish of her to leave without even a note. It seems they can at least part civilly and Dream can get his pouch. Then Rachel dissolves into dust, and Dream awakens Joanna. It was a nightmare caused by the sand afflicting the apartment. The real Rachel is dying in bed; she unknowingly used the Dream Sand and it reduced her to a shell of her former self.
- After the battle in Hell, Dream is relieved that the ruby is in a warehouse with no guards or protection. He cups it, only to realize something is wrong. The jewel knocks him out, just as John Dee arrives to claim it.
- Rose cheers with relief when from the information that Jed gives her in the mindscape, she finds an address for him and the names of his foster parents. Then she arrives to the place and police cars are surrounding it. Corinthian beat her to the house, killed Barnaby and Clarice, and took Jed to ensure that Rose would meet with him.
Living MacGuffin: Rose Walker becomes this for the Corinthian in the present day. The reason? She is a Vortex, a rare mortal imbued with the powers of the Dreaming. The Corinthian can siphon those powers away from her to become strong enough to defeat Dream. He forgets something, however: Rose can also empower Dream and the Dreaming now that she knows how to use these gifts. Rose quickly turns the tide when Dream tells her how powerful she is.
Mama Bear: Gault surrenders to Dream and sheds the glamour of posing as Miranda Walker when he and Rose enter Jed's mindscape, ordering the kid not to confront "The King of Nightmares". She explicitly says that she went against her purpose as a nightmare because Jed is being abused in the waking world and she wanted to protect him from it. While she calls out Dream for not wanting to accept change as he sentences her to a thousand years in darkness, she trusts that he and Rose will find Jed in the waking world.
My God, What Have I Done?: The reason why Joanna doesn't stay close to any romantic partners is because her line of work -- demon exorcisms for fees-- can get them killed. She's horrified on learning that her carelessness with Dream's bag of sand ended up indirectly poisoning Rachel, and not even Dream can cure her.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Happens at the end of "24/7". John Dee made two crucial mistakes that allows Dream to defeat him: he gives up his amulet of protection to Rosemary, and he smashes the ruby in an attempt to kill Dream. Without the amulet, Dream is free to torment him with nightmares of his childhood, and the ruby contained most of Dream's powers. Dream gets his powers back, and swiftly shows John that he lost with this miscalculation.
Parting Words Regret: The last thing Alex says to his father before killing him by accident is that Randall would hate his father as much as Alex does.
Perky Goth: Death, much like she is in the comics.
Pet the Dog:
- While the Corinthian is mad at Ethel for refusing to help him fight Dream, and sending him back to the Dreaming with her amulet of protection, he doesn't hold it against her son. When John Dee escapes the hospital, Corinthian offers his coat, saying that he doesn't need it back when John gets to his destination. Sure, there was a selfish reason in that John is the only one who can probably get rid of Dream forever, but this is the Corinthian we're seeing. Later, when Carl housesits for Rose and Lyta, the Corinthian doesn't kill him and instead sleeps with Carl, before flying to England to meet Unity.
- When it seems like John Dee is going to kill Rosemary after she transports him to the warehouse, he gifts her the amulet of protection instead when she answers honestly that she's scared that he'll hurt her dog. John says that he won't need it anymore once he gets his ruby.
Pragmatic Villainy: The Corinthian tells Roderick Burgress how to keep Dream captive indefinitely as well as who he really is. He says it's in their best interest that Dream never escapes because he knows his creator will not be nice the minute he gets his powers back.
Punch Clock Villain: The modern-day guards that accidentally free Dream are paid grunts. One even theorizes that he is a Dracula, a vampire. When he is free, he simply knocks them out before going to avenge himself on Alex.
Race Lift: Death usually takes the form of a Caucasian woman in the comics; here she appears as African-American.
Replacement Goldfish: Subverted. Because Jessamy died trying to save him, Dream is not into taking a new raven with him on Earth. Matthew acknowledges that he's not Jessamy, whoever she was, but he knows humans better than Dream does. Dream eventually concedes when Matthew refuses to leave his side.
Scenery Porn: Almost every scene in the series is breathtaking, as befits a story where the protagonist is the embodiment of Dreams.
Spared By The Adaptation: In the comics, John Dee shot Rosemary as soon as she served her purpose. He spares her after she honestly answers that she's scared, and gifts her with the amulet of protection, seeing a lot of his mother in her. John says now she won't ever have to lie, or fear for her life ever again.
Summon Bigger Fish: When Gilbert realizes that the Corinthian is holding Jed hostage and wants Rose in exchange, he immediately returns to the Dreaming and surrenders to Morpheus. He says punish him for deserting, but save Rose and her brother! Morpheus is more than happy to do that, since he's been hunting the Corinthian for a while now. Turns out that it was the right call, since the Corinthian was close to becoming invincible with Rose's powers.
This Is Gonna Suck: The Corinthian has this reaction when he realizes that Dream is free, a hundred years after telling Roderick how to imprison him. He decides to go out and take the fight to Dream, by reshaping the world.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: More a case of honor on Dream's part, but he doesn't like killing because it intrudes on his sister Death's realm. Death has her duties, he has his.
A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Inverted; Alex is afraid to free Dream throughout his life, despite knowing it's the right thing to do, because Dream never indicates if he or his lover Paul would be punished for being complicit in his father's crimes. It's likely that if he had done so as soon as he had the power, Dream would have made the sentence much lighter.
Truer to the Text: Compared to adaptations in general. The plot only diverges from the source with the time period; other than that, it is almost a one-to-one
The Unfavorite: Alexander is the living spare to his father Roderick. Roderick captured Dream because he wanted Death to restore his deceased son Randall.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Morpheus acknowledges that it certainly wasn't Roderick Burgress's intention, but he caused harm to the Dreaming and the real world. Burgess trapped Dream mistaking him for Death, just as he was about to capture Corinthian. This would lead to the Sleeping Sickness, and allowing nightmares. What was definitely not an accident was Roderick keeping him imprisoned indefinitely, along with Alex doing the same.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
- Alexander is solemn as a child, obeying his father blindly, but certainly not evil. He's shown to be Nice to the Waiter as a teen, since his father treats him as an unpaid servant and not as a son. Alex is also the first person to ask Dream if he's all right while captive in the orb, showing genuine sympathy for him and apologizing for what his father did. His Start of Darkness is when he shoots Jessamy the raven for trying to free Dream as a test of loyalty to his father.
- We see John Dee as an innocent baby long before he comes the monstrous serial killer. His mother turned him into the monster.
What You Are in the Dark: After his father's death, Alex almost frees Dream. He has felt sympathy for the prisoner. It's only because the servants remind him that his father wouldn't want this that he stops. Dream pities him, understanding, but still plans to punish him for killing Jessamy.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Unlike in the comics, where Corinthian explicitly eats boys' eyes, he only kidnaps Jed but has no intention of killing him. Some of it is Pragmatic Villainy, but you can sense that he targets adults. He instead bargains with Rose that if she surrenders herself in exchange, he'll return Jed unharmed.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Dream finally returns home, to the Dreaming. He finds out most of the denizens, including his subjects, have left. There are exceptions, like Lucienne who waited faithfully. Dream realizes he has to go back to Earth to find all the dreams and nightmares before they can prey on the living.