Dune: Prophecy Kicks Off With Schemes Wrapped in Schemes

To bask Dune: Prophecy, you don’t request to person watched Denis Villeneuve’s Dune oregon Dune: Part Two, oregon person work Frank Herbert’s Dune novels (including Sisterhood of Dune, released successful 2012 and written by Herbert’s legacy-continuing lad Brian Herbert with Kevin J. Anderson). Having a definite cognition of the satellite is surely a bonus, but the caller HBO series—set 10,000 years earlier the commencement of Paul Atreides—infuses its communicative with intrigue that volition consciousness acquainted to fans of different caller streaming adaptations of large genre works: chap HBO shows Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, of course, but besides Foundation and Wheel of Time.

But conscionable due to the fact that it’s acquainted (power struggles successful the ruling class; a shadowy spiritual bid that puts its ain interests first; a rugged alien who abruptly drops successful from a faraway onshore to disrupt everything) doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining. And the information that it’s Dune lends a definite overlay of sci-fi gravitas to astir everything. It’s a prequel, truthful we cognize wherever things volition yet extremity up. But 10,000 years allows an awfully agelong clip earlier Paul emerges into the universe, overmuch little mounts a sandworm and approaches his destiny.

Another constituent that makes Dune: Prophecy casual to ascent aboard is that it’s not precisely subtle. Much similar the Villeneuve movies, we get an epigraph astatine the precise opening of the archetypal episode, “The Hidden Hand” (it reads “Victory is celebrated successful the light, but it is won successful the darkness”), followed by an exposition-laden opening flashback introducing Valya Harkonnen—a past sanction we cognize to shudder at—and backgrounding Prophecy‘s main crippled arc.

After humanity emerged victorious from its warfare with “thinking machines,” the wide knowing was that the Atreides household were heroes, and the Harokonnens were cowards. But was that accurate—or conscionable the effect of who got to rotation the communicative first?

To that end, Valya (played arsenic a young pistillate by Jessica Barden, and successful Prophecy‘s main timeline by Emily Watson) gives america different neon-bright taxable to see (“What holds much truth: past oregon prophecy?”) arsenic we get a glimpse of the Bene Gesserit’s enactment nether the guidance of Raquella (Cathy Tyson), a warfare leader who becomes the group’s archetypal Mother Superior.

Women who articulation the sisterhood larn to discern information from lies, and are assigned retired to the large houses to assistance (and influence) their leaders successful making decisions. As we see, the enhanced powers Lady Jessica taught to Paul successful the Dune movies—”the voice,” for instance, which we spot utilized for seemingly the archetypal clip here—are soon incorporated into the training, successful nary tiny portion acknowledgment to Valya, who becomes the Sisterhood’s person aft Raquella dies.

But she doesn’t ascend peacefully; Valya and her sister Tula (Emma Canning successful her younger version; Olivia Williams successful the main story) are large believers successful the Sisterhood’s eugenics programme to “breed amended leaders”—rulers the radical tin manipulate successful bid to forestall a doom-laden prophecy from coming true. Valya’s eventual prevention program is to maneuver an existent subordinate of the Sisterhood onto the throne. Not everyone is successful agreement, including Raquella’s ain granddaughter—and Dune: Prophecy wastes nary clip successful showing america however ruthless Valya tin beryllium erstwhile it comes to getting her way.

The Emperor and Empress. © Attila Szvacsek/HBO

When Dune: Prophecy‘s main communicative kicks successful (30 years later, 116 years aft the robot war—but inactive 10,148 years pre-Paul), we conscionable the chess pieces Valya is moving with. Mark Strong plays Emperor Corrino, weary and cautious person of the Imperium, whose biggest worries revolve astir increasing troubles connected Arrakis (hey, we cognize that place!), wherever high-value spice mining operations are being threatened by either Fremen attacks oregon an insurgency from within, depending connected who you believe. It takes 20 minutes oregon so, but the enactment “the spice indispensable flow” does so find its mode into Dune: Prophecy.

Emperor Corrino is besides dealing with/dreading the wedding of his daughter, Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) to a much, much younger suitor—a lucifer made for governmental reasons, but besides truthful that Inez tin caput to the Sisterhood’s homeworld aft getting hitched. There, she’ll walk a decennary grooming earlier returning to her royal duties, yet rising to powerfulness and becoming “one of ours connected the throne,” pursuing Valya’s program to the letter.

Also successful the mix: the outspoken Empress Natalya (Jodhi May); Inez’s flirty half-brother Constantine (Josh Heuston); and hunky royal swordmaster Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason), who sparks with Ynez but besides did you announcement his past name? Definitely going to request to support an oculus connected that guy.

Another quality whose intent is to disturbance the cookware is Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), a worker who blusters successful from Arrakis claiming to beryllium the sole subsister of a spice-mine catastrophe, which helium blames connected insurgents, but whose motivations spell acold beyond “guy with a singular communicative of survival.” We don’t cognize yet what’s driving Desmond’s intentions, but we bash cognize helium has immoderate opinions astir the level of power exerted by the Sisterhood, referring to them arsenic “witches”—and he’s unafraid to archer the Emperor that he’s not truthful definite eliminating each exertion was the champion people of action.

He besides raises a precise bully constituent astir the information that spice profits are hogged by the large houses, ne'er shared with the regular folks who hazard their lives to harvest it.

Yes, there’s a beauteous comical property gap. © Attila Szvacsek/HBO

Desmond’s wedding-crashing brings tragedy—he causes the agonizing decease of some the young groom-to-be and the Emperor’s idiosyncratic Truthsayer, who perishes after she returns to the Sisterhood homeworld. The intent of her visit: to archer Valya and Tula astir a horrific nightmare that seemingly revealed the nightmarish fallout that could travel from Ynez’s impending marriage.

Valya mightiness beryllium each astir prophecy, but she dismisses the dream—and she doesn’t foretell the chaos Desmond unleashes. It’s near to a aboriginal occurrence for her to fig retired her adjacent move, present that her cautiously orchestrated matchmaking has gone up successful smoke.

While determination was rather a spot of place-setting and character-introducing successful “The Hidden Hand,” and we besides got immoderate high-stakes wedding play (George R.R. Martin would approve), the episode’s astir intriguing scenes were the ones acceptable wrong the Sisterhood’s grooming grounds. “If you similar barren landscapes and minimalism, you’ll beryllium precise happy,” Constantino jokes to Ynez astir her aboriginal home, but portion the visuals mightiness beryllium bleak, the characters are colorful arsenic hell: beyond the Harkonnen sisters, the spot is mostly populated by acolytes with variously troubled backgrounds and arsenic varied personalities, which volition intelligibly travel into play arsenic the bid progresses.

It’s nary tiny feat to bid yourself to go a astir super-powered being—as young Valya puts it, to “push boundaries of what it means to beryllium human”—and genuinely it’s the Sisterhood that sets this amusement apart. In a scenery of phantasy bid that’ve followed akin plotlines—and successful a satellite wherever 2 blockbuster Dune movies person already established what volition go of Arrakis, the Harkonnens and Atreides, and that freaky royal breeding program—here’s hoping Dune: Prophecy devotes astir of its surface clip to the secrets of sci-fi sorcery.

Desmond (Travis Fimmel), caller from Arrakis. © Attila Szvacsek/HBO

New episodes of Dune: Prophecy, which volition tally for six installments, get Sundays connected HBO and Max.

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