Starbuck-13

There are a lot of one parters and short stories in the Sandman comic book series. Instead of letting them slowing down the next season, the showrunners decided to present two of them in-between seasons as a kind of Easter egg. Quite a good idea, as leaving out the stories completely would have been a bad idea considering the relevance of Morpheus relationship with Calliope to the ongoing story.

The episode is definitely worth watching even though the first story about the dream of a thousand cats is quite unusual. But Calliopes story is very well told and adapted, close to the comic but updated to the new millennium. I liked it a lot and don't mind some further short story surprises before the Seasons of Mist.

... really? This series obviously tries to be The Lord of the Rings, throwing in quotes that try to evoke big emotions like Peter Jacksons Trilogy did. But seeing this first episode, never having read one of Robert Jordans books, I am rather shocked to see how little passion and love to detail the show displays. The leading couple is totally boring, Rosamunde Pike looks like she's just doing a job, the art direction and the choreography of the battle scenes seem totally fake and oh... the CGI... Just bordering on the embarrassing. I mean it's 2021 but this show could take a lot of hints from it's obvious role model from 2001 - 2003. Look at those Trollocs compared to Jacksons orcs! Who is doing the CGI, the original crew of Space Mutiny??? It's a shame that Amazon seemingly wants just to save money with their new flagship series, but with the competition not being idle with quality products like Shadow & Bone or His Dark Materials on the market, this show is going to have a hard time with its target audience... ....