When Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies defied skeptics and struck box-office gold, it was probably inevitable that the franchise would find its way to the smaller screens of premium cable and streaming. The strategy worked for The Penguin, spinning a dark crime fable from the wings of The Batman. But Dune: Prophecy, an origin story of sorts about the Bene Gesserit sisterhood of mystics, is no Penguin, though it does strive to put the “intellectual” in IP (intellectual property).
This handsome but lumbering production—none of the four episodes available for review are shorter than an hour—is closer in solemn tone and pretentious portentousness to the inert Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, which is also distinguished by strong female lead performances. Chief of which in Prophecy is Emily Watson, seething mightily as Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen, leader of a Sisterhood of “truthsayers” who relish their influence with political leaders including a particularly wishy-washy Emperor Corrino (Mark Strong, seen recently in flashbacks as The Penguin’s deceased crime boss Carmine Falcone).
Operating 10,000 years before the action of the Dune movies (but who’s counting), Valya and her less outwardly ambitious sister Tula (Olivia Williams) oversee a school of acolytes who initially blur, except for standout Lila (Chloe Lea), whose perceived empathy with and connection to her ancestors becomes a key plot point. The Sisters, you see, will use any advantage to ensure they lose none of their sway with the powers that be. Or, as Valya puts it in characteristically heavy-handed fashion, “Our hands are poised on the levers of power, yet our grasp on it is still fragile.”
Her worries deepen upon the arrival from the desert planet Arrakis (only briefly glimpsed, sorry to say) of a charismatic soldier, Desmond Hart (a wild-eyed Travis Fimmel). The sole survivor of an encounter with those iconic sandworms, Hart is now possessed of a mysterious power that threatens the dominance of the women he views (not entirely inaccurately) as witches. Or, as he pitches to the Lady Macbeth-like Empress Natalya (Jodhi May): “Why not let me show you how I would humble those who try to take from you or sway you with corrupt counsel?”
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The talky battle lines are thus drawn in the latest would-be Game of Thrones, which also reveals a nascent rebellion among the downtrodden lower classes. If only this plethora of characters were as vividly and colorfully conceived as the schemers, sinners, and heroes of Westeros.
Dune: Prophecy, Series Premiere, Sunday, November 17, 9/8c, HBO
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