We open on Dream paging through a book labeled “Rose Walker.” In a flashback, a boy and a girl are packing to leave for New Jersey, but then their mom comes in to say that their (clearly abusive) father refuses to let the boy, Jed, go with them. The girl, Rose, will go with her mom to New Jersey and then send for Jed to join them later. Ugh. Desire, played very sexily by Mason Alexander Park, summons their sister Despair to talk with them about their plans for Dream. This is my least favorite thing: As in the comics,…
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We open on Dream feeding pigeons in the park and doing the world’s biggest-ever sulk. He catches an errant ball without looking, and as its owner retrieves it, KIRBY HOWELL-BAPTISTE!!!!! walks up. (The owner of the ball is called Franklin. He’s adorable, but he’s also a race-bent character who I know is going to die by the end of the episode, which like… agh! This is happening too often! Please, Sandman casting people, contemplate the ramifications of these choices!) KIRBY HOWELL-BAPTISTE!!!!! as Death is the best casting in an altogether well-cast series. She’s warm and funny, and she has an…
Leave a CommentOh, the diner episode. Oh, the apprehension I felt about this episode. In the comic it is extremely nasty, not least because all the characters John Dee kills at the diner are extremely nasty themselves—which feels very suitable to the time it was written. In 2022, for whatever combination of reasons, it no longer feels transgressive for everyone to be awful people hiding loathsome secrets. Many of the plot points are ported over directly from the comic, but they feel different here, perhaps because the episode pushes back hard against John Dee’s claim that he’s making a more honest world…
Leave a CommentWe open with Dream and his new raven the only raven that matters now so please shut up about it, Dream, heading into hell. Give it up to the hair and makeup team and the costume design guys on this show, because every time I see Dream full-on with his black coat and black boots, and he’s approximately the width of two of my fingers, I’m like, yeah, I recognize him. This is the sulky fuckboy with near-infinite power that I remember from the comics. What you don’t realize about is that this is secretly an episode of The Amazing…
Leave a CommentJohanna Constantine dreams. I am in love with her. She’s wearing the worst pants in the world, yet she still looks beautiful. How? I don’t know. I am surprised to find this level of allegiance to Jenna Coleman within my heart. She’s such a little chipmunk face! There’s some business I don’t fully understand where she has to clean up the satanic ritual mess of an irresponsible drunk with an adorable daughter called Astra, but it doesn’t matter too much because in the next shot Constantine has woken up from her scary dream and is getting out of a cab…
Leave a CommentWe open on Dream’s realm looking very much like Mordor. Lucienne tells him she kept a journal for a while of what happened in his absence, but then the words faded out, the ink vanished from the paper of all the books in the library, and then the library vanished and Lucienne never found it again. You can tell Dream really appreciates that Lucienne stuck around, especially when she’s like “I knew you would return.” Of course he doesn’t thank her. That is not his Vibe. He tries to at least put his throne room back together, but without his…
Leave a CommentWhen I was eighteen years old, my godmother gave me $100 as a graduation present, and I very excitedly used that $100 to purchase the entire run of Sandman in trade paperbacks. This was a huge and terrifying investment for me. It was one of my first online purchases, and it must have been one of the most expensive purchases I’d ever made for myself to that point in my life. I had never read graphic novels before. I had tried to read Preludes and Nocturnes once and couldn’t figure out the mechanics of reading it even, because if you…
Leave a CommentY’all. This tag. The Disney Song Book Tag was created by Aria’s Books, and I picked it up from Rachel at Life of a Female Bibliophile. 1. “A Whole New World” – Pick a book that made you see the world differently. This may not count, because I barely saw the world at all prior to reading these books. However, I’m still choosing the Chronicles of Narnia. My mother read these books to me and my sister starting when I was three, so there’s not much in my life that didn’t get put through the Chronicles of Narnia goggles. I…
22 CommentsThis week on the Reading the End Bookcast, we welcome special guest star Julia of The Card Catalog, and recurring guest star Randon, as we talk about comics once again! On the docket this time are Scott McCloud’s wonderful nonfiction book Understanding Comics (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) and Neil Gaiman’s foundational comic book Sandman. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 14 Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a…
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