The Sandman Episode 5 Review – 24/7
Here’s my The Sandman episode 5 review titled 24/7 which stars Tom Sturridge, David Thewlis and more!
Before we proceed, SPOILER ALERT
In this episode, Dream is still knocked out from his encounter with his ruby which has been stolen from him and ends up in the hands of John Dee aka Doctor Destiny.
With Morpheus knocked out for the majority episode the pacing dictates that we go for a focus on John Dee and the extent of his power and his madness. And that’s where we get into the sinister “Diner” issue titled 24 Hours in the comics and 24/7 for this episode of The Sandman series.
So the basic premise here is that we do a psychoanalysis of humanity, the brutality of humanity and the lustfulness of it all. Dee enters a diner and locks himself together with six people. For some time, Dee toys with these six people exposing their flaws, their lust and their brutal nature for his enjoyment. The last surviving person inside the diner, aspiring writer and waitress Bette is forced to confront the despicable villain and prophesy that Dream will eventually come for him.
I liked the little intricacies of this episode, just like in the comics, as things go crazy within the 24 hours that Dee has captured the Diner’s patrons. Like it started like minor inconveniences like traffic jams and rainy weather and by the end, its full on chaos with power lines down, fires and death everywhere. And by the end of the episode, everything’s suddenly calm once more.
There’s a lot of dark stuff here and shows viewers the ugly side of humanity. Actually, I liked that this episode took a dive into these waters. It’s also what cemented Sandman as a bona fide must read for comic book fans decades and decades ago.
There’s something terrifying in David Thewlis’ performance here as John Dee plus the actual material is also scary as it. I was initially not happy with the call to make John Dee more human and elderly as opposed to what he looked like in the books.
This review will also serve as a trigger warning for self harm. If you’re the squeamish type, then this might leave you disturbed more than ever.
Props also to Netflix for toning it down for this rather controversial comic book issue. There were just some things that might not sit pretty with other people.
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