Genre: Drama, Horror fiction, Superhero fiction
Developed by Neil Gaiman &David S. Goyer &Allan Heinberg
Based on The Sandmanby Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg
Starring: Tom Sturridge, Boyd Holbrook, Vivienne Acheampong&Patton Oswalt.
Music by David Buckley
Executive Producers: Allan Heinberg, David S. Goyer, Neil Gaiman, Mike Barker
Cinematography: Will Baldy, George Steel, Sam Heasman
Production Location: United Kingdom
Editors: Daniel Gabbe, Shoshanah Tanzer, Jamin Bricker, Kelly Stuyvesant
Producers: Samson Mücke, Iain Smith, Alexander Newman-Wise, Andrew Cholerton
Production Company: PurePop Inc., The Blank Corporation, Phantom Four, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television
Distributor: Netflix
Plot: When the Sandman, aka Dream, the cosmic being who controls all dreams, is captured and held prisoner for more than a century, he must journey across different worlds and timelines to fix the chaos his absence has caused.
I waiting to see this show for myself.
Season 1 of The Sandman was so great.
Pros: I liked how much they were allowed to explorer these concepts of Life, Death and Dreams. Everything about this show looks very high quality. It took me a few days to finish watching this show. And I was surprised of the huge twists in the final episodes.
Cons: I had a problem with the length of each episode, they were too long. Certain characters I didn’t get the point of, why were they used and I didn’t get why the bonus episode was added.
Cast:
Main:
- Tom Sturridge as Dream / Morpheus, the personification of dreams and nightmares, and the ruler of the Dreaming.
- Boyd Holbrook as the Corinthian, a nightmare who escaped the Dreaming.
- Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, the librarian of the Dreaming, and its caretaker in Dream’s absence.
- Patton Oswalt as the voice of Matthew the Raven, Dream’s emissary.
Co-starring:
- David Thewlis as John Dee, Cripps’s and Burgess’s son, whose endeavor to find “truth” jeopardizes the world. Gaiman described Dee as a character “who could break your heart and keep your sympathy while taking you into the darkest places”.
- Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, an occult detective. Coleman plays two versions of the character: the present day descendant based on John Constantine, and her identical eighteenth century ancestor Lady Johanna Constantine.
- Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar, the ruler of Hell. This series’ incarnation of Lucifer is much closer to the character’s original depiction in the comics than his depiction in the 2016 Lucifer television series. Neil Gaiman noted that it would be difficult to reconfigure the Lucifer version, portrayed by Tom Ellis, so he would fit back into The Sandman.
- Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, the personification of death and Dream’s kinder, wiser sister.
- Ferdinand Kingsley as Hob Gadling, Dream’s friend who has lived for hundreds of years.
- Sandra James-Young as Unity Kinkaid, Rose’s benefactor and great-grandmother who has recently awakened from a century-long slumber.
- Kyo Ra as Rose Walker / The Vortex, a young woman searching for her lost brother who becomes a prey of the Corinthian.
- Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall, Rose’s friend and a widow mourning her husband.
- Melissanthi Mahut as Calliope, Homer‘s muse, and ex-wife of Morpheus / Dream.
- Arthur Darvill as Richard “Ric” Madoc, a struggling author who imprisons Calliope against her will.
Recurring:
- Joely Richardson as Ethel Dee (née Cripps) / Madame Daudet, Burgess’s fiancée and the mother of John Dee
- Niamh Walsh as young Ethel Cripps.
- Nina Wadia as the Fate Mother
- Souad Faress as the Fate Crone
- Dinita Gohil as the Fate Maiden
- Gianni Calchetti as the Death Stalker, a serial killer.
- Asim Chaudhry as Abel, a resident of the Dreaming based on the Biblical Abel
- Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain, a resident of the Dreaming and Abel’s brother based on the Biblical Cain.
- Mason Alexander Park as Desire, the personification of desire, and Morpheus’ sibling.
- Cassie Clare as Mazikeen of the Lilim, a devoted ally of Lucifer Morningstar.
- John Cameron Mitchell as Hal Carter, Rose’s friend and host of the bed and breakfast. Hal also moonlights as a drag queen and cabaret performer.
