Playing House

The storyline is not the best. I'm also not the biggest fan of every actor. But it's still good. Better as most of the TV-Shows at the moment. And it's obvious with a relativly low budget, that you can't get the best actors and the best CGI. I think it's still intelligent and well made, even if it would have been better, if they had more money.

I have been up and down about this series throughout. We started with high fantasy (pf the worst sort: self-important and bland) and we have seemed to have moved on to horror ( which disappoints me because I don't like horror.) I'm still unclear about who exactly Morpheus is in relationship to the waking world. But I am only writing this to complain about one thing.... This does not vaguely resemble Florida. We'll pass over that there is no town "Cape Kennedy_ nor was there ever. But if there were such a town, it would be on one of our barrier islands. Most likely Merritt Island. There are no basements on Merritt Island. There are no hills or changes of elevation really on Merritt Island. I realize there was Covid but what would it have hurt to come out to Satellite Beach and seen what the area really looks like. This kind of inexactitude and vagary is my general take of the whole show. Everything seems just a little sloppy. Despite their best efforts (and I do think they made an honest effort) to get it right. On the other hand I just seem to be watching the whole damn thing. I am in general impressed with the acting. But I'd much rather have seen a high budget production of Neverwhere.

While the Rose Walker/Vortex story is indeed taken out of the comic, it undergoes further renovations from it's sharp deviation in episode 7.

Leaving aside the endless debate of whether the art of the past should be edited to fit with modern ideologies, the fact that the writers are clearly much less talented than Mr. Gaiman becomes apparent in this half of the show. The final 4 episodes containing the heavily edited Rose/Vortex arc are the lowest rated episodes of the series, and may others have commented that it feels like the series just abruptly stopped and started again as something completely different. Look at the reviews for episode 6, at least four of them are just titled "What happened?".

Rather than going point by point on the changes, it can best be said that the story was chopped up into it's componet elements, and bits that were judged unacceptable or distasteful were removed and re-written. After the chop job was done, it was re-assembled into something vaguely story shaped, but akin to a good story the way a person is akin to frankenstien's monster.

Narratives and situations are tilted to make certain characters more virtuous, and other more vile. This is done deliberately and for effect, with little concern for the integrity of the story as a whole or the characters roles within it. As a result the story is less engaging than episodes 1-6, which were almost perfect translations of the source material free of 'creative input'. We don't relate to or care about the characters that were favored because they don't have any sharp edges or flaws like real people. We don't take the villains seriously because they're cartoonishly evil and one-dimensional. There's never a feeling of danger because it is so obvious that the story favors Rose and Jeb that we never get the feeling that it would hurt them in the end.

Overall everything in these episodes just feels common, sanitized, and boring. The touch of the master storyteller is gone and we are left with something that feels more like Sandman fan fiction than an adaption.

At least this episode followed the same thread as its predecessor, but random scenes and slow moments. The acting was lacking but enjoyable cinematography and CGI.

The show started really good. It was dark, magical, funny then for some reason half way through the season they've wrapped up that storyline and started a new one and it's not a good one. It's a complete bore. I don't feel for any of the characters because they're all new characters and Dream isn't it in it much anymore. It's very strange.