Friday, August 01, 2025

My Review of The Sandman: "Death: The High Cost Of Living"

 


Written by Neil Gaiman And Allan Heinberg
Directed by Jamie Childs

Death (to Sexton): "Thank you. I had a nice day."

Last week felt like the true finale to the show but this episode could maybe be seen as an epilogue for this show overall. It's also got a very simple premise.

The premise being what would happen if Death took the day off? Every one hundred years that's exactly what she does. She takes a day off and lives a human life. She wanted the whole experience and for that, she needed human interaction.

That would come in the form of Sexton Furnival (Colin Morgan). He's a journalist who broke up with a woman named Sylvie. His flatmate Billie (Jade Anouka) wanted him out of the way so she could have sex with her girlfriend, Amelia (Adwoa Akoto). They'd end up in a fight before later making up.

As for Sexton, he was considering suicide until an accident put him in Death's crossbars and the two struck up a rather chaotic friendship. Oh and Mad Hettie putting them together in order to retrieve her "soul".

Throw in friendly cab driver Lennie (Tracy Ann Oberman), a nightclub reunion with Billie and Amelia and their single friend, Jackie (Ellie Mejia) and things were getting a bit much for Sexton. Then there was Theo (Jonno Davies) holding both Sexton and Death at gunpoint in order to get the latter to bring back his dead girlfriend. 

Eventually they got free, Death seemed happy with how her day as a human turned out and then she "died". Oh and Mad Hettie's "soul" was a picture of her daughter and Sexton got a new lease of life and a potential new girlfriend with Jackie.

- Sexton liked three sugars in his tea and wrote climate reports for The Guardian. He also had a Superman mug and found a Superman fridge magnet.
- Theo learned that Death's sigil couldn't bring people back or control Death herself.
- Death went under the alias of Didi, given to her by Sexton. She also had a conversation with herself near the end of the episode.
- Sylvie is never once seen in the episode, despite being frequently mentioned.
- This episode officially marked the end of this saga. Originally there was a Dead Boy Detectives scene that got cut from the series.
- Chronology: Present day London for the duration of the episode.

Death: The High Cost Of Living was a quiet way to end things. Were things different, I'd like to think that Netflix would've given this show a third season and covered more arcs but I'm grateful for what we did manage to get. Great performances from Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Colin Morgan.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

No comments:

Post a Comment