The Doll's House

I'm not so much confused as bamboozled by the oft changing storyline and objective of the show. The acting in this episode lacked though the cinematography continues to dazzle.

Episode 6 was amazing. Almost a standalone shortfilm. And then this happened? 7th Episode another new character get's introduced?! Why does this happen so late? Who wrote this?! I still have no idea where this show is moving... What is Morpheus Arc? Why does nearly every side char has more Screentime than him?

Did this become a different show? Stilted acting of bad, trite and phony dialogue and the visual splendor is gone. They're continuing one unfinished thread with the nightmare but the show is now without the tone or panache of the 1st 4 episodes and nuance of eps 5 and 6. They've apparently started a new story line midseason and it is shallow, phony and uninteresting to say the least. I'm at a loss for words. It's not the same show, it's become something from CBS in the 2000s with a few bad words, attempts at gore and badly written modern progressive characters.

By far the weakest episode of the season thus far, "The Doll's House" feels like the beginning of a new chapter & tonally, completely unlike its predecessors. As I've personally never read the graphic novels yet (& thus, am not familiar with the source material), I can only hazard a guess that the first 5 installments adapt the original "Sandman" plot line & the next half of this debut season is tasked with bringing its sequel to life? Of course, only book readers will know whether I'm correct in that assumption but to me, that's certainly what it feels like; the previous story feels completed & therefore, there's a jarring realisation mid-way through this episode where you come to the understanding that it's actively endeavouring to set the foundations for a new tale - which later additions shall build upon - & everything that came before it kind of just... Inexplicably finished? The dream world's rebuilt, Morpheus has re-established control over his dominion & peace has been restored to the realm - off camera. Hence, the momentum's lost in the melee of the confusion this uncertainty creates & consequently, everything has the purpose of trying to start the ball rolling again... Only this time, it feels laboured & less easy than the initial 50%. That's not to say it's bad (far from it), but when the show got off to such a wonderful start, anything short of exceptional is undeniably "lesser".

Either I was ignorant of particularly shoddy line delivery, or the written dialogue itself, in previous episodes or something is particularly off about this installment. Sometimes poor exposition can be covered up by amazing actors. That didn't happen here.

One would hope this is just a temporary dip in the series and future episodes improve.

Note: I hope no one who worked on the show reads this, as I assume they all tried their hardest. Or maybe they were dealt unfair hands by upper management and forced to compromise on quality in this particular episode for some reason.