Reviews

This is a good attempt to capture the essence of a very complex and gripping book,

The story mostly deals with the internal conflict of the captain, who in the book is never named. He is a double agent really VC who is working for the S Vietnamese General, who is both ruthless and incompetent, and uses the captain both as his manservant and secret policeman to do his dirty work and write his speeches.

The story arc starts with the fall of Saigon with the Americans pulling out and continues the refugees settle in America, and the story is told by the captain writing his confession later once he had returned to Vietnam and is captured by the N Vietnamese and is being reeducated to remove his western decadence in a Prison Camp.

Robert Downey Junior is in good form playing several corrupt American characters. Very enjoyable series.

A fantastic story which is both true to the original comic book material and audio adaption whilst tweaking the story line to fit the tv streaming medium. Neil Gaiman has created a masterpiece. Everyone dreams and whilst dreaming you are visiting the realm of Morpheus the lord of dreams, in this 10 part series the material covers the comic book volumes - Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll's House and Dream of Country. Morpheus is captured for 100 years by an amateur wizard in place of his sister Death, which interrupts the dreaming and causes all kinds of chaos. Morpheus, once he manages his escape must first find his tools of state, the sand pouch, the helm and the ruby which have been stolen from him. We travel to contemporary London, to Hell and to upstate New York, and on our way explore characters who have been affected by the disruption. This includes a very powerful and traumatic episode set in a diner where the tension builds into true horror. The character of Morpheus siblings are introduced and an episode beautifully covers the very human issue of Death, and the idea that humans might, or might not get tired of life, in the character of Hob Gaddling and we meet Lady Johanna Constantine. The second part of the series, The Dolls house, deals with the dream Vortex which threatens the stability of the waking and dreaming worlds and introduces several interesting characters and a terrifying story arc about the escaped nightmares, Gault and the Corinthian who have wreaked havoc in Morpheus's absence. We see his relationship with his chief librarian Lucienne improve as he becomes less regal and more humble. The conclusion to the Vortex story is satisfying and includes the excellently cast Stephen Fry as Gilbert. Episode 11 covers 2 very different stories, one about the disdainful character of cats and the other about an ancient Greek muse Calliope who is abused and raped by struggling authors in search of inspiration. The genius of Neil Gaiman is that he can turn such unlikely sounding stories into authentic compelling viewing. The casting and production quality set a very high standard and Neil has completely succeeded in expanding the Sandman universe to another possibly more accessible medium.