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HBO — the linear channel, not Max — has been leaning into Warner Bros. Discovery’s intellectual property of late, making shows like The Penguin to fill its vaunted Sunday night drama timeslot, rather than more original stories. Now comes what is essentially a prequel to the Dune films directed by Denis Villeneuve, taking place 10,000 years before the events of those films and Frank Herbert’s original novel.
DUNE: PROPHECY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “Victory is celebrated in the light, but it’s won in the darkness,” as we see a photonegative image of embers flying in the sky.
The Gist: Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) narrates a history of her family, who, according to the writings in the Atreides, was banished to a remote part of the world after being branded as cowards during the war with the thinking machines. She set off and joined a society of women not afraid of their powers, where she met her mentor, Mother Superior Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson), who trained the women to go to battle as Truthsayers. The women were deployed throught the Imperium to help rulers determine who was telling them the truth.
Raquella wanted rulers they could control, so she bred them via genetic engineering, something not all of her followers agreed with, but Valya did. On her deathbed, Raquella called for a young Valya (Jessica Barden) to protect the Sisterhood based on a prophecy she envisioned. Valya believed a reckoning from a tyrant was coming, but not everyone was on board. And Valya finds powers she didn’t realize she had in order to make sure those who don’t believe fall in line.
“30 years later, 116 years after the end of the great machine wars, 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atriedes,” Valya is now Mother Superior, who trains new Truthsayers with her little sister Tula (Olivia Williams) and others. The Imperial princess is set to become a student, and the prospect of her arrival is causing a buzz among the women training there.
Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) is negotiating the marriage of his daughter, Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) to the young son of Duke Richese in exchange for ships and other military equipment. The idea, according to Ynez, is that she can use the time before the boy becomes of age to train with the women who her mom calls “sorceresses.”
This marriage is part of Valya’s plan to eventually have a Sister on the throne, but Kesha (Jihae), the Sister who is working with the Emperor, fears that this plan will bring the prophecy to life instead of defeating it.
Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), a decorated soldier from the wars in Arakis, comes to the Emperor to tell him that the latest attack came from insurgents that trained with the Impirium. He seeks an assignment in the Impirium in order to protect it.
As Ynez has one last night of freedom before her wedding, Hart tells the Emperor he survived the last battle on Arakis due to help from “the gods,” and while the Emperor isn’t religious, he will do anything to get out from under this wedding between his daughter Ynez and Richese’s young son.
Photo: HBOWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of? Dune: Prophecy is a prequel to the Dune books by Frank Herbert as well as the Dune films. Its density of storytelling reminds us of the Game Of Thrones franchise.
Our Take: Alison Schapker developed Dune: Prophecy along with Diane Ademu-John, and Schapker is the series’ showrunner. It has all the earmarks of Dune, with well-done special effects, a seriously dense storyline involving multiple groups and legacies, and a timeline that spans decades. But the first episode is also very, very talky, with a lot of information for both fans of the franchise and the uninitiated to download, and we’re not sure people will come away from the first episode with much of a grasp on where the story is actually going.
Of course there are connections into the original story, mostly having to do with the dominance of the Bene Gesserit; there are elements of Herbert’s Great Schools of Dune prequel trilogy that he wrote with Kevin J. Anderson. But the story seems distant enough from the main one to be accessible to those new to the franchise and are attracted to the notion of a sci fi story dominated by women in power.
Here’s the problem we see, though: Much of the first episode is still given over to the Emperor and Desmond Hart. The Emperor isn’t much interested in anything that doesn’t have to do with the spice trade or anything that’s mystical. Prophecies aren’t his thing, but he puts his faith in Hart’s mysticism only because it might get him out of an oppressive deal with the house of Richese.
Trade deals and arranged marriages are nothing new in sci fi; what is novel is a training ground for women who hone their innate skill in sussing out truth from lies. They communicate via hand signals and they are relied upon by various houses in the Imperium to make sure people are on the level. It’s a powerful position to be in, and we like seeing Watson’s powerful presence in the role of Valya. She has been able to convince the Sisterhood that Raquella’s prophecy is coming true if they don’t act to stop it, and she seems to be steadfast in the face of people in the Sisterhood who question her.
We want to see more about this part of the story, but it feels that Hart has a power that will bring about Rachelle’s prophecy, as we see at the end of the first episode. So of course the first season will be a pitched battle between the Sisterhood and the forces that have revived Hart. But it feels like a missed opportunity to explore how Valya got Bene Gesserit to this point to begin with.
Photo: HBOSex and Skin: As we mentioned above, Ynez has a night of debauchery before her wedding, but all clothes stay on.
Parting Shot: As she watches the embers fly up from someone shockingly burned to death (though there was no fire), Valya mutters, “I see, Mother. I see.” Now she knows what form this reckoning is going to take.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Sarah-Sofie Boussnina as Princess Ynez solely because she wishes she’d marry someone even younger than her betrothed only to give her more time to train with the Sisterhood.
Most Pilot-y Line: We’ve wanted to ask this question for a long time, so here goes: Why does it seem that everyone in a sci fi universe has to be British? Didn’t Star Wars prove that this wasn’t needed almost 50 years ago?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Dune: Prophecy has more than enough, between all the scheming between houses and the performances of Watson and Williams, to recommend it, but we just wish it had taken a different tack on the story of Bene Gesserit than the one it chose.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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