Stream It Or Skip It?

In reading about the final season of The Sandman, it’s interesting to read that the show is ending because, well, there’s really no more story to tell after this. At least that’s according to Alan Heinberg, who developed the series with David Goyer and the original comic’s creator, Neil Gaiman. The end of the series has nothing to do with the sexual assault accusations against Gaiman, given the fact that most of the season was completed before those accusations came out. So hearing that the story is just coming to a natural ending is one we don’t hear very often.

THE SANDMAN SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “Every dream, just like every dreamer is unique. Yet the one thing all dreams have in common is change,” says the voice of Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), commonly known as “Dream”, as we see a massive castle being rebuilt.

The Gist: Dream is rebuilding his kingdom, with the help of his assistant Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong), Matthew the Raven (Patton Oswalt) and Merv Pumpkinhead (Mark Hamill). As the magical construction nears completion, he’s called to a meeting of The Endless by his brother Destiny (Adrian Lester).

The Endless doesn’t meet very often, and when six of the seven members of the family gather — Dream, Destiny, Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston) and Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles) — all of their old beefs and disagreements come up. They also miss their sibling Destruction, who has explicitly said he no longer wants to meet with any member of The Endless.

Destiny has called him there because The Fates told him that an important meeting will take place that will change everyone’s history. Of course, the meeting is the one they’re in, and none of them know exactly what The Fates’ circular logic means. But Destiny also thinks it’s a good opportunity for all of the siblings to reconnect.

Desire, always wanting to shake things up, brings up the sore subject of Nada (Deborah Oyelade), Queen of the First People, who fell in love with Dream before he supposedly banished her to Hell. As things between Dream and Desire start to get tense, Destiny tells Dream to “collect yourself”.

Outside the gathering, he tells Death about how he and Nada fell for each other. It was certainly a risky proposition for a mortal to be with someone from The Endless, and after a meteor killed her people, she asked Dream to banish her to Hell in order to prevent more destruction to both of their realms.

But it’s been 10,000 years, and Dream feels the need to right his wrong. So, despite what happened to him the last time he visited Hell, he’s planning a return visit. His siblings can’t talk him out of it, and neither can Lucienne, Matthew or Merv. He sends one of his minions, Cain (Sanjeev Bhaskar), to announce Dream’s pending arrival to Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie), and Lucifer tells him in no uncertain terms that she and an army of demons will be waiting for him, and it’s not going to be to welcome him.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? When The Sandman‘s first season premiered 3 years ago, we likened it to Lucifer mixed with another Neil Gaiman creation, Good Omens, and that seems to still apply.

Our Take: Gaiman isn’t as involved with Season 2 of The Sandman as he was with Season 1, according to his co-creators David Goyer and Allan Heinberg, and most of this final season was completed before the sexual assault allegations against Gaiman came out. The lack of Gaiman’s presence is definitely felt in Season 2, as it starts of with a ton of exposition and a lot of self-seriousness that made the start of this new story hard to get into.

While the way into the story about Dream’s mission to rescue Nada from Hell seemed a bit convoluted — it basically came up in a sibling fight! — the idea of Dream going back there to get her out is a compelling one. And we wouldn’t be introduced (or re-acquainted) with members of The Endless if he wasn’t going to utilize them.

Another aspect of this story that’s intriguing is what Dream does, which is interact with the mortal world through their dreams and nightmares. We see that with Hob Gadling (Ferdinand Kingsley); Dream enters Hob’s sleep to tell him he’s leaving for hell. He also says goodbye to the son of Lyta Hall (Razane Jammal). He knows what he’s attempting to do may be fatal, but after his disagreement with Desire he feels it’s his duty to do it.

How long this story can sustain itself through the entire final season (we’re not sure if the Gaiman co-written postscript special called Death: The High Cost Of Living is related to this story or not) is something we’re not sure of. But what we do know is there needs to be a combination of lighter and darker moments to make this final story more compelling and less of a grim slog that looks like it was filmed in a closet.

Sex and Skin: Nothing.

Parting Shot: “‘Welcome to Hell,’ I tell myself. And I am afraid,” we hear Morpheus say as we see him in full armor.

Sleeper Star: Mason Alexander Park is fun to watch as Desire, as they definitely lean into the shit-stirring part of Desire’s personality.

Most Pilot-y Line: Death to Dream when she finds out he’s returning to Hell. “Hey, Dream, don’t do anything stupid.” To us, going back to Hell is pretty damned stupid to begin with, no?

Our Call: STREAM IT. While the beginning of The Sandman‘s final season is a bit of a exposition-crammed slog, it does show Dream entering a story that feels like it’ll have a lot of possibilities.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.