There are dreams that we don't want to wake up from, and there are nightmares that we wouldn't wish for anyone to have in their sleep.
Both these and these are controlled by Morpheus - the king of dreams, the sandman, who is actually an immortal creature with a tight raven and a gloomy style, who walks around with a cosmic sandbag, spreads from it where they have already made a sponge, and is at the center of the story of "Sandman" - together with his "infinite" family members.
About a hundred years ago he was imprisoned in the basement of a cruel human being, and now that he has escaped to freedom he must restore the powers that were taken from him, repair the world of dreams and rebuild his kingdom that fell apart during his absence.
The "Sandman" comic books published between 1989 and 1996 were a crazy hit and considered groundbreaking.
For 30 years, the creator Neil Gaiman blocked all references to adapt his work for film or television.
It's not that he didn't want to, but that the root of the problem was the ability to translate it into a visual medium.
"Sandman" is built in a carefully drawn fantasy world, it sails between kingdoms and mythical characters, jumps between years and ages, between earth and hell;
"Sandman" is like a dream, and in order to transfer the reading experience to another medium, all the layers had to be precisely preserved.
Finally, after 30 years of dreams - along came Netflix, providing the platform and the lavish budget to resurrect Sandman's travels.
If we ignore the last season of "Stranger Things" (which cost $30 million per episode), then right after it "Sandman" is the most expensive production in Netflix history.
The premiere season received an inflated budget of 165 million dollars (that is, 15 million was poured into each episode).
Since Netflix has recently been losing subscribers at an increasing rate, and is basing its future on productions like "Sandman", the question arises: Is this series worth the money?
Because the investment is hard to miss on the screen.
It is wonderful and looks like a fairy tale, but sometimes when you invest so much in the packaging, in the construction of the visual world, in the design of the locations, in the magic and the grandiose effects - you neglect the main thing, and suddenly the story itself is not conducted on the same scale as its setting.
And so, along with great episodes, fascinating characters and mesmerizing scenes, there are quite a few moments when it is not clear what is wanted from us.
Instability is the superpower of this series.
Instability is this series' superpower.
"Sandman",
"Sandman" explores human nature, the meanings of life, lies, obsessions, fantasies and reality.
It will attract fans of the iconic brand, intrigue new fantasy fans and probably sell franchises.
However, it is clear that for the time being it is not good enough as a work to reproduce the spot-on success that erupted from it when the comic was first published.
The premiere season that aired this weekend barely passes the screen test, and does not solve the mystery - was it worth pouring 165 million on the ambitious project, or in retrospect should it have been left buried in the world of unfulfilled dreams?
In one of the episodes we are presented with a recurring meeting between two characters that occurs once in a century.
In their conversation, one laments to the other that he watched a Shakespeare play, and was disappointed that they changed the story to soften it and re-adapt it to reality.
"I saw a production of 'King Lear' yesterday. The idiots gave it a happy ending," he said.
"It won't last long," the hero answered him, and explained: "The great stories will always return to their original form."
"Sandman", season 1, Netflix?
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