Two Wolves

Most of us read Dune when we were young, and remained appreciative fans into adulthood. Why deny young fans of today this fascinating expansion of the recent exceptional Dune movies by shoehorning sex and nudity into it.

Good storytelling need not resort to such cheap and gratuitous distractions, as evidenced by the best HBO productions, including From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, The Last of Us, Chernobyl, The Penguin, and others (not to mention the many others from other premium and streaming services).

Dune is dense and complex and interesting all on its own, without the need for cheap titillation targeted at a demographic lacking the intellect to understand and appreciate Dune to begin with. Don't bring the rest of us down to serve their disinterested and easily distracted tastes. It's the worst kind of pandering and diminishes the entire show.

The second episode is strong and focuses primarily on events in Emperor Javicco Corrino's palace. Part of the episode feels like a murder investigation from a police drama, providing background on what happened in the first episode. It also reveals that nearly everyone in this series harbors more or less questionable intentions, pulling us deeper into a world of political chicanery. I've never been a fan of that sort of thing, but it's clear that scheming and diverse personal motivations are crucial here. The good part is that much of this is made explicit, so we don't have to guess at the characters' motivations and intentions as the story moves forward. The sisterhood also rides in, reinforcing the idea that they're central to the series, but they bring some troubling news for Valya and her plans. I suspect later episodes will build on the tensions established here.

The first episode was a little slow-moving but that's understandable seeing that it has a lot of heavy-lifting to do by getting the setting of the Butlerian Jihad out of the way first but it ended on a strong catalyst.

Episode 2 picks up from there and begins to coherently build on the nature of established characters to deliver court intrigue that is easy to follow (and believe me that's a compliment if you know anything about the Dune books) with charactes with clear motivations and a threat that is a strong contender to the Bene Gesserit.

The sets are gorgeous. The costumes are always fun to see especially if you take time to break down how fashion is depicted in different segments on society. There's a fun bit of psychological horror going on near the end.

Overall, a solid second step. If you had doubts that it would continue to needlessly tease out the threat with long, archaic conversations and exposition dumps, don't worry. It's a meaty one.

After the first episode, this one manages to pick up nicely, with more intrigue, different struggles for power, and more exploration on some of the aspects of the universe!

I will definetely say that the character that grabs my interest the most... is Desmond Hart, played wonderfully by Travis Fimmel! There is so much mystery sorrounding him, and it seems that he is gonna play a large role, and might be the key to how things will develop!

The Sequence with Lila was great too! I enjoyed the horror elements and the setting! One lf the few times i was really on edge!

Its still going slow, but I have faith that things will come together eventually!

Where to start? Well... it feels like a Cartoon Network show. The acting performances are very poor which might be a consequence of both inexperience and ability amongst the younger actors, but if even Emily Watson and Mark Strong appear underwhelming - the script has to take some of the blame. It's very repetitive and (hate to say it) boring.

After seeing The Penguin and how they managed to keep the same level of quality as The Batman and I hoped this could do the same to Denis adaptation, but it evidently can't.

I really hope they can turn it around, but I doubt it.

The show as of yet is a 2/10.