How The Sandman Season 2 Balances Anthology and Arc

The Netflix series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s cult classic graphic novel series The Sandman is finally over. On November 17, 2023, the streaming service released the show’s second and final season. In the new chapter, viewers can expect more of what they liked about the first season, which captured much of the fantastic, phantasmagorical vibe of the original material. In particular, the anthology vibe of the comics gets balanced with the more linear narrative driven by Morpheus’ overall character arc.

In January, Netflix announced that Season 2 of The Sandman will be the series’ final chapter. Many viewers thought that this change of plans to end the show after Season 1 was due to Gaiman being accused of sexual misconduct (Gaiman has since denied the allegations). However, showrunner Allan Heinberg reassured fans on X, “The Sandman has always been a two-season arc. When we were developing the show, we thought we had enough story for two seasons, and we did! We cut it close. I think we knew we were in the right place.”

The first season adapted Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House, plus two bonus episodes (one of them based on the standalone Sandman story “Dream of a Thousand Cats,” and the other on “Calliope” from the second collection, Dream Country). In turn, the second and final season adapts mostly material from Seasons of Mists, Brief Lives, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake, plus essential elements from Fables and Reflections, specifically, “The Song of Orpheus” and some parts from “Thermidor.” Plus, one episode of the new season adapts the award-winning “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from Dream Country. The Season 2 bonus episode adapts the 1993 standalone spinoff comic Death: The High Cost of Living. The final season does not touch upon A Game of You or some short stories, although the absence of the former affects Dream King’s central story only negligibly.

Season 2 picks up directly after the events of the first season finale. After Season 1’s arc about escaping from his prison, recovering his talismans, defeating the rogue dream demon Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), and resolving the whole Vortex business, Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) is now rebuilding his domain of the Dreaming. But he has to interrupt the restoration process when he receives an extremely rare summons from his sister, Destiny (Adrian Lester). The two gather Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston), and Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles) for a family intervention.

The confrontation, however, makes Morpheus agree to redeem Nada (Umulisa Gahiga), queen of the First People and his ex-lover, whom he had damned to Hell. To rescue Nada, Dream has to enter Lucifer’s (Gwendolyn Christie) territory, resulting in another showdown with the queen of Hell, who still bears a grudge over her Season 1 defeat. But instead of the expected battle, Lucifer delivers a stunning announcement of her resignation and hands Morpheus the key to an empty Hell and the task to appoint its next Keeper from a long line of candidates, including Odin, Order, Chaos, and the demon Azazel.

Delirium’s quest to find her brother Destruction (Barry Sloane), who left his domain and disappeared many centuries before, also drags Morpheus closer to his ultimate destiny and a whole lot of spilled family blood, drawing the wrath of the Furies known as the Kindly Ones.

The Best, The Worst, and A Necessary End

On many levels, the second season is a worthy conclusion to the series, and mostly on par with its first season. The production quality, casting, and stunning visuals remain top-notch, and the show’s creators still manage to make Gaiman’s dense pages sing and vividly translate many of the original’s panels into lush cinematography. Many have complained that the storytelling’s pacing is rather slow, but this is the case. In many ways, The Sandman works in its deliberate slowness, giving viewers time to fully immerse themselves in Gaiman’s universe.

By far, the weakest element of the entire series is the episode “Time and Night,” in which Morpheus decides to ask his parents, Time (Rufus Sewell) and Night (Tanya Moodie), for assistance with his current problems. It is true that all of the Endless, including Dream, are their children. However, these two, frankly speaking, are the worst chapters of the whole series, not because of Sewell, whose scene-stealing abilities the writers completely waste, but because of the objectively atrocious dialogue, which, despite Sewell’s best efforts, makes these scenes sound like a life coaching session more than a mythological confrontation.

The many highlights from Season 2 include Lucifer asking Dream to cut off her wings; the goddess Ishtar (Amber Rose Revah) stripping off all her adornments and taking off in divine nakedness for one final dance; Dream explaining to William Shakespeare that he must write The Tempest in the episode “Chapter 71”; and the reformed Corinthian realizing that he is in love with Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman). Other memorable scenes include Orpheus’ dirge for his beloved in the Underworld, Dream mercifully killing his son, and the visit of the Furies and their ruinous wrath that wipes out Fiddler’s Green (Stephen Fry), Mervyn Pumpkinhead (Mark Hamill), and Abel (Asim Chaudhry).

Dream’s death happens after Morpheus finally takes Death’s hand and lets her take him one last time. As the universe welcomes the new Dream incarnation, Daniel Hall (Jacob Anderson), the only human conceived and born in the Dreaming, in a temporary state of total confusion, he walks forward with a purpose and begins writing, while his Endless siblings grieve Morpheus’ death and embrace the new Dream.