Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

The Sandman: The Complete First Season 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Nice dream.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III December 28, 2023

Adapted from Neil Gaiman's celebrated fantasy series published by DC/Vertigo, The Sandman was produced by DC Entertainment and WB Television for Netflix where its first season enjoyed a potent critical and commercial reception upon its August 2022 release. (A second season was just officially announced only a few weeks ago.) Eleven episodes have been created thus far; most represent one or more of the comic's first 17 issues, with a revolving door of writers handling the respective teleplays and series co-developers Neil Gaiman, David S. Goyer, and Allan Heinberg overseeing the series premiere. It's a solid adaptation overall, one that peaks a bit earlier than expected but has a firm foundation thanks to outstanding production design, atmosphere, and lead performances that rise to the occasion.

Much like the source material (which it's surprisingly faithful to, for better or worse), The Sandman is a slow-burn drama with memorable characters, an ambitious scope, and heady narrative concepts that deftly mix fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and a bit of well-placed black comedy. This season's primary arc follows Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams (Tom Sturridge) who, in the series premiere "Sleep of the Just", is captured by British occultist Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) during a ritual to summon Death and demand the resurrection of his departed son Randall. Morpheus is unable and unwilling to help and is imprisoned in Burgess' estate for the better part of a century, eventually escaping only to find his home world of The Dreaming in ruins due to his decades-long absence. With the help of his ever-faithful aide Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong) and a few other souls, Morpheus attempts to track down the whereabouts of three vital tools stolen during his imprisonment: his pouch of sand, his helm, and a wish-granting ruby.

Attempts are made to weave in several side-stories and other detours, almost overcrowding The Sandman's cast of characters but mostly keeping things nice and neat during the first half of this eleven-episode first season, which also includes the bonus double-length "Dream of a Thousand Cats / Calliope" made available on Netflix two weeks after its initial ten-episode run. These initial narratives are mostly quite good: the separate path of vengeful nightmare spirit The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), exciting adventures with exorcist and occult detective Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman), and the scheming ways of Ethel Dee (Joely Richardson), a mistress of Roderick Burgess who has remained alive and invincible for more than a century thanks to an amulet she traded for one of Morpheus' three stolen artifacts. That's to say nothing of Ethel's comparatively older son John (David Thewlis), Corinthian prey Rose Walker (Kyo Ra), or even Death herself (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Morpheus' wise and surprisingly less grumpy older sister.

Things get a little messier during this season's home stretch, during which time a few seams in The Sandman's fabric begin to show. Like most shows and movies based on literary source material, once-important components are either rushed or glossed over entirely in the name of efficiency's sake. I'll go a bit easier on this series for falling into this trap because, for the most part, it's paced deliberately well and feels like it successfully treads that unsteady middle ground between "straightforward adaptation" and "spiritual successor". Aside from perhaps necessary changes to the original comics, my only quibble with The Sandman is in certain elements of its casting, from occasional drop-ins like Lucifer Morningstar (Gwendoline Christie, who absolutely isn't threatening enough) to the more regular presence of reluctant raven Matthew (voiced by Patton Oswalt), who brings a bit too much distracting levity to his role that often feels out of place. But this condensed first season is still a very worthy endeavor, due to its fundamental strengths and the mere existence of a small-screen production built from admittedly tricky source material; The Sandman has been floating in the ether for decades but never fully adapted, so for an "official debut" this is a fairly admirable effort.

Surprisingly enough, this Netflix-distributed series has earned no less than three separate physical media format releases in recent weeks: DVD, Blu-ray, and even this 4K UHD edition that best preserves The Sandman's formidable A/V merits. Only a lack of bonus features keeps WB's compact three-disc set from being a truly exceptional package, although it's still very much in the conversation of "Honorable Mentions" for this dwindling calendar year.

