The first season of The Sandman told vignettes about gods within the dream world and the waking world. Its season finale is about a writer trapping muse Calliope (Mellisanthi Mahut), a story where viewers can make some real life parallels. Regardless, these vignettes have Dream (Tom Sturridge) swooping in to save the other characters’ days. This final season, or at least, its first six episodes, treats Dream with more shades of nuance. He’s more like an antihero getting himself in situations like being in charge of hell and its residing demons. After his short tenure as Hell’s ruler, he attends to the needs of the family he usually regrets. He attends, in a literal sense, the wedding of his son Orpheus (Ruairi O’Connor), which turns disastrous. Following that, he searches for Orpheus as well as helping his sister Delirium (Esme Creed-Miles) on a quest.

I’ll bring up the show’s first season again so I can say that it exists for DC comic book fans, that esoteric quality, depending on who one asks, making it either good or bad i.e. ‘hard to follow’. It makes maybe three fourths it for non-fans to acclimate to the format but it’s a worthwhile challenge. This time around, The Sandman maybe takes two to three episodes for bigger plot arcs to finish. Some of these plots are going to be better than others, the Hell plot belonging to that middle pack. The Hell plot boasts a clown car of characters, but I’m always down for stories that make me laugh. The Orpheus plot is competent but if I have to choose, it’s my least favourite story line. Brazilians do Orpheus better though, and the foreshadowing feels much even if enough people know it.

The Sandman‘s first season delineates the differences between the dream world and the waking world.  This season blurs those lines a bit especially in the waking world, one where time periods evoke fantasy. The few period elements, as well as some of its characters, are the few saving graces of the Orpheus plot arc. What’s surprising here is the other plot arc – the one with Delirium asking a favour from Dream. The season paints Dream as the antihero, and Delirium makes him realize the damage for which he’s responsible. It handles that characterization, again, with nuance, without resorting to turning Dream into a punching bag. Besides, Dream has good intentions and even Delirium and Orpheus start seeing things from his perspective. That’s not all that this season offers, as the Fates and the Muses have plans for Dream that shakes things up.

Netflix has the final season of The Sandman available on its platform.