The Sandman Episode 11 Review: Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope A Fabulous Bonus Episode On Netflix!
Starring: Tom Sturridge, Boyd Holbrook, Patton Oswalt
Director: Mike Barker, Jamie Childs
Steaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Two weeks after the debut, suddenly The Sandman returns to the limelight with a new episode, which perhaps defining a bonus or special would be an understatement. An unpublished chapter lasting over an hour, moreover, is very ambitious, as it paints two separate stories, one of which in live-action and the other with a very peculiar animated style, of the deviations in practice which fans of the comic are far from unaccustomed. Gaiman’s original material is, in fact, an incredibly layered and varied work, which at times distances itself from the work of Morpheus to drag the reader into the dark ravines of that world, into stories where the King of Dreams has little – sometimes even none – relevance or presence.
Further demonstration of Netflix’s well-placed in retrospect trust in the series? Absolutely yes, but don’t make the mistake of considering this episode a trivial extra that adds little to nothing. The beauty of the two stories alone is undoubtedly worth the vision, made essential in our opinion by some elements that will be of capital importance in the future. Before reading any further, don’t miss the Netflix releases of August 2022.
The Sandman Episode 11 Review: The Story
The two stories that the episode stages are, as the title itself clarifies, The Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope, included in the third volume of Sandman entitled The Lands of the Dream. Like the sixth and eighth volumes, The Lands of the Dream does not carry on the main narrative, if it can be defined as such, of the work, but represents a collection of small stories completely unrelated to each other, with aims very varied: sometimes they should simply be understood as delightful parentheses that showcase the peculiarities or oddities of the Gaiman universe; others unfold or expand events and backgrounds crucial to the odyssey of Dream – and Calliopeit is a prime example; still others approach the founding themes of the work from different points of view.
Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope falls into the latter category since, after all, it is nothing more than the testimony that a cat gives to her fellow creatures of an encounter with the King of Dreams. In short, the precise definition of a basic and linear story, here framed by a rather intriguing animated style that somewhat recalls the Undone of Amazon, but which on a closer look explodes thanks to the central themes of The Sandman. For example, the idea that reality is shaped, in the most literal sense of the term, by the dreams and beliefs of living beings or the change linked to a double mandate with someone’s nature (human or Eternal who is); Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope it is filled with similar subjects in every shot, addressed with a tone suspended between the enchanting and the disturbing.
The Sandman Episode 11 Review and Analysis
Calliope, on the other hand, marks the return to live-action and covers the vast majority of the episode. The protagonist of the story is Richard Madoc (Arthur Darvill), a writer who became famous thanks to his debut novel now fallen into a profound crisis, a very serious case of creative block. To try to overcome the negative moment that has been going on for over a year, Richard decides to resort to the help of his elderly colleague Erasmus Fry (Derek Jacobi), able to build a stellar career thanks to the help of none other than the muse of poetry Calliope (Melissanthi Mahut, the Kassandra of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey), imprisoned against her will for many years.
A fabulous story, a fall into the abyss of the madness of an intellectual who, unable to withstand the pressure and obsessive attention of fans and critics on him, comes to accept compromises that are increasingly shady, cowardly, far from his nature – or that maybe it was already present in his being, depending on how you want to read the story. And, without making any spoilers, a fundamental passage chapter as he openly mentions the elements that in future seasons of The Sandman, if it is renewed, will be at the center of events. Can we then expect further “extra” episodes of this kind? The material is there, maybe we will see a modus operandi similar to Mythic Quest Apple, which between the first and the second season has proposed several specials – and the thought immediately runs to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we sincerely hope.
The Sandman Episode 11 Review: The Last Words
The Sandman suddenly returns to our screens and does so with a special episode (even if it is a bit simplistic to describe it as such) that will be as familiar and normal for comic fans as it is almost alienating for a regular viewer. The episode does not carry on the main story in any way nor does it take up the cliffhanger of the first season finale in any way, but instead stages two small unrelated stories, “Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope“. The first is a delightful and disturbing animated short that does nothing but explode some of the central themes of The Sandman, while the second is a fabulous descent into the abyss of the madness of a writer in crisis. A ploy to expand dramatically – perhaps in anticipation of the much-rumored spin-off? – the sublime world was created by Gaiman and also starts introducing small elements that will be crucial in the future, in a way that does not interrupt the regular flow of the season. A sensible and farsighted choice and, with this quality, we hope that many other short stories will get the same treatment.
