Death: The High Cost of Living

"Death: The High Cost of Living" caught me off guard in the best way. It's quiet, honest, and deeply human. Didi isn't what you expect from Death-she's better. Warm, sharp, and strangely comforting. The episode doesn't try to impress with spectacle; it just sits with you, reminds you that being alive-really living-still means something. One of the most thoughtful hours of TV I've seen in a long time.

What a beautiful episode. I have loved this depiction of Death- she has been a highlight of the show just as she was a highlight of the comics. I would have loved to see more of the character.

As someone who works in climate outreach during this time, this episode really resonated with me and the hopeless I often feel (even looking at some of these other reviews!)

I loved Season 1 and almost all of Season 2, except for Ep 11 - the visuals, the pacing, the fidelity to the source - it's been a bold, near-perfect adaptation. Then comes this 5/10 detour as an epilogue, using possibly the least cinematic of all the arcs from the Death comics.

Having read Absolute Death cover to cover, I know how moving and expansive Neil Gaiman's stories around Death can be. The High Cost of Living and The Time of Your Life are layered, bittersweet, and cinematic on the page, proving Death can carry a narrative every bit as powerfully as Dream. That's why this episode lands as such a disappointment.

Where the comics soared with human poignancy and philosophical weight, this felt slight, oddly flat, and indulgently long. It's not unwatchable, but it doesn't match the elegance, wit, or emotional punch of Gaiman's original, or of the two seasons of The Sandman.

After two brilliant seasons, ending here feels like a shrug. Death deserved more, and so did we.

So this is it, the end of the sandman (officially). And despite the finale serving as the end of the show, this, although a special episode, also was a great final instalment for the show as a whole. But I can't help but feel sad, we all know one of the men behind the franchise unfortunately is the reason we won't be getting anymore from this universe, if there was a way to transfer copyright ownership and continue developing things for this franchise I'm sure we'd all love it, but this was a great episode, no extreme action so obviously don't go into it expecting that, go into it expecting a somber and well told story with a small cast which helps the grounded feel. I personally loved it, but am sad it's over.

In isolation this episode is cute and fine. But they rushed through a season of The Sandman, gave us a terribly paced and horrifically poor ending - just so we can have a full final episode dedicated to how his sister is feeling, like in general..? Okay... This might've been a fine teaser episode leading into S02. But as a final episode it's honestly disrespectful.