I watched the first two episodes and they were fine. I wasn't convinced, back then, by the pictures of the actor who plays The Sandman, but I now like him in the role. It should be a bit taller and more unsettling but I was thinking that this would have been a good show.
Then on the scene arrived "Johanna Constantine" and the show took a dive at once.
First, the episode with John Constantine is one of the best in the whole comic book series. He immediately turns into a faithful servant of Morpheus after finding him standing right outside his apartment door. Their quest for the "bag of sand" is full of both humor and drama. The return of John Constantine was one of the most asked stories by the fans.
Here Johanna Constantine is the tired "Grrrl!" trope ("I just had a decaying tooth pulled out without anesthesia. They even pulled out the wrong tooth. Grrr.") OF COURSE she is lesbian. OF COURSE her (ex?) lover is a black woman. OF COURSE she lectures The Sandman. No one lectures The Sandman: you end up sleeping, unaging, for 1000 years having only nightmares - if you are lucky. She is played by Jenna Coleman. I like Jenna Coleman. I hated this travesty of a wonderful character.
Meanwhile the "B" plot is two people talking, and talking, and talking, and talking... We had 34 scenes of two people talking for a plotline that required 3. It was unending.
The only good thing is the Raven.
Amazing. The Sandman is woke. It was woke in 1988! I love it anyway, just adapt it! No. As usual, as soon as they wanted to be wokier than woke everything floundered.
I'll continue to watch it - knowing that they reached an early pinnacle of the series and they immediately dropped the ball.