The Screen Scribe

The episode opens with Valya declaring it’s time for a change in tactics as her plans fall apart. It’s a pity that the writers and showrunners didn’t take that advice earlier in the series as the finale ends just as the show began: full of promise but derailed by poor creative decisions. For the entire six episode run, Dune: Prophecy has prioritized huge lore and plot exposition dumps that have hamstrung both the progress of the story and the development of its characters. The finale is the epitome of this failing, as none of the emotional beats of its plotlines find any sort of footing, while character motivations remain murky at best and contradictory at worst.

For example, it has never been made clear what is the main drive of Valya’s character, does she seek revenge on the Atreides family? Does she seek to further Mother Raquella’s ideology? Does she seek to elevate House Harkonnen from the dredges of its past? We see her cycle through all three of these motives in the six-episode run but never settle on one. It makes it difficult to relate to her character, to invest any sort of emotional attachment to her development and in the end her story falls flat and hollow in the finale.

The same can be said of the rest of the cast, in particular our main villain, Desmond Hart. While an intriguing prospect in the premiere, it took far too long to get into the meat of this mystery and we are still left in the dark about Desmond, his past and his true motivations beyond vague flashbacks and some emotionless dialogue and exposition. The Imperial storyline ends with more satisfaction than it earned, as Javico and Francesca play out an almost Shakespearean tragedy to the benefit of scorned empress Natalya. The Sisterhood is now divided, as yet another contradictory character motivation, this time from a resurrected Mother Dorothea, pivots from bloodthirsty revenge to ideological fanaticism that is definitely not earned given the complete lack of investment in the Butlerian Jihad backstory and ideology.

Overall, given the vast potential this series possessed, it has been a frustrating and disappointing venture for the Dune franchise onto the small screen. Bizarre creative decisions, poor writing, bad casting and a complete lack of a focused direction has hampered this series at every turn. The true standouts of this series are the younger versions of the main characters, who deliver emotional and engaging performances despite the flat script, and beg the question: how good could this series have been had the focus been entirely on that era of the timeline? With a second season having just been greenlit, one can only hope that Dune: Prophecy can learn from the mistakes of season one.

2.5 / 5 from the Screen Scribe.