Take the Black: Hating on Jurassic World Rebirth and loving The Sandman season 2

We review Jurassic Park World (bad), The Sandman season 2 (good), and grasp at straws when it comes to The Winds of Winter.
The Sandman. Tom Sturridge as Dream in episode 203 of The Sandman. Cr. Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025
The Sandman. Tom Sturridge as Dream in episode 203 of The Sandman. Cr. Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025 | The Sandman

Every week, we here at WiC get together on the Take the Black podcast to talk all things sci-fi, fantasy, movies, TV and books. And yesterday we had a special guest: Daniel Roman, who has been cohosting the show with me for years!

What makes him special if he's always here? Because Daniel was supposed to be on paternity leave by now, but the baby is taking his sweet time coming into the world so Daniel managed to squeeze in one more appearance on our pop culture podcast. Savor it.

And thank goodness, because if Daniel wasn't here, he couldn't tell you all the reasons he found Jurassic Park World to be a flaccid disappointing entry in his long-running dinosaur franchise. Happily, we have some sweet to balance that sour; I recently inhaled the second season of The Sandman on Netflix; I quite enjoyed it and I'm here to tell you why.

Watch the latest episode of Take the Black below:

Granted, there are complications when it comes to enjoying a show like The Sandman, since it's based on a comic book series by Neil Gaiman and Neil Gaiman is in the midst of a horrifying sexual assault scandal. We dig into that as well, bringing up old questions about whether you can separate the art from the artist, where you draw the line, and such and such.

At the top of the show, we also grasp onto a feeble hope that A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin may be rounding a corner on his long-in-coming novel The Winds of Winter, but even we think we're grasping at straws. And of course, we bring you new installments of our recurring segments: What Are We Watching and the WiC News Lightning Round.

The Take the Black Podcast is on iTunes and YouTube Music! Please subscribe and download from there if you can. Also, you can help us out by giving us a five-star rating and leaving a friendly comment! We’re also now on Spreaker, so try us there, as well.

We stream new episodes of Take the Black every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. CST on the WinterIsComing YouTube and Facebook pages. Join us! Also, apologies for the slight technical difficulties during the start of the Jurassic World section. It'll probably be the last time Daniel Roman has technical difficulties on his end for months! Congratulations to him, best of luck, and check back to see the rotating carousel of guest hosts who will keep his seat warm while he raises a human child.

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