- Stephen Fry as Gilbert / Fiddler’s Green, a mysterious gentleman who becomes Rose’s bodyguard.
- Mark Hamill as the voice of Mervyn Pumpkinhead, a chain-smoking janitor whose head resembles a jack-o’-lantern.
- Donna Preston as Despair, the personification of despair, Morpheus’ sister and Desire’s twin.
- Lloyd Everitt as Hector Hall, Lyta’s deceased husband whose ghost hides from Death in The Dreaming.
- Eddie Karanja as Jed Walker, Rose’s younger brother and the ward of Gault who protects him from his abusive foster parents via The Dreaming.
- Andi Osho as Miranda Walker, Unity’s granddaughter, and Gault, an escaped nightmare from the Dreaming.
- Ann Ogbomo portrays Gault’s true form, who seeks to become a Dream, protecting children from abuse.
- Cara Horgan and Daisy Badger as Chantal and Zelda, guests at Hal’s B&B.
- Lily Travers and Richard Fleeshman as Barbie and Ken, guests at Hal’s B&B.
- Sam Hazeldine and Lisa O’Hare as Barnaby and Clarice, Jed’s foster father. Barnaby is physically abusive towards Jed, and terrifies Clarice into compliance.
- Kerry Shale, Danny Kirrane, and Jill Winternitz as Nimrod, Fun Land, and The Good Doctor, a trio of serial killers.
- Lenny Henry as the voice of Martin Tenbones, a magical, doglike creature who appears in the dreams of Barbie.
Guest:
- Bill Paterson as Dr. John Hathaway
- Laurie Kynaston as Alex Burgess, Roderick Burgess’ son.
- Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as young Alex Burgess.
- Benedick Blythe as older Alex Burgess.
- Charles Dance as Sir Roderick Burgess / Magus, an aristocratic occultist.
- Meera Syal as Erica, a vicar known as “Ric the Vic” who seeks out Johanna Constantine’s help with a demonic possession.
- Claire Higgins as Mad Hettie, a 280-year-old homeless woman and acquaintance of Johanna Constantine.
- Sarah Niles as Rosemary, a good Samaritan woman who helps John retrieve his ruby.
- Martyn Ford as Squatterbloat, a demon
- Munya Chawawa as Choronzon, a demon-duke of Hell
- Deborah Oyelade as Nada, a prehistoric African queen who was once romantically involved with Morpheus.
- Ernest Kingsley Jnr as Kai’ckul, an aspect of Dream seen through the eyes of Nada.
- Sam Strike as Todd
- Emma Duncan as Bette Munroe, a waitress and one of John Dee’s victims.
- Steven Brand as Marsh Janowski, a diner staff and one of John Dee’s victims.
- Laurie Davidson as Mark Brewer, a diner guest and one of John Dee’s victims.
- Daisy Head as Judy, a diner guest and one of John Dee’s victims.
- James Udom as Garry, a diner guest and one of John Dee’s victims.
- Lourdes Faberes as Kate Fletcher, a diner guest and one of John Dee’s victims.
- Samuel Blenkin as Will Shaxberd, an aspiring playwright.
- Ian McNeice as a bartender
- Ben Wiggins as Carl, Rose’s friend and house-sitter.
- Lewis Reeves as Philip Sitz, a man pretending to be “The Boogieman”.
- Roger Allam as the voice of Lord Azazel, a Duke of Hell.
- Peter de Jersey as Mr. Haldewell, Unity Kincaid’s solicitor
- Derek Jacobi as Erasmus Fry, a writer of Greek mythology and the original captor of Calliope.
“Dream of a Thousand Cats” features the voices of Sandra Oh as The Prophet, Rosie Day as The Tabby Kitten, David Gyasi as The Grey Cat, Joe Lycett as The Black Cat, Neil Gaiman as The Skull Crow, James McAvoy as Golden-Haired Man, David Tennant as Don, Georgia Tennant as Laura Lynn, Michael Sheen as Paul, Anna Lundberg as Marion, Nonso Anozie as the Wyvern, Diane Morgan as the Gryphon and Tom Wu as the Hippogriff.
I highly recommend watching this series on Netflix.
Rating: 9 out of 10 Stars
Ryan Balkwill:
Resident TV reviewer,
Level Best Art Cafe.