The Sandman 2x04 Full Reaction!
Added 2025-07-15 19:15:52 +0000 UTC
Comments
Heard that the one volume got passed over. The Barbie stuff sounds amazingly wonderful, to be perfectly honest. Would have been nice to have that, with more Wanda. Yeah, seeing Wanda, knew that she was the character you alluded to earlier. My own comments being that it was refreshing how her character has the scene where it’s not showy, just a simple human portrayal. I get how her character lends to significant reticence to entertain the idea of the truth about Gaiman. Heard there were updates to Wanda’s character, which is done well. One can have the question of why they still felt the need to kill her off; there is a case for you could have altered that. Good to see Wanda. Take a wild stab and say that it’s glaringly apparent that Morpheus does not have healthy break ups, if his emo phase here is any indication. Brian Blessed, I still would have been down for him as Destruction, pushing ninety or not. That just sounds beyond goddamn amazing. Wouldn’t have said no to him as Odin, and it would serve as the good nod to how Ken Branagh wanted him for Odin in Thor. Don’t immediately recall Barry Sloane from anything, but I’m liking the performance. Steve Coogan’s great in anything, here being no exception. (First I’ve heard about the Saville of it all in 28 Years Later.) Would be curious if Bernie and Hob ever crossed paths. I did catch the line as I remember you’ve used it once or twice. Neat to see the context of the line. Can see how Ishtar works better on the page, or animation, but it’s done well enough here. Been seeing a few youtube comments saying that you know Morpheus fucked up when Desire of all people has the moral high ground. Mason surely did deliver in that scene.
Thomas Corp
2025-07-16 14:09:55 +0000 UTCIt's interesting that the reaction to the show even from people who are shameless enough to say they still like Harry Potter is mostly "What exactly is the point of this?", especially now that costume photos have started coming out. Even the Spaceballs 2 teaser got in a jab at it. I'd guess that a lot of them are going to discover upon coming at the story from an older and more experienced mindset, there's actually a good reason the movies cut a lot of what they did. Pose has some very serious plotting issues, but it's such a sincere celebration of a culture that really needs it at this time that you kind of have to let that go and just celebrate that it exists. Plus it has Patti LuPone (speaking of people getting chewed up on the public relations stage right now) as the major face of right wing hatred, hitting a perfect tone of being so despicable you can't wait to see her get her comeuppance, while also being so fun to watch you don't mind at all just seeing her show up and chew the scenery in the meantime.
Ryan
2025-07-16 11:58:56 +0000 UTCNow we're really getting somewhere in how this crew was able to condense the rest of the comic so much, as we've mostly skipped over Volume 5, where Dream is in a minor role and it's instead focused on Barbie, and her attempts to save her especially intensive dream world as we got a taste of last season (and I'd guess they were planning on doing it at that point, given the amount of focus that was established on her friendship with Martin Tenbones which is now going nowhere). That volume also introduced a character who is VERY important to the ending, so it'll be interesting to see how they handle that, but in the meantime there's also a large focus on Barbie's friend group after leaving Ken and moving to a New York neighborhood full of similar fun weirdos as before, and the show transplants over the most engaging of them, Wanda. And this character is maybe most of all why I was so resistant to believe the accusations about Gaiman. This kind of nuanced, sympathetic depiction of a trans character just never happened in the early '90s, where they were mostly just seen as joke fodder, and it didn't seem possible that a man capable of the kind of empathy required to write someone like her at that time could also have this side to him. And if we have to lose this story, I'm very happy she's still here, and in a way that gets rid of the few aspects of her characterization that haven't aged great (in the comic she's not very successful at presenting as female and portrayed as counting enough as a man to not be able to join part of some mystical plane that's only open to women). I do question why she had to still end up dead, which to anyone unfamiliar with her original story probably just comes off as a totally random Bury Your Gays, but until then it was marvelous to see her. As for the rest of it, since as I mentioned Volume 6 is another set of standalones, we've now jumped all the way to 7, named by a lot of fans as their favorite of the whole series. And right away we get a very notable adjustment as in the comic Dream is able to completely let Nada go, and everything about her here is new, which I have to imagine is building up to some greater change, maybe to replace that Volume 5 character who's essential to the ending (his emo moment at the start is also over someone from that volume, so they kind of had to change that if they weren't going to just drop it entirely). The original Destruction was modeled after Brian Blessed, who at 88 is definitely too old to fill the role himself at this point, but I did kind of wish that he would have some kind of role in relation to this story after managing to still be alive when an adaptation was made. Maybe something like that is coming up. For now we get Barry Sloane, who I only know from Revenge where his character never really went anywhere that interesting, but he's doing good stuff here, aided by a flawless casting choice of Steve Coogan as Barnabas with all their banter kept perfectly intact (though I do wish they hadn't cast someone who'd played Jimmy Saville, which makes it a bit hard not to think of Gaiman's own issues whenever he shows up; between this and 28 Years Later that asshole is oddly present in pop culture right now). I was hoping from the start they'd keep in Bernie Capax, one of my favorite single scenes of the whole series. It's such a neat piece of worldbuilding that there are just these people from the caveman days still alive with no explanation (you've got to wonder if Hob has ever run into them), and his scene with Death is incredibly poignant for someone we just met, capped off by her iconic line that I've quoted here a couple times. And the whole scene with Ishtar is also adapted very well despite being the kind of thing that works much better in still images where your imagination has to fill in such an enrapturing dance. It's jarring as hell to see Desire drop all their usual smugness and just be sincerely and righteously pissed off, a tone I don't think I've ever seen Mason play before and it turns out they're really good at it, making you feel every sting of the words.
