Just when you think you’ve left the world of Dream, he brings you back in. Fans of Netflix’s The Sandman woke up this morning to a surprise on their Netflix accounts, with the announcement that there was another episode of The Sandman on the platform. The series, based on the comics by Neil Gaiman, premiered earlier this month with a ten-episode season, but fans can experience two more stories from the world of Dream with this new episode. (Not to be confused with our own bonus Sandman content.)
Tom Sturridge is back as the Master of Dreams in both stories, and the entire thing runs a bit over one hour, but both stories are great additions to The Sandman as a series! So, get ready to be thrown back into the dreaming world and experience the horrors of what cats dream about and what being imprisoned to do a man’s creative bidding feels like. (Honestly, both sound like hell.)
A Dream of a Thousand Cats
Do you wonder where a cat goes when they dream? When one little kitten (who is owned by David Tennant, something I instantly clocked as soon as the man spoke) is being put to bed, a world of possibility opens up for her in the darkness of the night. The short is animated (because how could you get real cats to listen to you for this?) and tells the story of cats who have been burned by the humanity that they lived among. When the kitten sees an older cat at her window, she escapes her home to go and meet the rest of the cats of the world and learn about how their leader (voiced by Sandra Oh) had to feel as her kittens were drowned alive by her former owner because they were not purebred.
The majority of this short had me asking my cat questions like whether or not he remembered his mother and if he also wanted to rise up and eat me like the cats in the story did, but it was an oddly Cats (the musical)-like look at the way that cats exist when we’re not watching them and where they go at night as they explore the world around them. Sandra Oh, Rosie Day, David Gyasi, James McAvoy, David Tennant, Michael Sheen, and Tom Wu fill out some of the cast of the episode (as well as Tom Sturridge as a Dream version of a cat), and it is one that will truly have you questioning what your cat dreams about in their slumber.
Calliope
Way down in Hadestown, Calliope exists to do the will of men, as she is bound to artists trying to use her for inspiration. When a writer named Richard (Arthur Darvill) needs help with his next great novel, he finds Calliope from another (Derek Jacobi) and is bound to her despite her begging to be let free. Turning to the Fates for help, Calliope learns that Dream is imprisoned, but it isn’t long until Dream is free and can come to her aid.
And one thing you don’t want to do is piss off Dream. Richard tries to continue to keep Calliope bound to him, but Morpheus doesn’t take kindly to those who hurt his ex-wife. Morpheus is the father to Calliope’s son Orpheus (yes, that Orpheus, hence the Hadestown joke), and so, when she asks for his help, he’s very willing to give it to her.
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The bonus episode of The Sandman is on Netflix now!
(featured image: Netflix)
