REVIEW: 'The Sandman' Season 2, Vol. 1 Rushes Through An Epic
- Mira Jacobs
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
The second and final season of The Sandman arrives in an uncomfortable atmosphere. Neil Gaiman, executive producer on the show and creator of the comic series that inspired it, has been silent since multiple allegations of sexual misconduct were raised against him last year. When it was announced in January that Netflix's live-action adaptation of the series would end with Season 2 - a short run considering all the canon material available - many fans assumed that this decision was a result of the controversy around Gaiman.
However, since then, The Sandman showrunner Allan Heinberg has clarified that the plan was already to conclude after two seasons, cutting out the parts that don’t keep the title character, Tom Sturridge’s Dream of the Endless, at the center of the story. The first installment of Season 2 supports this statement, as it was clearly written with the aim of moving quickly toward the finale, long before the allegations against Gaiman had surfaced.
Dream Has to Carry Everything
Either way, the show suffers for its abbreviated length, and for its narrow focus. The comics, first published in 1989, earned their epic reputation by weaving together myriad tales that sometimes had only a whisper of connection to the main plot. While it makes sense to trim away some of these side stories, others are a source of real depth, showing how dreams affect all of us even when the character of Dream is nowhere in sight. Removing them increases his screen time but dampens his power.
The good news is that Sturridge has all the right moves when it comes to portraying the haughty, stoic, mystical Sandman, so it’s still enjoyable to watch him. The season begins with Dream settled back into his kingdom and resuming dealings with other immortal entities, including his own six siblings, and these scenes are the show at its best: following Dream through surreal, sometimes paradoxical worlds which to him are commonplace.
Family, Lovers, and Dinner Guests
The season premiere, "Season of Mists," introduces Destiny (Adrian Lester) and Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles), adding them to the siblings we’ve already met: Death (Kirby-Howell Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), and Despair (Donna Preston). Although not all of the other Endless have the same kind of impact on the screen as Dream does, their family meeting emphasizes the fantastical nature of the setting, far removed from mundane affairs. It also causes Dream to reconsider his long-ago romance with a mortal, Nada (Umulisa Gahiga). Thanks to his personal growth during the first season, he’s soon determined to find her again and rescue her in spite of the danger.
The flashback to the doomed love of Dream and Nada employs some artistic license. In the comics, the legend of Queen Nada is preserved through the oral tradition of her descendants, an unnamed African tribe. The show tells it through Dream’s own perspective, humanizing him and justifying Nada’s love by giving them a complete relationship in her dreams. Although this change makes sense under The Sandman’s mythology, it’s an example of the adaptation playing it safe and keeping the story palatable for modern audiences.
In both versions, Nada is a major driver of the plot, which brings Dream to confront one of the only people he openly fears: Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie). Instead of threatening him directly, this encounter leaves Dream with the key to Hell, making him a person of interest for everyone from Norse gods to Heaven's angels. There's no shortage of impressive mythological figures in Season 2, and in “The Ruler of Hell,” Dream holds a banquet to pacify them until he can determine his next move. Viewers will be familiar with other traditional and pop culture versions of some of these characters, but to see all of them together, mingling in the vast halls of the Dreaming and backed up with ample special effects, is spectacular. The demon Azazel, for instance, is a visual masterpiece taken straight from the art of the comics.
Brief Lives Are Too Brief
Yet the intriguing possibilities set up by these first three episodes mostly fizzle out in the next three. A major arc from the comics is completely cut out, aside from transferring the human character Wanda (Indya Moore) into a different context. Dream’s infatuation with Nada is extended to have a greater influence on the plot, and the magic of the Dreaming gives way to a journey through the so-called waking world as Delirium convinces Dream to accompany her on a quest to find their missing brother, Destruction (Barry Sloane).
“Brief Lives” adapts one of the most pivotal arcs in The Sandman, but it lacks the humor and heart of the original, which hinged on Dream and Delirium being two fish out of water in very different ways. In the show, they effortlessly blend in with the mortals they encounter. Delirium is played by a single actor and keeps the same outfit, hairstyle, and makeup throughout the road trip, and her chaotic ways are reduced to a few quirky lines of dialogue. Dream’s raven Matthew (Patton Oswalt) doesn’t come along and indeed is given little to do at all.
A Timeless Tragedy
Before the road trip ends, we see another part of Dream’s history in “The Song of Orpheus.” The ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which a young man attempts to lead his dead wife out of the underworld but fails when he can’t resist looking back at her, is played straight but places Orpheus (Ruairi O'Connor) as the son of Dream and the muse Calliope (Melissanthi Mahut). In this version of the myth, Orpheus is unable to die by any natural means and has been living through millennia as a severed head, and Dream has refused to see him.
Once again, the gods and legends make better television than the waking world scenes, if only because the song that Orpheus sings in Classic Greek to Hades and Persephone is a truly beautiful piece of music. When Dream reunites with his son in the present day, he also learns the whereabouts of Destruction, and separate threads from all six episodes begin to come together, hinting at greater dangers to come.
In the comics, these events are spread out over many issues, not necessarily consecutive, and it takes time and attention to see where they’re leading. When everything converges in the next volume of Season 2, the conclusion of the story will still make sense, but it won’t have the kind of resonance and meaning that should have been cultivated over a longer series.
With all the potential it had while the door was still open for adaptations of Gaiman’s work, The Sandman’s second season was bound to be a disappointment. Netflix could have built an effective Sandman Universe with spinoffs like Dead Boy Detectives, and the main series itself had plenty of room to expand and allow Dream’s story to really shine like its source material. Some dreams stick with you for years, but some, unfortunately, are quick to fade out of memory.
RATING: ★★★☆☆
About The Sandman Season 2 Volume 1
Premiere Date: July 3, 2025
Episode Count: 6
Executive Producer/Showrunner: Neil Gaiman
Writer: Neil Gaiman, David S. Goyer, Allan Heinberg
Production: Netflix
Cast: Tom Sturridge, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Gwendoline Christie, Patton Oswalt, Vivienne Acheampong, Jenna Coleman, Boyd Holbrook, Deborah Oyelade, Adrian Lester, Esmé Creed-Miles, Barry Sloane, Ruairi O’Connor, Clive Russell, Freddie Fox, Laurence O’Fuarain, Ann Skelly, Douglas Booth, Jack Gleeson, Indya Moore, Steve Coogan.
Synopsis: After a fateful reunion with his family, Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge) must face one impossible decision after another as he attempts to save himself, his kingdom, and the waking world from the epic fallout of his past misdeeds. To make amends, Dream must confront longtime friends and foes, gods, monsters, and mortals. But the path to forgiveness is full of unexpected twists and turns, and true absolution may cost Dream everything. Based on the beloved award-winning DC comic series, the second season of THE SANDMAN will tell Dream's story arc in full to its thrilling conclusion.