Ryan
2025-07-16 11:46:47 +0000 UTCSo, you say that you definitively are committing to reacting to the remainder of the show. Well, ok then, Jess. Good to hear that our words on the matter did mean a lot. I hear you on it being a difficult decision either way. My brother and I are still working on that with the upcoming Harry Potter series, more specifically the thing of if we do ever see it, for academic curiosity if nothing else, we agree that we want to make sure that we DON’T give Rowling any money. And if that’s completely impossible to prevent her getting money by watching it, try to minimize the bread that she gets as much as possible. Though I hear that we have two years to figure that one out, if in fact we do see the show. Another great episode of The Sandman. We open with Morpheus indulging in his broody angst and his wild-eyed stare. Love that you commented on that. Batman seems cheerful by comparison, huh? He’s feeling upset about the Nada of it all, clearly. Asking Lucienne some tough questions. I asked for Lucienne, “Does she have to answer that?” You were interested in hearing Lucienne’s answer. Namely her assessment of can Morpheus really love. My own thoughts: Well, there are all the revelations that have come to light about what a monstrous indivi-Oh, we’re talking about Morpheus, not Gaiman. Sorry. Easy mistake. In the case of Morpheus, well... No, probably not. Things brighten up significantly when Delirium stops by. Again, Delirium is me. I see more of Delirium’s scenes, and I keep saying, “I LIKE her!!” The autism subtext is outright text, and I feel it in my bones. It is therefore LOW and a SICK thing to do for Morpheus to aid her search for Destruction under the false pretenses. Though we do live for Lucienne calling him out on that shit. The iconic Lucienne side-eye, as you put it. Smart of Morpheus to verify Desire’s hand in this, if any. I believe Desire when they say that they had nothing to do with it, at least not consciously. They sounded remarkably candid about that. Loved them roasting Morpheus. Still waiting for Daffodil. Maybe someday. You spoke well of the sibling dynamics when there are more than two, compared to those such as you and I are the younger siblings of two. Yeah, I’d imagine that certain siblings forged stronger bonds than others. Delirium and Destruction would get on like a house on fire. You want to shoot shit when Morpheus doesn’t even try to be subtle with searching for Nada. We are reiterating how we are #TeamNada. Nice to see Destruction. Destruction has the life philosophy about dogs. Yes, well, unfortunately, I’m a cat person. Took a second in recognizing some of the guest cast. First there was the dog. The voice was familiar but couldn’t place it right away. Heard him talk more, caught the accent, how certain words were said, certain vowel sounds, and it fell into place as I said, “Oh, that’s Steve Coogan.” Likewise, Ishtar, Godess of sex and war, (Remarkable how often those two traits coincide.) I recognized, but her too I didn’t place right away. Maybe she was in a certain light or something, but the bulb went off as I asked, “Is that Madani?” Sure enough, it was. Bernie’s death reminds me that this show likes to lean into the Swayze of it all when it comes to Death, and it distresses Bernie. (He should be thankful that Death comes to see him to ferry him away. Could have been the other ones. You never know.) Adored your reactions to Wanda. There was just a wonderful frankness to that scene that was terrific. You preemptively stopped me from having to look up what Indya’s in to elicit the response that you had. It also made me say, “Oh. I haven’t seen Pose. Sorry,” I’m in the same boat as you of not knowing the comics, so the question of Destruction being the cause of the deaths, I can’t speak to that point. It does appear that someone or something doesn’t want Destruction found. Whether that is Destruction, someone or something working with him, or independently, that I don’t know. Would say that Destruction shoulders some of the responsibility, though I don’t know how much at the present time. I lived for Desire letting Delirium know what’s up. You say good on Morpheus for fessing up. Yes, but he only fesses up to it only after Desire exposed his chicanery, so I don’t know how much credit we impart to him for that one. The heart shatters when you see what the lying does to Delirium. Rich of Morpheus to have words to Desire, and good on Desire to throw his hypocrisy in his face. Honestly, mad respect to Delirium and Desire both for the decision and declarations of making it clear to Morpheus that he’s nothing to them now. He’s not a brother. He’s not a friend. They don’t want to know him or what he does. Now, you hope that Morpheus makes amends with Delirium. He goddamn well better. See how that goes. And I hear you on the difficulty of having all the reactions to this up prior to your break. If it happens, great, one less thing to worry about when you get back. If it doesn’t work out, no problem. We shall be patient as you have the lovely break. Until then, thank you for the lovely reaction, Jess.
Thomas Corp
2025-07-15 21:03:13 +0000 UTC
