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Dune: Prophecy Season 1 Review

Dune: Prophecy is a science fiction drama television series that premiered its first season in 2024 on HBO. It’s as surprisingly engaging, competent show.

The series focuses on the origins of the Bene Gesserit, a powerful social, religious, and political force whose members possess superhuman powers and abilities after undergoing years of intense physical and mental conditioning. Set 10.000 years before the events of the first ‘Dune’ movie, the show takes a different approach that is more dramatic than action-oriented. This actually fitted the source material as the novel itself was also very political. The palace intrigue was overwhelming, but eventually I’ve begun to appreciate it due to strong dialogue and fine characterization.

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I would have personally set the series closer to the original work. The fact that the universe looks the same as in the distant future was problematic and it seemed unrealistic. But we did get the emphasis on technology that is almost absent from the previous movies. These science fiction elements really appealed to me and I wanted more of them. It will be interesting to see going forward who is behind these thinking machines that control people.

This cast is terrific and they elevated their roles that could have easily been too simplistic in others’ hands. Emily Watson was the standout in the main role of Valya Harkonnen. Valya is such a fascinating, complex figure and the bulk of this season is just her scheming and manipulating her way around other people. She’s a terrific villain of sorts and by far the most interesting character of the bunch. Olivia Williams was another highlight as her sister Tula. These two self-proclaimed “wolves” share a powerful sibling dynamic and respect.

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Another highlight is Desmond Hart. This soldier who is inflicted with a computer virus that makes him gain superhuman powers is the main antagonist of this season and his action scenes are by far the coolest. The Valya/Desmond conflict was immensely entertaining to follow. As for the other characters, they are for the most part not as interesting as the above mentioned. Mark Strong as this weak-willed emperor was pretty good in a thankless role that still made sense in the context of this story. As for Atreides, I expect more from him going forward as he was quite sidelined here.

Dune: Prophecy obviously favors political intrigue and dramatic elements over world building and spectacle, which was clearly done for budgetary purposes. Still, the technical aspects were stellar across the board. Not only is the score very strong and so is the cinematography, but the production design is fantastic and the costumes are quite memorable and beautifully intricate. The VFX are also outstanding for the little time that we see them. This is not the most SF show out there, but the Dune universe was always more political and dramatic instead of fantastical, so this approach fits the source material like a glove.

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This season is only six episodes long, but those episodes are quite lengthy, running at around an hour mark. The finale is almost one and a half hours long. So the end result is a season that is neither too short nor too long, though that third episode definitely felt overdrawn as it was so boring and needless in its overly Medieval-feeling flashbacks. The highlight is the final episode that hinted at great things to come in the future.