Episode List

DISC ONE
"Sleep of the Just, "Imperfect Hosts", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "A Hope in Hell"

DISC TWO
"24/7", "The Sound of Her Wings", "The Doll's House", "Playing House"

DISC THREE
"Collectors", "Lost Hearts", "Dream of a Thousand Cats / Calliope"
Bonus Features (listed below)

The Sandman: The Complete First Season 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: This review's 1080p screenshots are sourced from Blu-ray discs, available separately and reviewed here.

The Sandman is no slouch from a visual standpoint, as this handsomely-designed production beats some of DC's big-screen theatrical outings in recent years. First and foremost is the production design, which spans several decades and disappoints in none of them. Ethereal landscapes, from The Dreaming to Hell itself, are capably rendered with only a handful of seams that can easily be spotted, while only a few foreground CGI elements are noticeably less convincing but rarely to a distracting degree. From top to bottom, costume designs to supernatural powers, it's a solid-looking series that has been capably preserved on home video whether you opt for the Blu-ray or 4K editions.

Videophiles will of course opt for this UHD package, which sees all 11 episodes encoded on three triple-layer (100GB) discs and doubles the available real estate of its Blu-ray counterparts with an extremely supportive bit rate to match. Vivid and muted colors alike are more accurately realized due to its added HDR support, available in either HDR10 or Dolby Vision, as are black levels and contrast which benefit greatly from high dynamic range. Like most comic-based productions from this era (not to mention the material it's sourced from), The Sandman is an overwhelmingly moody series at times; there's no shortage of oppressive shadows and dimly-lit environments where stray light sources sharply cut through the hazy darkness, whether it's softer candlelight or blazing neon. Fine detail is immaculate in the right conditions, digital imperfections and other compression-related issues are basically nil, and this first season as a whole sports a consistently pleasing and polished presentation that, without question, looks like a fully idealized version of its streaming counterpart. If you've only seen The Sandman on Netflix, you will notice the differences.

The Sandman: The Complete First Season 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby Atmos mix offers a definitive presentation of its source material; compared to the typically underwhelming and "hot" sounding dynamic range of streaming audio, this lossless object-based surround mix can't help but come out several steps ahead. Foreground effects and discrete surround elements are rendered with pinpoint accuracy, dialogue always remains clean and intelligible, and all but the beefiest subwoofers will be occasionally tested by The Sandman's lowest frequencies. More than that, everything is nicely prioritized and matches the subject matter perfectly, usually taking the natural approach during normal conversations while amping things up considerably during more stylish and supernatural moments. Even more so than the video, this Atmos mix immediately impresses and rarely lets up for more than a few minutes at a time. Without question, The Sandman: Season One easily earns top marks as one of this year's best-sounding releases, which is even more impressive since this isn't a big-screen production.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during all 11 episodes and the bonus features listed below.

The Sandman: The Complete First Season 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This three-disc release ships in a hinged keepcase with attractive cover artwork... no matching slipcover or interior episode list like the Blu-ray edition, but episode names are at least printed on the discs themselves. The bonus features are identical to the 1080p release, few and inconsequential as they are, and are both found on Disc 3.

• The Sandman: Behind-The-Scenes Sneak Peek (1:53) - Sadly as its title implies, this is an extremely brief promotional featurette that's over almost as quickly as it begins. Aside from a glimpse at the original comics, it mostly features cast/crew interview snippets about adapting the source material.

• The World Of The Endless (3:07) - Another blink-and-you'll-miss it piece, this one expands slightly on the overall Season 1 story arc including characters, locations, and plot devices.

The Sandman: The Complete First Season 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Sandman is a worthy adaptation of celebrated source material and, with any luck, will continue to blossom in its recently announced second season; for now, this Netflix-distributed series has thankfully earned three physical media releases on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K. The roller-coaster ratings I've given the latter are appropriate: it's an expectational package as far as main content and 4K A/V quality go, but the lack of extras is a huge disappointment and this set's only flaw (aside from not being a combo pack). If you're currently equipped for UHD it's well worth the extra cost for established fans, but I wouldn't blame newcomers for sticking with the much cheaper Blu-ray edition.