Dune: Prophecy Review - Is the new series the prophesied successor to Game of Thrones?

Warning: Spoilers

OPINION

The new series traverses the formative years of the Bene Gesserit sect, the simmering tensions between the great houses of Herbert’s world and the wake of the war with the “thinking machines”. But with an exposition-heavy first episode, Karl Puschmann explains why Dune: Prophecy rewards patience.

The first 15 minutes or so of the new premium sci-fi series Dune: Prophecy is as dry and testing as a long walk through a sandy desert. It has to be one of the most tedious starts to a series that I can remember. More than once I metaphorically slumped to my knees in defeat and had to will myself to get up and continue trudging through.

Instead of an opening that thrills or surprises we instead have Emily Watson’s narrator bombarding us with info about genetic engineering, zealots and sisterhood, a great war against machines and various other plots, plans and prophecies, while also grandly spouting overly dramatic lines like, “I knew then the name Valya Harkonnen would forever be damned to the wrong side of history.”

Emily Watson and Olivia Williams as Valya and Tula Harkonnen.

Now, maybe hardcore Dune fans will get a kick out of seeing these presumably important events come to life. But as someone whose knowledge of Frank Herbert’s millennia-sprawling Dune universe is restricted to the films, it was a slog to get through. I didn’t care about any of this stuff. How could I? The opening credits had only rolled a few minutes ago.

But the real kick in the guts came at the bloody, murderous end when the narrator finally stopped talking and someone I didn’t care about lay on the ground bleeding to death. The screen faded to black and the words “30 years later” faded in. For the love of the Emperor, how much spice were these writers snuffing?

But with that harvest of info now collected, and the narration left in the past where it belongs, the series is finally able to get under way.

And, yes, it’s worth that trudge. Mostly.

The spin-off prequel is set 10,000 years before the events of Denis Villeneuve’s masterful Dune movies. Chloe Lea (pictured) plays Lila, a trainee in the sect.

Dune: Prophecy is a spin-off prequel that’s set 10,000 years before the events of Denis Villeneuve’s masterful Dune movies. Fittingly, it shares the same visually stunning aesthetic and otherworldly soundscapes as its cinema counterparts. Sadly, the psychedelic weirdness of Villeneuve’s two films has been dialled down. In exchange, it serves up plenty of schemes and mystery and doublecrossing and betraying.

That said, it’s not completely devoid of Dune-style strangeness.

There are some harrowing, poison-induced visions and whenever a member of the Sisterhood uses their mind powers the screen explodes in hyper-quick jumpcuts of eerie and weird images while menacing whispers swirl around you.

The show is based on the novel Sisterhood of Dune, written by Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert’s son, and author Kevin J. Anderson. The series follows two Harkonnen sisters in the formative years of the Bene Gesserit sect as they learn to harness their mind powers and scheme to seize power through a decades-long manipulative powerplay.

Jihae plays Reverend Mother Kasha, a member of the Bene Gesserit.

But just as their pieces are being lined up to wed, a lone survivor of a rebel attack shows up in the Emperor’s throne room armed only with a sharp knife, an enigmatic presence and the same powers that they’ve been honing for most of their lives.

His arrival is a sandworm in the ointment of their plans - even more so when he begins using his powers to burn people alive from the inside out - and sets off a game of thrones between Dune’s fabled houses.

Jodhi May and Mark Strong are Empress Natalya and Emperor Javicco of House Corrino.

Even after its opening info dump, the show’s dialogue can still be clunky and noticeably expository at times, in a way that goes beyond bringing the source material’s style to life.

There’s a sizeable cast to keep track of and at least one subplot too many, but it does deliver the shady inter-house political manoeuvring that Dune is known for.

Sarah-Sofie Boussnina is Princess Ynez.

Dune: Prophecy is a visually impressive and obviously expensive production - albeit “television impressive” as opposed to “cinema impressive” - that despite its atrocious start did turn things around. Whether it can fulfil the prophecy to become that most fabled of all things television, “the next Game of Thrones”, remains to be seen.

But with all its political intrigue, spicy scenes and oodles of blood it’s certainly delivering from that playbook and taking a decent crack at it.

Dune: Prophecy starts November 18 on Neon and HBO.

Karl Puschmann is an entertainment columnist for the Herald. His fascination lies in finding out what drives and inspires creative people.