After a shaky, exposition heavy intro, Dune Prophecy manages to find a grove that should satisfy the ardent franchise fans, but may be a tad alienating towards newcomers.
Dune Prophecy
Episode 1: The Hidden Hand
Recap
In the past, a young Valya Harkonnen (Jessica Barden) takes over the reigns of the sisterhood and ousts the religious zealots among their ranks, ensuring that they will eventually put a woman of their choosing on the throne.
In the present day, the elder Valya (Emily Watson) now as Mother Superior, along with her sister Tula (Olivia Williams) have built the sisterhood into a formidable council of women, who advise a large portion of the Imperium’s great houses. The current Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) is set to have his daughter Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) marry the young heir (Charlie Hodson Prior) of a competing, smaller house, when his adviser Reverend Mother Kasha (Jihae) departs suddenly due to a distressing dream. During her absence, Desmond Hart (Travis Hammel), a Corrino soldier who was presumed dead on Arrakis, arrives to the wedding festivities and gains some favor with the emperor due to his heroics. While Valya dismisses Kasha’s concerns, those concerns are quickly validated: the wedding party is disrupted by the young prince who has kept forbidden synthetic technology. While he’s given a pass by the emperor, this leads to his death by the hands of Desmond, who burns him alive telepathically while also harming Kasha, who has an unknown link.
A Tedious Introduction
Fans of the Dune franchise are unfortunately familiar with long, plodding intros as David Lynch’s film famously featured a rather dull one featuring Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan. Unless you know what any of those terms mean, the intro doesn’t resonate with the narrative about to start. Denis Villenueve wisely avoided most of this in his recent adaptations though he still employed Zendaya and Florence Pugh’s portrayals as Chani and Princess Irulan to tackle a monologue to start each film (Chani in part one, Irulan in part two). But each of those monologues are relatively and didn’t pile on a ton of exposition, they were more focused on setting a tone or direction for the proceeding scenes.
Prophecy is closer to Lynch in the worse ways. We breeze past a ton of information in the first 10 minutes that seems vital or will play crucial parts later on, but you have no time to sit with those before we’re whisked away to the next flashback. This is especially egregious considering some of these points will be hit upon / fleshed out later: rather than piling so much in the intro, the writers could have relied upon their later scenes to fill in those gaps and trust the audience to connect the dots.
No Singular Shine
So far, no one actor is running away with their performance, but that’s not a bad thing. As long as each member of the ensemble pulls their weight, we don’t necessarily need a breakout performance some a single actor.
Emily Watson is solid as the older Valya, but the narrative is also pulling double duty getting everyone else setup in their positions. If the season teaser we got towards the end of this episode, we’re going to get more time with her and a deeper explanation of how the Harkonnen’s rose to power (because at this point, they aren’t the devastatingly powerful house we see during the days of Paul Atreides).
The biggest unknowns currently are the younger sisters (there’s a bunch of them), who we see being trained in a few scenes this episode. Given the short nature of this season, it’s hard to believe we’re going to equally care about them all when we also need to focus on Valya and the potential assassination plot happening within the imperium. I’m not saying that veteran showrunner Alison Schapker can’t manage this feat, but I would feel much better about this with a 10 to 13 episode season and give these characters time to breathe.
Conclusion / Recommendation
Since this is the first TV show I’ve reviewed in my new format, I will set a new precedent. The first and last episodes will contain viewing recommendations for you as it seems silly to do that for every episode.
Dune: Prophecy’s first 10 mins are certainly a slog even for avid fans of the franchise, but they make up for it quickly with intriguing performances across the board and a closing climax that is certain to make viewers tune in for the following week.
This is an easy recommendation for me: fans of Villenueve’s Dune will feel right at home here and even new fans may find something to enjoy or gain a deeper appreciation / understanding of the Bene Gesserit’s aims and plans.
Score: 8 out of 10
- Exposition Overload- 6
- The first 10 mins may lose some viewers but I promise the narrative definitely finds it’s footing after that mark and the rest of the time is much more engaging and interesting.
- Solid Seeding- 8
- This first season has great potential with the characters introduced and while it’s unlikely they will all have solid arcs and contributions, the performances thus far have made this a formidable ensemble to watch.
- Great Ending- 10
- In what’s becoming a norm for streaming show pilots / debut episodes, the final 5 mins are a welcome continuation of the shocker moment that gets you excited or keyed in for next week.
Next Episode: Two Wolves
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