The Sandman Season 2 Review: A Story Worth Waiting For

Netflix’s The Sandman finally delivered on its promise in December, bringing Gaiman’s 10-issue series The Kindly Ones to a close and wrapping up the Dream King’s saga. If the first season, which very effectively replicated the ethereal tone of Gaiman’s original pages, was any indication, fans should be in for a treat.

It’s worth noting that while Gaiman’s parent work has an anthology series feeling to it, Netflix’s The Sandman chose to ground its show with a focus on Morpheus’ overall character progression. The premiere is a continuation of that story.

Netflix confirmed in January that the show would be renewed for a second season; however, it would also be its last. Many thought the network had decided to stop the series due to sexual assault accusations made against Gaiman. (Gaiman, for the record, has denied any allegations of sexual assault or misconduct.) Showrunner Allan Heinberg recently quashed those claims, however, revealing on X that the second-season endpoint was always part of the plan: the creative team just thought they had enough source material for two seasons, and so far, they’re right.

Season 1 covered Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House; the supplemental episodes were based on “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope” from Dream Country. Season 2 is primarily based on Seasons of Mists, Brief Lives, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake, with major aspects of Fables and Reflections, particularly “The Song of Orpheus” and large parts of “Thermidor” as well as the award-winning novelette “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from Dream Country. The bonus episode of the season was adapted from the 1993 solo spin-off, Death: The High Cost of Living. A Game of You and a number of the brief tales are skipped, but both of these omissions have a negligible impact on the main Dream King arc of the series.

He has outlasted all of his challengers and detractors and achieved all of his objectives. He has broken free of his imprisonment, recovered his talismans, killed (or imprisoned) the wandering Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), and appeased the madness of the Vortex; however, he still has a lot of work ahead of him as he rebuilds the Dreaming in the Season 2 premiere after his hellish adventure. To Morpheus’ (Tom Sturridge) surprise, his long-lost sibling Destiny (Adrian Lester) issues a rare invitation, bringing Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston), and Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles) together for a family summit.

The family gathering will set Morpheus on a path to free Nada (Umulisa Gahiga), queen of the First People and a former lover of his, who he sentenced to Hell for stealing his key, which forces Dream to confront Lucifer (Gwendolyn Christie), who still hasn’t gotten over her Season 1 defeat and has put in her two-week notice. Instead of assaulting each other, however, Lucifer amazes Morpheus by quitting as his successor, handing him the key to a deserted Hell and the authority to select the next warden from a slew of bidders, from Odin and Order to Chaos and the demon Azazel.

Delirium, on the other hand, is filled with longing to discover their long-absent brother, Destruction (Barry Sloane), who has been absent from his post since before Morpheus’ conception several centuries ago. Morpheus must choose whether to join Delirium in seeking Destruction or to heed his siblings’ warnings and turn his gaze to his family’s next crime, which will result in spilling their blood and bringing down the Wrath of the Kindly Ones upon him.

Strong Points, Missteps, and a Final Goodbye

Production, casting, and photography are all top-notch, and the screenplay is a decent complement to the premium. Gaiman enthusiasts will be enthralled by the visual riffs on the panels. The delivery may be a little slow for some people who aren’t used to the pacing of graphic novels, but that is the point, and the script’s sense of bittersweet whimsy is very similar to Gaiman’s throughout.

Morpheus petitions his parents Time (Rufus Sewell) and Night (Tanya Moodie) for aid in the dreariest episode of the series, “Time and Night,” which is canonically sound (The Endless are Time and Night’s children, after all), but the banter-heavy dialogue that Sewell must juggle falls flat for the most part and ends up sounding more like an after-school special than cosmic mythmaking.

Dream conjures up Ishtar (Amber Rose Revah) to collect the abandoned Sword of the God (She Who Is) in an episode rife with references and cameos. The goddess appears in full regalia and aura for the first and only time, then dramatically rips off her cosmetics, makeup, and body art to reveal herself in her original divine aspect, strutting into an Otherworldly dancehall and shedding every last element of her adopted human personality to live in the moment one last time. Dream forces William Shakespeare to write The Tempest as the show’s exploration of Time and Destiny from the first season reaches its climax, and he also elucidates to the befuddled bard the source of his inspiration and authority. The Corinthian befriends and falls for Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) in another subplot after abandoning his disturbingly clever past pursuits and becoming the Sandman in all senses of the phrase. Other notable scenes include Orpheus’ anguished hymn to the Otherworld; Dream putting his infant son out of his agony; the Furies exacting retribution on Fiddler’s Green (Stephen Fry), Mervyn Pumpkinhead (Mark Hamill), and Abel (Asim Chaudhry); and the Dream King’s final judgment, in which he is executed for condemning and slaying a mortal, Nada.