The Sandman 2x08 Full Reaction!
Added 2025-07-26 12:45:01 +0000 UTC
Comments
I was happy to see Jenna return as Johanna. The idea of the multiverse crossover sounds fun. Understandable though it’d be if Jenna never wants to think about her involvement in this show again. I’d be more surprised if Mark would be game for the Crowley part given things I’ve heard him say, though you never know. There did seem to be a lot of thought put into the frameup here. Yeah, you get where Lyta thinks what she thinks, and Jess summed it up well. Good on Jess with seeing through Loki. I assumed “put the baby in the fire” was going to lead to more or less what happened. As a statement, it’s astonishingly straightforward. There IS the question of was it actually going to happen, so I get the reticence to think that it would happen. Well, for being condensed, the apology tour is still very well done. The bit with Paul and Alex got me pretty bad. Wanted to see David as John again, though I doubt I’m getting my way on that one. Boyd has been impressing me. Says something about his skill when he holds his own opposite both Richard E. Grant and Mads Mikkelsen. The latter role, I doubt the audience would have been offended at the film playing the CIA agents as evil. Not to mention, as you previously noted, the complete waste of the Not Angela Davis character. The statement on Justified indicates that Walton was underwhelming in the revival which sounds depressing. Or maybe he just wasn’t in it much. Need to see that show as I think I’d adore his character. Heard Keith David was in the revival, so it can’t be all bad. Good to see you’re more excited about the second Corinthian than Jess or I.
Thomas Corp
2025-07-26 16:12:27 +0000 UTCWell, these days you can pretty much just show someone Inside Out to get the same message about Despair across. It's very reminiscent of her scene in Dead Boy Detectives, which most of all made me regret we won't be getting more of it. I've still only seen the first Omen movie, given the terrible reputation of all the sequels, though apparently The First Omen was surprisingly good. Makes me regret the closest thing Richard Donner got to doing another horror movie was certain scenes in Scrooged; you just never knew what kind of movie that guy would make next. John is another casualty of being a DC character who the series moved completely beyond after Volume 1, and apparently unlike Johanna they figured what we already got was enough. Though if you still haven't seen Dragonheart, that should fill the void well enough.
Ryan
2025-07-26 16:11:40 +0000 UTCSeen as far as the episode after this, so I can’t talk specifics yet about that or anything else to come. Fair call on being exceedingly nervous, which, “exceedingly”, that’s a good word choice. Funny the contrast of you living for the glamour doing your hair and makeup lickety-split, whereas Nuala does not vibe. I’d just be happy to have hair that you can do shit with. Her brother is on my very last nerve. Hell of a scene when Morpheus visits Despair. Despair is right that the realm is needed. Many a night men go to the realm; I do it myself where you just lie in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness. Adored and greatly appreciated your words on Despair. Good to see the character shine in her own manner. And I knew the scene would resonate given experiences that you have spoken about. Affected me the same way. Good on her to draw attention to Daniel’s abduction. You made a comment of calling Loki and Puck “Sam and Dean” with their lazy aliases, that was my assessment as well. You and I called Lyta’s response to it. She’s of course not believing Morpheus. He said he’d cradle snatch, and lo and behold the baby is gone. And he IS still planning to take the boy, as evidenced by his refusal to answer her. Love how you had words on that last part. Honestly, I’m fine with it if she does kill Morpheus. She says she will, I quip, “Please, by all means.” We both said, “Of course you have.” when Lucienne said she was doing research, albeit you were significantly more passionate about it. Lovely to see Jenna as Johanna. The impossible girl has still got it. Quick sidenote: the mention of the Royal family having multiple exorcists, I believe it. A situation out of a gothic nightmare when Morpheus is even more completely out of touch with human interaction than I am, my soul recoils at that, though I love how Johanna calls him out on that shit. Adored your reaction to seeing Hob again. That scene was a standout. Leads to the apology tour. Right in the heart when Alex called out to Paul, and the acting when Paul just stops in his tracks, hoo that got me. Puck trying to save the baby was