The Sandman, overall somewhat disappointed
There's a lot to like - the writing was good up to the 'rose' section, takes a dip through that whole section for some reason and is the main reason for being disappointed overall, the production is quality, most of the casting is good to excellent but the steaming turd in the punchbowl is Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, fuck me it is woeful, off the top of my head can't recall a worse Lucifer ever, still reeling from how bad she was. Conversely the Corinthian is fun and done very well. Oh and Death is very good.
Shoutout to David Thewlis who is fantastic for his stint and plenty of nice cameos from Dance to Fry. Sandman himself is good but not constant i'd say, feels great at times then other times meh, a bit weak, but he's a great character and for the majority of it is done well.
Not going to say much about the 'crossover' nod that is the inclusion of Constantine in this show, cos in short it's not Constantine, it is utter shit, to a Constantine fan it borders on blashphemy (pun intended). Alongside Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, they make up the two real low points of the show, with the laughable choice (that is beyond me) of the Constantine role easily kicking satan's ass in levels of the pathetic (i attribute no blame to the actress btw, this is purely down to the fuckwit that chose and wrote for her).
The pacing of the show for the first two 'acts' (loosely two main stories that straddle multiple episodes), is very slow, i can only assume this is intentional, maybe to give it an ethereal feel due to it's slow and, sometimes, indulgent dwelling. i can imagine some may have a problem with just how slow it is.
It ups tempo a bit from the 'rose' section through to seasons end. Tho this for me is the season's weakest section. I wasn't blown away with it before this, but i liked it, writing was strong, characterisation mainly good, stories carried well tho ponderous.
So it's the end section that was ultimately meh for me and takes down my overall liking of the first season. I think the phrase 'a mixed bag' is totally apt here.
Like i said at the outset, there's lots to like and if we can have more of that going forward we could have a winner (unfortunately we're going to see a lot more of Gwendoline Christie's useless Lucifer in season 2 going by the season outrow and that might just kill it... yeah, she is that bad)
