The Sandman “Dream a Little Dream of Me” was written by Jim Campolongo (Station 19, The Gifted, The Blacklist, and White Collar) and was directed by Jamie Childs. Like the primary two episodes, this one can also be grounded in lovely visible, terrific performing, and very good supply materials. Like episode two, this episode deviates in very attention-grabbing methods from the supply materials.
First, as an alternative of getting JOHN Constantine, we’ve Johanna Constantine, delightfully performed by Jenna Coleman. It’s various enjoyable listening to Queen Victoria say fuck and see her battle demons! I think that Gaiman’s story didn’t really want extra sturdy feminine leads, however slightly that the collection couldn’t get permission (at an affordable value) to make use of the male Constantine as Warner Brothers is already utilizing the property in two different collection. Aside from the gender swap, Constantine’s storyline is fairly trustworthy to the novel, together with Mad Hettie (Clare Higgins).
I beloved the exorcism (not within the novel) from Erica (Meera Syal) the minister to the couple eager to get married – the Princess (Hannah van der Westhuysen) and her footballer boyfriend Kevin (Stephen Odubola). I beloved how she tricked them into saying the exorcism – and it turning out that it was Kevin who was possessed. Given how Agilieth (Marcus Fraser) ripped out of Kevin, it’s clear why Johanna typically doesn’t receives a commission for her exorcisms! Agilieth himself was fairly cool.
It’s clear from the litany of Johanna’s lovers that she is bi, however staying according to the unique narrative, Rachel (Eleanor Fanyinka) is the lover left behind… with the sand, turning into hooked on the great desires. Dream (Tom Sturridge) items her with a ultimate good dream of a lovely sunny day spent with Constantine to launch her from life.
Retreating into nice desires can also be a theme picked up in Ethel (Joely Richardson) and John’s (David Thewlis) story. He remembers her utilizing the ruby on his birthdays to make his desires come true – a pony within the yard and snow in his bed room in July. Ethel is determined to get John to return the ruby to Dream to be able to shield John. However John isn’t nervous. When Ethel offers John the safety amulet, she instantly ages at the least 6o years and dies. Her ageing and Rachel turning to mud had been two extra nice results.
With the amulet, John is ready to escape from his jail – Arkham Asylum – and naturally, the primary individual he meets is The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook). We get some nice exploding guards as John leaves. I like how understated each Holbrook and Thewlis are enjoying their madmen.
In fact, all the sequence between Ethel and John doesn’t happen on this quantity of the novel. Nonetheless, it does give us some psychological grounding for John. It appears they had been each abused by Ethel’s numerous boyfriends and it appears their lives had been usually spent working and hiding. One other slightly massive change is the introduction of Matthew the Raven (Patton Oswalt) right here. Oswalt fully lived as much as my excessive expectations for Matthew!
All in all, this was one other stable effort. The modifications that had been made actually solely improved the story for me. This week social media has been filled with Gaiman’s tweets that we could not get a second season of this excellent – and splendidly well-liked – present. Will you be dissatisfied if that is the one season we get? I do know I shall be… What did you consider the episode? Had been you stunned/sad concerning the change from John to Johanna? Was this your favourite episode thus far – or within the collection in case you’ve watched all of it already? Let me know your ideas within the feedback under.
And only a fast nod to any Supernatural followers studying… it’s enjoyable to match this episode to the Supernatural episode of the identical identify… demons and desires… Kripke hasn’t been shy concerning the affect of Gaiman on his work.
