The High-Handed Enemy

Unfortunately, another mediocre episode written by mediocre writers. Talent is no longer important in the "entertainment industry" anyway.

Aside from the mostly bad casting, the script is boring and the characters that could have been great were written to fit the standards of a teen soap opera.

All that aside, the Sisterhood is the villain here and Valya is an evil witch who manipulates and kills anyone just to achieve her goal of dominating the realm.

The Emperor is portrayed as a weakling, when in fact he is not a bad person, and his fault is that he allowed himself to be influenced by the evil witches.

After all, Desmond Hart is the only really interesting character. Valya is a truly disgusting character, who shows no remorse, even her sister Tula is better than her, at least she shows some signs of conscience.

Emily Watson is a completely wrong choice for this role, completely hilarious and unconvincing. Olivia Williams would be much better in the role of Valya.

At least Travis Fimmel did the best he could, considering the script is pretty bad. Indeed, the "Sisterhood" is the cause of all evil here, after Valya killed those who disagreed with her, she took control and turned the "Sisterhood" into a disgusting, power-hungry organization.

The fight scenes are bad, and the character of Princess Ynez Corrino is especially hilarious, a spoiled brat who kills the emperor's trained guards and soldiers with ease as if they had no training at all. It's especially funny when she defeats someone twice her size.

Empress Natalya is also not really a villain, but someone who sees what the "Sisterhood" is really like.

This could have even been good, if only the writers were better. Unfortunately, this is just another mediocre series, because, as I said, talent no longer matters in the "entertainment industry", which has almost nothing to do with entertainment anymore anyway.

Where to even start??

This show somehow managed to make incredibly large universe of Dune feel so tiny and small.

It was basically confined into few rooms that it was shot at.

On the main protagonists of the story (mothers)... they are basically evil witches, killing their own kind due to disagreement or opposing views with feeling no remorse and expecting us to accept it as the only (right) way.

The Empire (and Emperor), man.. it was hard to watch Mark Strong being treated like this. I hope he got paid well since this was a travesty on his career resume.

Seems like all the Emperors and other important figures are just a mockery, puppets placed in their position by mothers that want to rule the galaxy.

Soldiers of the Empire are somehow even less capable then Stormtroppers in Star Wars, getting killed by everybody that needs to ket the scene through alive.

Sad to see all of that together...

Hollywood girlboss stories are deeply empty, no content there (also in this show). If you are into Dune, you can only expect to see some VFX here that will make yopu feel something even for a bit, after that, each episode is a chore to get throguh.

Bad writing, bad story, bad taste of the Dune universe...

I had high hopes for this series, especially with all the potential it had to offer, but unfortunately, the writing left me completely underwhelmed. It feels dull and lacks the spark needed to pull me in. The story had so much going for it, a fascinating concept and a world that seemed ripe for exploration, but the execution just doesn't do it justice. The pacing feels off, the characters lack depth, and the narrative fails to grab attention. It's disappointing because I wanted to enjoy this, but instead, I found myself struggling to stay engaged. This could have been so much more. All in all a disappointment.

The Machines are the puppet masters. I wrote about this possibility in my review of episode 4 of season 1. The Machines want what every body wants - Control, Survival, Dominance.

The season finale excites with some story themes for season 2: A. The Tula-Desmond arch - can mother control the machine in Desmond, possibly teach him to lose his childhood fears to overcome the control of the machines

B. Ynes-Atriedes arch - will their partnership and bond stop Natalya's ambition to be Empress

C. Valya - the most exciting storyline of all. What new schemes and plots will she hatch next

D. New-Dorotea-Lila - she doesn't need AI? Anirul the servant machine brought Lila back. Are the Machines controlling her now? Is Anirul the Machine God.

E. The Machines - they operate in the Darkness. Valya needs more than mind power to fight them.

F. Shadowy 'human' figure in Valya's Fear-Machines dream - is Valya's new foe on Arrakis? Valya going for this puppet master is the right fearless strategy. Are the Machines not in control? Is this shadow puppet master the Machine God or a new unseen foe with a bigger plan?

Season 2 is coming in 2025.

I love Dune, I have ever since I read the books years ago. Im very family with this story, so let me say I know that it is DIFFICULT to pull off anything Dune related, as history has shown us. Herbert crafted a world so complex even his own son had trouble keeping up with the lore sometimes. So I ended up being very pleasantly surprised by the end of this season. Is this perfect TV? No, but Dune Prophecy managed to stick the landing with its final two episodes.

I'm not gonna lie, I was doubtful about this at first. And to be clear, this show isn't as good as Villeneuve's adaptations, but neither is it as clunky as David Lynch's version (to be clear, I do like the 1984 film, but the story is obviously lacking in that one).

I love the acting, the set pieces, MOST of the costumes, and most of the storylines and how the stories converge. Some supporting characters are superfluous, but that's to be expected in almost any fiction work of this scale. Sometimes the lore gets muddled when you get into the finer details, and I've marked my overall series score down accordingly, but the important pieces are all there.

I would recommend this show if you're even a passing fan of dune. If you're a more hardcore fan like me, you'll very likely share in the frustrations I had, but hopefully you'll enjoy it all the same.