REVIEW: ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Season 1 Is Strong Sci-Fi In Its Own Right

After the enormous success of Dune and Dune: Part Two, it was only natural that Legendary and Warner Bros. would seek to expand their adaptation into television. It’s unlikely that Dune: Prophecy is the expansion anyone envisioned. Set 10,000 years before the events of the films and telling a completely original story rather than sourcing directly from original Dune author Frank Herbert’s son Brian Herbert’s Great Houses of Dune trilogy, Dune: Prophecy adopts a cadence all of its own. While not anywhere near the potency of Denis Villeneuve’s films, Dune: Prophecy debuts as an engrossing hard sci-fi series that puts the political intrigue before the spectacle.

Showrunner Alison Schapker is no stranger to science fiction television, having worked on Westworld and Fringe and acting as showrunner on the woefully underrated Altered Carbon. The primary narrative of Dune: Prophecy Schapker crafts leaps off the screen. The proto-Bene Gesserit, known here simply as “The Sisterhood,” and its leaders, Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and Reverend Mother Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams), are the audience point-of-view characters. Rather than the story of someone assuming the main role in a prophecy, Schapker is more interested in providing viewers with a peek behind the curtains of the witchy machinations that lead to such prophecies.

Dune: Prophecy Season 1 Lends Interiority to the Bene Gesserit

Emily Watson and Olivia Williams, along with their younger counterparts Jessica Barden and Emma Canning, respectively, add an interiority missing from Sisters in other live-action Dune media—besides Dune’s Lady Jessica. Through the Harkonnen sisters (in a biological and Bene Gesserit sense), we see the burden of control and dogma. Likewise, we see how each of the sisters lose more and more of themselves in pursuit of The Sisterhood’s grand plan. 

The flashbacks, in particular, are carefully deployed to add further shades to Valya and Tula’s characters. The more we learn about them, the more their actions begin to make a strange sort of sense. The recent Dune films were successful because everyone involved took the material to heart. Alison Schapker and the two leads treat Dune: Prophecy like it’s Shakespeare.

The rest of The Sisterhood is not given as much room to develop.  Key figures in the early Sisterhood, specifically Dorotea (Camilla Beeput) and former Mother Superior Raquella (Cathy Tyson), are important characters in Valya and Tula’s backstory. Yet, they don’t get the definition or characterization to make their fates mean something.

Meanwhile, other than acolyte Sister Jen (Faoileann Cunningham), the modern Sisterhood is shuffled in and out of the main plotline so frequently that they don’t register. Young Sister Theodosia (Jade Anouka) is revealed to be a shapeshifter, and it hardly matters since she’s only in a couple of scenes an episode. On that note, Sister Lila (Chloe Lea) is hugely important to the plot without exhibiting any distinct traits other than, well, being important to the plot.

The Imperium Plot Doesn’t Have Enough Characterization

Dune: Prophecy’s Imperium plot has the opposite problem. For all his reliability as a character actor, Mark Strong cannot overcome the boring “solemn, unsteady leader” archetype. Dune: Prophecy spends far too much time with a character that really doesn’t have much to him. The same goes for Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), her half-brother Constantine (Josh Heuston), and especially the completely flat Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason). These characters all have decisive roles to play but are entirely defined by their place in the plot. Thank goodness, at least, for the arrival of Desmond Hart.

Played by Travis Fimmel, Desmond Hart is an Arrakean soldier with an enticing backstory. He was swallowed by a sandworm that gave him tremendous powers. Moreover, his murderous tendencies are offset by his undying allegiance to House Corrino. Desmond Hart’s wildcard and unknowable nature make him the perfect adversary for the leaders of The Sisterhood.

Their careful planning is unable to account for his arrival. That’s where the magic of Dune: Prophecy comes in; the struggle to maneuver the key players in the middle puts Desmond and The Sisterhood at thrillingly opposite ends. It’s almost like a chess game, where the archetypical portrayal of those in the middle emerges as a strength.

Dune: Prophecy Season 1 Thrives On Having Its Own Aesthetic

This strength is bolstered by Dune: Prophecy’s refusal to adhere to the films’ brutalist, often surreal trappings. The series blazes an aesthetic of its own, showing the snowy Harkonnen world of Lankiveil, the green splendor of Imperium Capital Salusa Secundus, and the sorcerous shadows of Wallach IX as objective locations rather than artistic renderings.

These are tangible locales where the sprawling story of Dune: Prophecy can play out. The political game can take the forefront by building familiarity with how each planet operates instead of aiming for the shock and awe of grand imagery. It resembles something more like Game of Thrones than the Villeneuve films.

Dune: Prophecy is the kind of series that gets better as it goes on. While comparisons to the blockbusters hurt the series at first, those same comparisons end up being a tremendous strength. The unique benefits of Dune: Prophecy’s approach come to the forefront.

Yes, Dune: Prophecy needs to work on its characterization, but as far as its plotting and aesthetics are concerned, it has the goods. With season 2 now confirmed, the sky’s the limit for Dune: Prophecy going forward.

Dune: Prophecy is streaming now, exclusively on Max.