Oh boy, where do I even start. There are so much problems with this show it's hard to focus and formulate something that can summarize the experience of watching this mess.

First, some of the technical decisions how to film it and also atrocious editing are among the worst I've ever seen in professional production. Wide lens everywhere is just wrong on so many levels. It distorts the faces, it puts too much of the environment and too many details around the characters even in closeups, it creates a visual mess. I can't believe that a professional and experienced cinematographer would chose to use wide lenses in this way, that is a major fail. And the selection of the framing makes it even worse. Long and mid shots are 90% of the shots here, the closeups are so rare. Maybe the editor saw how strange the faces look like in closeups and just decided to avoid them as much as possible. But the result is really bad, some characters get their closeup only after long minutes they appeared in few scenes. And few characters never get their proper closeups at all. The introduction of new characters is almost always from a far, they appear in the background and their first interactions almost always from there, while as a viewer I am trying to look hard who that is and what do they do there, so far from me. It's just not how the language works, guys, this is not how it's done in a mainstream entertainment. The cinematography in general is really bad. Faces are constantly in shadows, a lot of shots there is a bright light behind or near the character's face so it's really hard to see it. It's so amateur it's just laughable.

Beyond the bad cinematography and editing, there is also a story. I am not familiar with the original novel, so I cannot compare. But I do understand TV and here the story is very uneven, moving from complete boredom to mildly entertaining. The main concept of the realms is not bad, as to the fantasy of the world the concept is intriguing, although it's just a mix of ideas already done in other places. Still, I can appreciate the imagination. However, the episodic structure and multiple plot lines that appear from nowhere and disappear in the same way are just distracting. This is not how you write a season, there are multiple beginnings and ends, new sets of characters that appear and disappear, and it feels very disconnected. With better writers the season could be structured differently, having a main single plot line and providing a better watching experience.

Most of what happens in the show is just so tedious and boring, it's unwatchable. There are episodes in which minor and completely boring characters just take all the screen time, with their idiotic conversations and problems, all 10 episodes can be re-cut by half just to make it more interesting. The writing seems to be as unprofessional as the cinematography. Who cares about these people, they are not interesting in any way. Some characters are unreal and cartoonish, their stories are stereotypical and childish, their relationships with others around them is not plausible and not believable. The only good parts in this show was the story with Hob Gadling, as it moved in jumps of 100 year, and the Cereal convention. Everything else was just bad, including some actors. The main character Dream is not good, he lacks charisma and presence, his emo look and emo behavior are heavy and depressing. Wrong choice. I understand that this is also a writing, but some characters were able to be quite good in their roles, so it's actor's fault as well.

Also, I am not sure how people are born in this world as everyone seem to be gay. How do people have kids if there are almost no straight couples in that world, seriously. Show me one functional straight couple in this show. I understand that progressive propaganda and lgbtq rights are popular in pop entertainment now, but let's keep it in proportions, shall we? It's fine to show diversity, fetish and eccentricity to say a point, but there is no need to chew it up and feed it to the viewers in such amounts. Just take it easy.

I bored myself writing this review about this boring show. Hopefully Netflix will hire a different production company for second season to fix at least the cinematography.