Sophomore slumps come in all shapes and sizes and The Sandman is no exception. It’s not to say that season 2 is a disaster by any means, having an entire season sum up what happened in like 6 paperback volumes worth of material can and will bring challenges Reading on things said by series show runners, they said that Dream centered arcs weren’t that many and that they could and should wrap the series with a second season. Whether that’s the right or wrong call is a moot point since the series is done and does have some moments of absolute brilliance. Curiously though, some parts feel rushed, and some parts feel longer than they should be. That said, when the show hits point where all the stars align, there are some wonderful things captured and as a whole, the series did what many thought was impossible. Casting decisions were consistently interesting and with the exception of the first episode with Orpheus, acting was pretty solid throughout, with some very lovely moments and some that definitely have a lot of gravitas. Since I read the source material, I am always measuring up the audio visual adaptation with the books and can say much of the casting is absolutely brilliant. Portrayals were great although visually, I do think Desire’s look at the end of Season 1 was better because it was more unique and androgynous while season 2 has strong Lady Gaga feels. Still a hell of a character. Despair’s performance was good but think she deserved more on screen time and found her sadder while the version in the comics was MUCH more unsettling. Dream is compelling though you hate him a bit easier in the show than in the books and I think it’s just a matter of time. When you go from major plot point to major plot point, Dream’s character flaws are definitely more evident. The comics are a slowwwww burn so the complexity is more prevalent. Still, Sturgess did great. Like the comics, Delirium and Death definitely compete for who is more compelling and performances for both roles was wonderful. But if I had to highlight any one performance, Lucienne absolutely steals the show for me. A lot of people were perfect for the role, but Vivienne Acheampong elevated an already beautiful character. I think she offers one of the few performances that surpasses the comics and I do not say that lightly. Do I think the series could have had a third season? Yes. But I won’t complain too much because I think that for the circumstances surrounding this series and the controversies happening as well, they did the source material justice and I for one really enjoyed it. Do I think the first season was better? Sure. But this was no slouch and if you lower your expectations just a hair, I think anyone who watches will find a lot to enjoy.

For fans of the comics its a real treat to see more of the stories come into live action in a second season. These carry themselves. But the **** my, lots of misses here. Desire and Lucifer looks ridicolus and not nearly as powerful as a mere cartoonist(or several) could muster up. Its bewildering how that can happen. Death really doesn't portray her, its more like an older and more sedate sister of the death we see in the comics. Some highlights though, Destruction and Delirium are interesting and Destiny is quite passable. Despair is again disappointing though I can see the need to tone down the grimness. Dream is...well, passable I guess. In the end this is an adult comic which has been reduced to cater for younger audience on the small screen, but the larger issue is sacrifying a really classic on the altar of diversity. It just doesnt work, its not the same work anymore. Oh well.

The first 3 episodes were very good and I immediately got back into the story. Then it grinds to a halt with episode 3 which didn't seem to do anything for the story. I hope they just got their DEI requirements out of the way as I almost stopped watching due to overrepresentation. 5 brought it back on track and I look forward to the next set of episodes (why they didn't just release them all is beyond me - does it make that much of a difference?).

Oh my (dream) god ... this second Season has nothing to do with the first Season, which I enjoyed allot by the way. The second Season is "infiltrated" by those kind of individuals who don't know what they are, should be or actually wanted to be. Half of the Show is basically presenting those beings, blathering allot of nonsense and how great life is now and so on. It got NOTHING to do with Sandman and so, unfortunately, the Second Season (again) was destroyed by "politics" up to an unbarable state. Sandman has become SADman... :(

"Wow, look what they did to my Boy.. " Sandman Season 2 iswhat you get if you have activists as writers, and I perfectly understand that it's important to have these missteps so that you can see how bad it can get before anyone at the helm of the company decides that this is enough and we can course correct, like we can see it momentarily happening all over the gaming world. Although there are a little bit of overcorrections, but the direction is already better than it was a year ago. But it's of course very sad that it had to happen to Sandman Season 2. While Season 1 was a loose interpretation of the comic, it was still not too bad, and could be seen as a good starting point for a potential long-running series. While Season 2 just removed Sandman from the equation of ever happening as a TV series again. But let's start with a positive. You can perfectly see where the insertion of progressive topics and themes can push out needed time for an explanation of the story assets. While the first part with Lucifer Morningstar was quite entertaining, although it was basically short-circuiting every conflict that could have arised and ended on a very shallow note, the second part where Dream and Delirium went off for a search for their lost brother, the lengthy exposure of the complete story irrelevant figure of Wanda, a trans, black chauffeur, was pushing out and occupying the desperately needed time for the introduction of (Inanna) Ishtar, a mythical entity that Dream and Delirium were consulting in order to find the whereabouts of their missing brother. Instead, we got the background of the chauffeur, which had a brief appearance on the show, and was absolutely irrelevant for the overall understanding of whats going on on screen. Naturally, Netflix's version of The Sandman has the typical critic points of true-to-the-lore and true-to-the-story adaptations, and basically inserting any progressive possibility when possible, so there are only black angels, there are a massive over-representation of gay couples everywhere, compared to the average in the population. Established canonical characters, or even situations needing to be ethnically swapped. Like Oberon being Black or the first City of Humans being a female centric, snow covered mix of Arabic and victorian London style city led by a black, benevolent Queen with high collar dresses but its 10.000 years ago. Its the typical "pissing in your face and demanding you confirm it's raining" =D And of course, the overall message of this season is, ,"It's Sandman's (white guys) fault" , all over, everywhere, leading eventually to his replacement in the End with an, of course, black character so in the End we have the unholy plethora of Progessiveness in the Endless: a Trans presenting person, Desire, an overweight person in Despair, a Neurodiverse in Delirium, a black guy in Destiny and an absend, super soft, violence denouncing Destruction and finally a black Dream together with an already raceswapped Death. Well at least we know that there will be no season 3 thats interessting enough to watch .. Needless to say that this series has some painfully slow stretches especially at the end where the story doesnt progress and it's endless meandering between unimportant Characters.. it ends in a series of u"then this happens" , not connected nor coherent "happenings" where you seriously question why it's hapening in the first place, while it desperately needed way more "because of this , that happened , and that led to this happening"- moments which became almost extinct in the end.. it's a luke warm mess to be benevolent to that season.