Dune: Prophecy, the review of the prequel series

House of the Dragon is a prequel set approximately 200 years before the events of the global hit series Game of Thrones. The distance of two centuries is enough to leave room for new developments, while remaining tied to the tradition we know and love. (Or at least the tradition that some of us love).

But what do you do with a 10,000 year void? This is the difficult proposition of Dune: Prophecya new HBO series (from 18 November on Sky and Now) which takes place very, Very time before the events of the acclaimed cinematic work of Denis Villeneuve Dunes. All are based on the writer’s work Frank Herbert or, in the case of Prophecyof Herbert’s son, so there’s at least something connecting them. But Prophecydeveloped by Diane Ademu-John And Alison Schapker (who is the showrunner), is otherwise completely distant from the films, due to this baffling time gap. Of course, some characters of Prophecy they can see the future, but no one can imagine it yet Timothée Chalamet ride a worm.

Or maybe yes. It’s hard to say according to the confusing mythology Of Prophecy. The series focuses mainly on the organization of women which, in the future, will be called Bene Gesserita powerful cabal of seers And manipulative who shape the destiny of the universe, guided both by ancient grudges and (I believe) by high principles. They are neither heroines nor villains, a moral ambiguity that Prophecy offers the charm of an antihero, but which he struggles to make convincing.

Emily Watsona great actress who has been underappreciated in recent years, plays Valya Harkonnen, the formidable leader of the proto-Gesserits who desperately tries to grasp the reins of destiny to prevent her and her sisterhood from being crushed by the men who greedily rule the cosmos. In addition to your more secret duties, you have that of “directing” the finishing school of the Bene Gesserit, a sort of convent where young women, both noble and of low extraction, train in the mystical ways of the order. In this way, HBO has injected some young blood, perfect for introducing the kind of sexy intrigue that contributed so much to the success of Game of Thrones.

He will soon start attending the Ynez Academy (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), stubborn daughter of the space emperor (Mark Strong), who was betrothed to a real child. (This is a marriage of political convenience: The boy’s father builds warships that Ynez’s father needs to maintain control over the desert planet Arrakiswhere the world’s fundamental spice is extracted Dunes.) It will be a while before the little one can fulfill his marital duties, so Ynez has a few years of respite ahead of him to take advantage of, during which he intends to gain wisdom in the ways of Forceor in the things that Valya, her sister Tula (Olivia Williams) and their companions know how to do it. Ynez is in love with her father’s weapons master, a dark and handsome Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason), who perhaps has a plan of his own.

From the movies Dunes you might recognize the names Harkkonen And Atreidesthe former are the black and white bad guys of the story, the latter are more or less the “good guys”. (Although Chalamet’s character, Paul, doesn’t bode well). Prophecy shakes this one up a bit power dynamicsbut still hopes that viewers will show some loyalty to these well-known clans. Which would certainly be easier if Paul’s great-grandfather was wandering around darkly lit planets. But when there’s a distance of countless generations, it’s hard to feel that thrill of connection.

Even in the films of Dunes most popular and accessible, the mythology by Herbert is dense and difficult to decipher. Prophecy further complicates this problem by delving even deeper into a tangle of terms and alliances which require additional reading to understand. The magic trick from the first seasons of Game of Thrones it was that, step by step, they were able to clearly explain the complexity of the source material. Prophecy is less effective at this task, and its attempts to emulate the attractiveness of sex and violence of Throne they feel forced, appearing more as concessions to a supposedly low level of audience than as something authentic to the world of the series.

Despite all his mysticism and his sinister omen, Prophecy it is extraordinarily conventionalthe simple frame of a post-costume epicThrone draped with a leather of Dunes. Although engaging at times – and well acted by all the actors involved – the series is unable to shake off the cynical synergy of its existence. It’s a secondary productborn from a film franchise that isn’t yet legendary enough to support an expansion of this magnitude. Perhaps if the series had been set just a few decades before Paul’s landing on Arrakis, it could have ridden the wave of the films. As it is, Prophecy he remains stuck there, alone, in the cold space. The events we know are imminent are but a faint, distant glimmer, too many light years away.