2024 has been a banner yr for witches on TV, from The Acolyte‘s Brendok Power customers to Agatha All Alongside‘s doomed coven. Now, Dune: Prophecy is right here to shut us out with a take a look at a few of science fiction’s biggest witchy figures: the Bene Gesserit from Frank Herbert’s Dune.
With their near-supernatural management over their minds and our bodies, the Bene Gesserit Sisters are a drive to be reckoned with, and one of the crucial iconic parts of the Dune universe. Historically, although, they function within the shadows, manipulating the politics of the Imperium with a agency contact. That they handle to make such an impression from the fringes in each the unique Dune novels and the movies converse volumes to their affect. So it ought to come as no shock that they shine within the direct highlight that Dune: Prophecy casts on them. Not solely does the present deepen our understanding of the Bene Gesserit, — it additionally throws us right into a meticulously wrought sci-fi world that finds the right steadiness between the palace intrigue and cosmic strangeness that make up Dune‘s bread and butter.
What’s Dune: Prophecy about?
Charithra Chandran, Yerin Ha, Jessica Barden, and Emma Canning in “Dune: Prophecy.”
Credit score: Attila Szvacsek/HBO
Impressed by Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert (Frank Herbert’s son) and Kevin J. Anderon, Dune: Prophecy kicks off over 10,000 years earlier than Paul Atreides was born. Which means the Imperium — the galactic empire of noble homes — we see within the present is pretty totally different from what we have come to know from each Frank Herbert’s unique novels and David Lynch and Denis Villeneuve’s movies. (And whereas acquainted names like Atreides, Harkonnen, and Corrino do pop up, they don’t seem to be fairly the households you are used to.) At this cut-off date, the Imperium remains to be reeling from the Butlerian Jihad, a battle towards “considering machines” that rendered all synthetic intelligence forbidden.
Since then, new types of energy have risen to fill the vacuum left by considering machines. Amongst them are the Bene Gesserit — identified for now merely as “the Sisterhood” — who’ve but to develop into the drive they’re in Dune. These Sisters nonetheless wield nice affect, serving the Nice Homes as Truthsayers. Nonetheless, skills just like the controlling Voice have but to turn out to be the norm, and the breeding mission to create the Kwistatz Haderach will not be in movement.
Main the Sisterhood is Mom Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson), who is decided to make use of her standing to push the boundaries of what it means to be human. She additionally needs to extend the Sisterhood’s energy within the Imperium, conspiring along with her sister Tula (Olivia Williams) to place a Sister on the throne. What prompted all this scheming? A prophecy from the Sisterhood’s founder Mom Raquella (Cathy Tyson), who foresaw the approaching of a horrible tyrant who would deliver the Sisterhood to its knees.
Nonetheless, after a brutal assault racks the Sisterhood, Valya finds herself confronted with a frightening query. Might all her work to enhance the Sisterhood’s standing within the Imperium be bringing concerning the very destruction Mom Raquella warned her of?
Mashable Prime Tales
Dune: Prophecy is dense, however deliciously epic
Jodhi Could and Mark Sturdy in “Dune: Prophecy.”
Credit score: Attila Szvacsek/HBO
Valya’s preoccupations with prophecy are just one department of Dune: Prophecy‘s sprawling narrative. Elsewhere, Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Sturdy) struggles to maintain management over the planet Arrakis. (In Dune, there are some issues even 10,000 years cannot change.) He additionally welcomes the charismatic, Sisterhood-hating soldier Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel) into his interior circle, inflicting friction with Valya and his daughter Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), who hopes to in the future be a Sister herself.
In the meantime, the younger acolytes of the Sisterhood bear rigorous bodily and psychological coaching. Some, just like the slippery Sister Jen (Faoileann Cunningham), query the Sisterhood’s management over its members. Others, like Sister Theodosia (Jade Anouka) or Sister Lila (Chloe Lea), stay fiercely loyal, even when meaning pushing themselves previous their limits. However do they make these decisions of their very own free will? Or are they only pawns of prophecy?
These many intertwining tales are so much to soak up, particularly when paired with the deep, unusual lore of Dune. Plus, a veritable exposition bomb within the present’s first 10 minutes is sufficient to make it seem to be Dune: Prophecy is simply accessible for hardcore Dune lovers.
But when you get previous these preliminary exposition-heavy scenes (and sure, they’re so much), Dune: Prophecy unfurls right into a deliciously diversified sci-fi epic with a bit one thing for everybody. In case you love political machinations, you will be blessed with scene after scene of scheming and negotiations. (Really, that is the closest TV has gotten to the concept of “Recreation of Thrones…in area!”) In order for you extra perception into what goes into turning into a Sister, brace your self for the rigorous coaching acolytes bear, which seems like Dune‘s tackle the “magic college” trope. And naturally, should you’re on the lookout for a few of Dune‘s great sci-fi weirdness (we’re speaking a couple of collection the place somebody turns into a worm, in spite of everything), you are in luck. Dune: Prophecy makes a meal of the Sisters’ many unusual visions, in some instances even eclipsing Villeneuve’s interpretations of the Bene Gesserit’s inside powers. Plus, we get the occasional go to from the almighty sandworm, whose appearances by no means really feel like gratuitous Dune Easter eggs however reasonably a key a part of the story to come back.
With a lot juicy story to unpack, it is virtually simple to miss Dune: Prophecy‘s biggest flaws. Once more, its first jiffy are a barrage of narrative bullet factors that hardly offer you time to sink into the present’s world. Elsewhere, the occasional clunky sexposition scene can really feel like a dated stereotype about what a 2010s-era HBO intercourse scene ought to appear like.
General, although, showrunner Alison Schapker (Westworld, Misplaced) deftly navigates the minefields that include adapting something associated to Dune. Following its early dash to get us on top of things on all issues Sisterhood, Dune: Prophecy steps again from lore overload and as an alternative focuses on the characters — most of them ladies — who make it tick. Dune as a collection is filled with complicated ladies, with some, like Chani, gaining much more nuance and company in Villeneuve’s movies. However to see the Sisterhood take middle stage in Dune: Prophecy is so as to add extra depth to the ladies who will tread of their footsteps hundreds of years down the road — particularly since we all know how their plans will in the future prove.
It is a deal with, too, to wind again the clock on the worlds of Dune, as Dune: Prophecy delivers a few of the most gorgeous units and costumes on TV this yr. Between the splendid halls of Emperor Corrino’s palace, the austere library of the Sisterhood, and the hazy pleasures of a spice den, every atmosphere is nothing in need of awe-inspiring. As harsh because the Imperium will be, there’s one thing alluring about it, too — simply as the facility the Sisterhood wields generally is a double-edged sword. You will need it, you will concern it, however above all, you will simply want to maintain watching it.
Dune: Prophecy premieres Nov. 17 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.