from netflix The Sandman is certainly a worthy adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic. In fact, some fans are even calling it one of the best comic book adaptations of all time. Gaiman himself was very involved in the process from start to finish, which surely helped.
However, one thing about the adaptation that has fans a bit confused is the absence of some nudity. There are several instances of nudity in the comics that did not cross over into the show. At one point in the restaurant, patrons are naked and singing praises of John Dee. Despair is naked almost the entire time in the comic. Calliope also spends time in the nude.
Readers who wanted a direct one-on-one adaptation flocked to Gaiman’s Tumblr for answers as to why some of the panels containing nudity were removed. As always, Gaiman was happy to answer any and all queries. He was quick to point out that not all nude scenes were removed, far from it, the show even added a couple of new moments:
What happened to the nudity in the Sandman, the one where Morpheus spent almost the entire first episode naked? The one with all the naked humans in Dream of a thousand cats? It was there…and there was even some extra nudity, just like Ken’s dream.
Why Despair isn’t nude on Netflix The Sandman
In the comics, the Despair character is portrayed as a corpulent ghostly pale nude woman covered in cuts and bruises. On the show, actress Donna Preston is fully clothed; she even wears crocs which many fans liked. “Reproducing Despair in the comics would be possible, but hugely expensive, time-consuming and difficult, and we decided to hire a fabulous actor and use our limited resources elsewhere,” Gaiman wrote.
Gaiman also talked about Calliope, the Greek muse who appears in Episode 11. “The only real nudity we lost was keeping Calliope dressed,” he said. “In the comic, her nudity, like Morpheus’s, indicated impotence and imprisonment. On TV, we weren’t sure she would have looked like this, and we wanted to try and create a Calliope with more agency and dignity.”
The Sandman adapts the comic, but does not recreate it
The Sandman it can be commended for not veering too far off course from its source material. And when he does it, he does it in a way that makes sense for television. As Gaiman writes:
A lot of it is just deciding what we were going for in the comic and trying to create that effect with television rather than static drawn images. Things that are difficult but okay, like cartoons, can be much darker and more painful when you see them happen to real people.
All 11 episodes of The Sandman They are now streaming on Netflix. We are all eagerly awaiting news of a season 2 renewal. Please Netflix…
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