Dune: Prophecy’s First Episodes Have Screened, And Critics Mostly Agree On HBO’s ‘Frequently Stellar’ Prequel Series

I'm very much convinced that Dune: Prophecy is going to help ease the wait for Dune: Messiah. An acting deck absolutely stacked from top to bottom w/ talent, against the sort of gorgeously depicted world building you'd expect from an HBO show. I cannot wait to see it all connect.

Though not as sweeping in scope and without the same breathtaking visuals as those prior works, this thematic core makes the six-episode series a frequently stellar one as it more than manages to stand apart, mostly stepping out of the long shadow cast by the fantastic films. Providing an engaging portrait of the corruptive forces of power and the players desperately trying to control the trajectory of time, it’s a little stagey though universally well-acted adaptation that’s the perfect thing to hold you over until the films return with Dune Messiah.

Dune: Prophecy unfurls into a deliciously varied sci-fi epic with a little something for everyone. If you love political machinations, you'll be blessed with scene after scene of scheming and negotiations. (Truly, this is the closest TV has gotten to the idea of ‘Game of Thrones...in space!’) If you want more insight into what goes into becoming a Sister, brace yourself for the rigorous training acolytes undergo, which feels like Dune's take on the ‘magic school’ trope. And of course, if you're looking for some of Dune's wonderful sci-fi weirdness (we're talking about a series where someone becomes a worm, after all), you're in luck. Dune: Prophecy makes a meal of the Sisters' many strange visions, in some cases even eclipsing Villeneuve's interpretations of the Bene Gesserit's internal powers.

Unlike the movies — which were praised for making Frank Herbert’s elaborate world-building relatively painless to process — the Dune series can’t find a way to effortlessly integrate its exposition. Besides the dense voiceover, scripts rely on repetition to emphasize confusing or important plot points (which, really, could be everything), and that leads to dialogue so clunky even pristine talents like Watson, Olivia Williams (as Valya’s sister and Sister, Tula), and Mark Strong (the Emperor) struggle to sell. The series recycles many of the movies’ slicker visual innovations, from the worms gliding across the desert to the glowing body armor that flashes blue or red during battle, but it struggles to unveil any slick innovations all its own.

Not only are all of the ever-changing relationships hard to follow, the show also tries to introduce too much of Herbert's complex world, from thinking machines and revenants to The Agony. The latter gives Prophecy an effectively spooky edge, as several characters interact with ghost-like manifestations of the deceased, but it's all pretty overwhelming to a casual fan of the franchise. … It's impossible to imagine how someone completely new to Dune would fare well watching this.