Guys, I was maybe kind of going to slack off today on the grounds that it's right before a holiday weekend, and I'm letting my staff out early, and I've gotten excited and distractible about the possibility that I might buy an apartment. But my loyalty to y'all compels me forward. Also, the opportunity to freak out about the possibility of a Sandman television show. On, uh, the CW.
I have an incredibly hard time believing this will be good. No network is going to let the characters skin a guy and nail his face and eyes to a wall. Or have a serial killer who eats people's eyes. It's an incredibly complex narrative, where tons of it is going to be told through inference or retcon. The casting is also super-hard. Dream's a bear, but in a way, he and Death are actually the easiest folks to translate. Getting an awesome Delirium, and Cain and Able, and Satan, to name just a few, will be much more difficult. The special effects, to be done right if the show is a mix of live-action and animation, could be ruinously expensive over a long period. The diversions are tremendously important, and tremendously difficult for new audiences. Are viewers new to the series going to sit through a season based on A Game of You?
HBO was apparently in the bidding for the property, and I'd have vastly more confidence if the show was being developed on a premium cable network with lower audience expectations and a more primo budget. But I'm not actually sure I want a show of this at all. Dream is such an intensely literary creation, and I love him on the page. My interpretation is so personal, and I imagine others' are too, that this could be a huge disappointment. But then, that's true of a lot of other properties that have gone on to successful adaptations. I just hold this one so close to my heart.