'The Sandman' Season 2 Unveils Episodes, Including Bonus Special

It is quickly becoming a truth universally acknowledged that Netflix has won the streaming wars in the U.S., at least in terms of subscription numbers*. However, the platform is being a spoilsport in victory, unwilling to admit it was wrong about binge-watching. Instead, it's turned to batch drops. Seasons are split in two without so much as a by-your-leave from the director, and zero regard for the story, hurting series like The Crown and Bridgerton along the way. Flagship series Stranger Things will have its final season broken up into three parts, as will The Sandman, with a dozen chapters of Dream’s story spread from July 3 to July 31, 2025.

(*YouTube remains the number one platform in viewership.)

Netflix's data told its executives that viewers loved binge-watching, but that was because the shows they were watching were "library shows" that had been on for multiple seasons and followed a formula in every episode. Viewers had likely seen many of the episodes before, including Grey's Anatomy, Law & Order, and the like. It took Disney+ to set the world straight again by returning to the weekly format, reminding everyone that the way for a show to reliably build word of mouth was one episode a week releases. At this point, nearly every streaming service has transitioned to distributing the bulk of its new shows weekly... except for Netflix.