The Sandman
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
YouTube essayist Maggie Mae Smith is in themiddle of a takedownof Joseph Campbell and the Heros Journey.
He succeeds and returns home changed.
It should be glaringly obvious that there is more than just this one story to tell.
Well, Dream has just completed a monomyth cycle, and he feels like shit.
Your move, Joseph Campbell.
Played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Death is a cutie and furthermore a sweetie.
She is a font of infinite compassion; in her line of work, shed have to be.
Sandmans Death is one of the most beloved personifications of that particular life change thats ever been written.
That reaction wasnt just ugly, it was wrong, as Howell-Baptiste is killing it as Death.
Death takes Dream on her rounds, showing how she handles her incredibly fulfilling work.
Ive always found this personification of Death extremely comforting.
Each end-of-life vignette we see in this episode is beautiful in its own way.
When the first living thing existed, I was there, she says.
Who better than Death to teach you how to live?
Sturridge gives a good sibling performance in this segment.
Theres a very lived-in affection between him and Howell-Baptiste.
you might tell he loves being needled by her and she has good reason to be needling.
When the Endless get existential, theyve been known to fuck off, as is hinted at here.
Death doesnt want another sibling going AWOL.
This episode is an adaptation of two different issues of the comics, and boy does it show.
Dream meets Hob Gadling in 1389, in the middle of another one of Deaths pep talks.
He seems to need one every millennium or so.
Shes taken him to the White Horse pub, right outside of London.
There, he meets Hob a guy who has decided that dying is a mugs game.
Dream and Death do a lilShes All Thatstyle bet.
Death will refrain from taking him, unless he truly wishes to die.
And Dream will check in on him every 100 years.
I hope we get to see his otherSandmanstories someday.
We also get a full history of mens fashion, via Hob and Dreams fits.
Sturridge looks great in Elizabethan garb.
Rococo … less so.
Eventually, Hob says he suspects Dream really wants a friend.
Like all those reality shows that claimed to be social experiments, Morpheuss real motivation was entertainment.
Dream cant fight the friendship accusation, but boy does he try.
He gets so huffy!
Poor Hob thinks that Dream has dumped him for good when he doesnt show up in 1989.
But we, the audience, know hes still all bubbled up.
And when gentrification comes for the White Horse, it seems like our pals will never reconcile.
And after getting sorted out by his sister, Dream seeks out his only real friend.
Would you like to read it?
Anyway, nice song.
The parallel pub chats in 1389 and 1989 during the Hob Gadling section of the episodes are so choice.
We get a little more muahahahaha acting from Desire, who claims to be behind Roderick Burgesss little scheme.
Will they be the unseen hand of fortune in the back four episodes?
The answer is yes, obviously.
I do wish Death had hersignature eyeliner.
