All 11 episodes of The Sandman, ranked worst to best
By Dan Selcke
Episode 11: “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope”
Imagine the delight of Sandman fans when they learned about this. Several days after the season dropped, Netflix revealed that it had made another episode: this one adapts two (mostly) stand-alone stories from the comics: “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope.” No attempt is made to blur them into one story. They’re presented one after the other and they’re both really good.
They’re also both really different. “Dream of a Thousand Cats” is an animated story about housecats who dream of a world where they are apex predators who hunt humans like normal cats hunt mice. It’s eerie, ethereal and kind of cute. Aw, look at da kitties killing everyone, yes you do, yes you do feast on our flesh. Prrr.
“Calliope” is much more serious. It’s about an author who kidnaps and abuses one of the Greek muses in exchange for artistic inspiration. What are we humans willing to do to be successful? According to the episode, more than we’d like to think.
Dream features in both of these mini-episodes, but only on the margins. The world of The Sandman is strong enough to stand without him.