unexpected. So, Puck, all of a sudden, he’s what, some sort of fucking good guy!? Shame he fell for Loki’s chicanery, though you did not, love that. Playing the waiting game for when Loki backstabs Puck, or frontstabs him, as the case may be, is a fun time of things. Both our minds went to Loki pulling a Bill Cosby with the drink, though he used the dust as well. Though in fairness, the Cosby method would work on them about as well as it did on Soldier Boy. Hell of a scene when Loki speaks of the myth. Demeter was the name mentioned. Mother of Persephone. I gather you never much read Greek Mythology growing up, and that’s cool. And it was something seeing your reaction to the baby having a hot time in the old town tonight. Thankfully we don’t really see it. Shows how fucked up the lost children sequence in The Final Conflict was when even forty-four years after the film’s release, we still don’t show babies suffering horrific things like being literally thrown into the fire. Still better than the clothing iron scene in The Final Conflict though. As to the optimistic and potentially naive side of you, I’m no medical expert, but I’d say the little lad’s chances are more dismal than the younglings is a fair assessment of the scene. Of course, fucked up shit is nothing new for this show. Again, if we are speaking of the same episode, we share the favorite, horrifically fucked up though it was. Speaking of said episode, with this apology tour, and the returning characters, I’m sitting here yelling, “WHERE’S JOHN!?” He’s not coming back, is he? Goddamn it!! To be fair, I don’t know how you top his last hour, so... Just want to see David as John again. Take David in anything. A lovely idea would be Acolyte continuations with him as Darth Plagueis, that’d be grand. Loved your growing realization of the ending. Took me until seeing the skull before it clicked, and then I shared the reaction. And now, as you observe, we have the second Corinthian. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Should be fun, yes? Thank you for yet another beautiful Sandman reaction, Jess.
Thomas Corp
2025-07-26 15:56:44 +0000 UTCOne part easing the shorter adaptation of Volume 9 I hadn't considered is that a lot of it involves tangents wrapping up minor plot points that the show never introduced in the first place, a lot of them in those standalone stories (take that, everyone who thought you could skip them). Though at the same time it also adds a big element, as John Constantine's appearance in Volume 1 was just part of the use of DC characters that Gaiman was forced to do and hated, and he never appeared again except tangentially through Lady Johanna's role. Jenna continues to be very fun in the role, and with Keanu Reeves having been talking for a while about doing a sequel to his Constantine film, I really hope that if it happens, she, Matt Ryan, and Mark Sheppard get to be part of it somehow, maybe some multiverse crossover scene (though I also wouldn't be surprised if she never wants to think about her involvement in this show again). And as a bonus, the character's bisexuality gets to be made clearer, after we only explicitly saw her with a woman last time. Another welcome change is that Puck and Loki put far more work into their frameup job, so we can empathize much more with Lyta for being tragically fooled by it rather than her just coming off as a dumbass who flies off the handle and makes all these complications over basically nothing. I don't remember if I caught on at all to Loki's trick before the reveal while reading it, but regardless, well done there. And you'd think after so long watching these super dark shows we'd be pretty hard to genuinely shock, but here we are. During my time talking with other comic fans, a lot of them said they'd assumed "put the baby in the fire" was some kind of metaphor, but no, there it is. Dream's apology tour is another bit that's compromised by how much they cut out, and involved a lot more people originally, including more trinkets alongside the Corinthian's skull and Alex's prison that we'd explicitly seen building up the whole time. But I'm perfectly satisfied with what we do get here, most of all getting more of the always awesome Boyd Holbrook. Even saddled with some supremely awkward dialogue in Dial of Destiny after Disney clearly refused to let the movie portray CIA agents as evil, he manages to hold his own opposite Mads Mikkelson and be just as memorable, so that tells you pretty much everything. And he was by far the highlight of the mostly disappointing Justified revival a couple years ago. And I can't wait to see him tackle what I know the Corinthian is about to get up to.
Ryan
2025-07-26 14:02:51 +0000 UTC
