The Sandman Season 2 Review: A Story Etched in Dreams

Season 1 of Netflix’s The Sandman was very much a Love it or Hate it adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s seminal graphic novel series. Critics and fans alike praised the series for doing justice to the original by retaining its dreamlike quality while adding dimension to the personalities on display throughout the comics. While it mostly stuck to Gaiman’s overarching story of Morpheus, or Dream of the Endless, it also felt a bit like an anthology at times. This allowed for the darker and often more personal aspects of the source material to shine. Season 2 has more of the same. If you loved Season 1, there is plenty more of that to enjoy. Season 2 of The Sandman sees Morpheus facing the reckoning for his past sins and moving towards an ending that has been a long time coming.

Netflix announced in January that Season 2 of The Sandman would be its last. Fans wondered whether Netflix’s decision to greenlight the Sandman despite sexual misconduct allegations against Gaiman (which he denies) might have led to it axing the series, but showrunner Allan Heinberg dispelled that notion on X. In a Q&A, he said that Season 2 was the plan all along, and that the creatives always thought that two seasons was enough for the material available. On reflection, that feels about right.

Season 1 mostly adapted Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House, and then used the two bonus episodes to adapt “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope” from the one-shot issue Dream Country. Season 2 mainly takes its cues from Seasons of Mists, Brief Lives, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake, and has notable inclusions from Fables and Reflections (specifically “The Song of Orpheus” and a piece of “Thermidor”) as well as the Emmy-winning one-shot “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from Dream Country. The bonus episode is an adaptation of the 1993 one-shot spinoff, Death: The High Cost of Living. The biggest omissions are the events of A Game of You and several short stories. The former is mostly because most of A Game of You’s characters do not factor into Morpheus’ main story arc, and the latter. After all, well, the short stories Gaiman tells are very good, but do not always factor into the Dream King’s main story arc.

Season 2 picks up after Season 1’s climax, in which Morpheus escaped the imprisonment that changed his world, got back his talismans, put the mad Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook) in his place, and saved the Dreaming from a mad being called the Vortex. He and his team are now back to work rebuilding the Dreaming following the changes to their world he forced and then used to create his new family. However, Destiny (Adrian Lester) calls a meeting with his siblings to get Morpheus to explain why he has been summoned by Nada (Umulisa Gahiga), queen of the First People, a group of prehistoric humans and Morpheus’s old lover. Morpheus faces the wrath of his siblings for exiling Nada to Hell when she rejected him.

This sets the Dream King off on a journey to rescue Nada that forces him into another showdown with Lucifer (Gwendolyn Christie), goddess of Hell and his former lover. Lucifer was rather peeved with Dream for her Season 1 loss and refused to take no for an answer. Lucifer, to Morpheus’ shock, reveals that she is leaving the leadership of Hell to Dream and presents him with its key when she resigns. However, since Lucifer is leaving, she leaves it to Dream to choose the new ruler of Hell, with options ranging from Odin, Order, Chao, to the fallen angel and demon Azazel.

Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles), meanwhile, wants Morpheus to help her find her other brother, Destruction (Barry Sloane), who left their world for his millennia before the events of the series. Destruction’s abandonment of the Endless and their realms continues to be a sore point with Delirium, and this time, it may lead the Dream King to his fate. Filling his world with family blood will see the vengeful Kindly Ones descend on Morpheus with righteous fury.

Highlights, Lowlights, and Dream Wrap

The first season mostly hit the mark, and Season 2 is no different. The production values remain top-notch, the cast is mostly spot on, and visually, it stays true to the aesthetics of the graphic novel, with those visuals coming to life on the screen in top form. Complaints that the pace of the series is too laid back are valid, but Season 2 is no different from Season 1 in this regard. The Sandman is not and never will be for everyone, but fans who loved Season 1 will enjoy Season 2 even more.

One of the series’ major low points comes in the episode “Time and Night”, where Morpheus goes to his parents for help. The scenes are all canonically correct, as the Endless are Time’s and Night’s offspring, but they feel off for the wrong reasons. The dialogue, in particular, is clunky, and even Rufus Sewell’s best efforts cannot prevent this part of the series from playing more like a couples therapy session than the tragedy of mythic deities. That said, there are some real stinkers in the Sandman, and overall, the episodes are hit and miss when it comes to quality.

The Sandman works in some genuinely memorable set-pieces, moments, and action that live up to the source material. These include Lucifer asking Dream to sever her wings; Ishtar (Amber Rose Revah) stripping naked to dance for the last time as a goddess; Dream explaining to William Shakespeare why he has to write The Tempest; and the now-reformed Corinthian falling for Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman). Other scenes include the funereal sound of Orpheus serenading his love in the Underworld, Dream euthanizing his son, and then having to face the fury of goddesses who want revenge on her.