The holidays are a-coming, which means you may just be looking for a new show to get into. If you like medical dramas, you may want to give Brilliant Minds a try. If you love romance, you may want to give The Lovers a whirl when it starts in December. For something a little different, there’s Dune: Prophecy, the prequel series to the hit movies directed by Denis Villeneuve.
The series follows two sisters, Valya and Tula Harkonnen, who belong to a sisterhood that is trained to work with powerful leaders as Truthsayers – basically, women who can tell when you’re lying. Now that’s a very watered-down summary of a show and a world that is an intricate exploration of sociopolitical relations in a vast and complex world born out of the mind of science fiction author Frank Herbert. There is soooo much to explore and uncover in this world, and that’s just one of the reasons to be watching. Here are a few more that might hook you.
It’s Express from the US
Bingeing is fun and all, but not everyone has solid back-to-back free hours in which to whiz through a new show or season … which inevitably means that as soon as you go online you risk falling into spoiler territory. Luckily, Dune: Prophecy is going old school (one episode released per week) and we’re getting them at the same time as the USA, so you run even fewer risks of spoilers.
The cast
Oscar nominees and winners are all over our screens these days. Most recently, we had Colin Farrell in The Penguin, and in Dune: Prophecy we’ve got another one in the form of the incredible Emily Watson. The two-time nominee plays Valya, with Olivia Williams cast as her sister, Tula. Williams is a period drama stalwart who slips just as comfortably into sci-fi roles, so she’s perfect for the part! Vikings’ fans will be delighted for an excuse to watch Travis Fimmel again, this time as the soldier Desmond Hart; while the wonderful Mark Strong (whom we also saw in The Penguin recently) plays Emperor Javicco Corrino.
It explores Issues
This show may be “science fiction”, but it’s a lot more relatable than you might realise at first. It may be a fictional world, but its problems are very real world. There’s a man vs machine narrative, which is incredibly prescient for our time and we’re hoping to see this theme explored further. However, despite the characters taking issue with AI, they seem to have no problem with breeding programmes … another contemporaneous topic.
Then there’s the all-important spice known as melange. It’s an important commodity in the Dune universe that’s used for food, travel, and as a psychedelic. As a GQ article aptly described it, imagine having “one substance that’s like cinnamon, psilocybin, and crude oil underpinning the global economy, and you had to supply the entire earth from one deposit in New Zealand”. As you can well imagine from that description, everyone wants to get their hands on this valuable spice, but there’s only one source from which to get it: Arrakis, the desert planet from which the original book derives its name.
You’ve read the books
It almost goes without saying that if you’ve read the books – either any of the original ones by Frank Herbert or the prequels and sequels by his son Brian and Kevin J Anderson – you may want to watch Dune: Prophecy, which takes the 2012 novel Sisterhood of Dune as its main source material.
You’ve watched the movies
Maybe you haven’t read the books, but there’s a good chance you’ve watched the movies. There’s the 1984 version, which was a flop at the time, but is beloved by many nevertheless. Then there are the new films, directed by Villeneuve: the first one was a success at the box office, despite being delayed thanks to Covid. It also won six Oscars, and the second film was an even bigger success at the box office. If you enjoyed the movies, you may want to give Dune: Prophecy a go. Since it’s also “Herbertian”, it will feel familiar, but since it’s set 10 000 years before the events of the first film, there’s enough new stuff to make it feel fresh.
Missed the first two episodes? Catch up on DStv Stream here. Watch Dune: Prophecy Express from the US on Mondays at 03:00, and in prime time at 21:00, on M-Net channel 101. Follow the conversation on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok using #MNet101 and #DuneProphecy.
Feature image: HBO