A journalist, overwhelmed by helplessness, has a life-altering 24 hours after crossing paths with Death on her day off.

The 1993 three-issue Sandman comic book series about Morpheus’ sister, Death: The High Cost of Loving, becomes a standalone final episode of Netflix’s TV adaptation, and what a lovely way to end the show.

After the high drama of the main series, this serves as a lower stakes epilogue, proving that the show doesn’t need Morpheus front and centre. Regrettably, while it serves as a proof of concept that other standalone stories could be successfully translated to TV specials, it’s unlikely that we’ll get any more – as far as the show runners and Netflix are concerned, this is it.

The story stars Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, who is enjoying her one day off every 100 years, where she gets to discover what it’s like to be human. She meets up with suicidal journalist Sexton (Colin Morgan) on a flytip, taking him on a journey across London, and ultimately teaching him about the value of life.

At one point they are accosted by Mad Hettie (the wonderful Clare Higgins), who demands that they find her soul – she can’t remember what she did with it! There’s a cab ride with Tracy-Ann Oberman, a visit to a nightclub and some jeopardy when they’re held hostage, but ultimately it’s about enjoying every precious minute of life that you have. While certain liberties are taken with the original story – and it makes sense to age-up Sexton – all the main story beats are here.

Verdict: A beautiful, heartfelt coda to The Sandman series. Quality on all levels. 9/10

Nick Joy