The Max series Dune : Prophecy began on November 18… and already raises questions about the limits of Denis Villeneuve's adaptation.
For every lucrative blockbuster, its luxury series. This is the strategy now adopted by Warner and HBO, who are therefore collaborating on the Max platform, where they have already released the very successful The Penguin. This time, however, it was not a long, quiet desert. Although the second part of Denis Villeneuve's adaptations was a real success, all the more remarkable as it does not box in the same thematic category as the current box office big names, the spin-off series Prophecy suffered quite a false start.
In addition to the departure of Villeneuve and his screenwriter Jon Spaihts, officially to devote himself to films, the month of February 2023 was that of the creative reshuffle, with the replacement of actress Shirley Henderson, of director Johan Renck, but above all of the creator and screenwriter Diane Ademu-John, by Olivia Williams, Anna Foerster and Alison Schapker respectively. Did these tumults have any repercussions on this first episode? Ironically, it is rather with the legacy of feature films that he struggles. Attention mini-spoilers.
The Dune Cycle
It should be noted that this first episode was shown to us with great fanfare during a special screening full of influencers, where it was downright Bene Gesserit in costume who came to ask us to turn off our phones. All the conditions were met to validate the weighty argument put forward by HBO: the big show. Prophecy had the difficult task of restoring the environmental gigantism of the diptych and there is no doubt that the chain put the means into it.
Especially since its ambition is to take us off from Arrakis to other planets in Frank Herbert's universe, mainly Wallach IX, where the community of sisters trains its advisors responsible for influencing the leaders, and Salusa Secundus, seat of the Imperial House. More than 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, both entities rule the Imperium. Motivated by a vision from her predecessor, the sisters' big boss Valya Harkonnen plans to take control of the countless worlds it abounds in, by installing one of her future students at her head.
Effectively, Prophecytechnically very accomplished, tries to impress us in this first episodeand even allows himself to chain the money shots into vision sequences which were probably very practical for editing the trailers. Enough to provide a diversion when she unpacks her exhibition in a long voice-over introduction mixed with grandiloquent shots. Constrained by the numerous prerequisites of the book from which it is inspired (Sisterhood of Duneof son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson), she must catch up with a genesis that neither Dune nor its adaptation had to develop.
With this very academic recitation of the premises of the saga (and the famous Butlerian Jihad, obviously never mentioned in these terms…), the screenwriter(s) – what remains of the first version? – seek above all to get rid of this heavy liability in order to cling on to Villeneuve's films as quickly as possible. In doing so, they say a lot about the limits of the strategy adopted by Warner and its platform, which, by wanting to ensure that their series adopt the same visual and thematic identity as their tentpolesmake it excrescences rather than works in their own right.
Recycle two Dune
And what disappoints so much in Prophecyis that she demonstrates it. Automatically, the series adopts the brutalist aesthetic characteristic of feature filmsand applies it to every square centimeter of his universe. However, it corresponded to the aridity of Arrakis, the desert as far as the eye could see, the industrial buildings dedicated to the spice harvest and the leaders isolated in their settler homes, much less to the splendor of the palace of the Imperial House or to the sobriety demanded by the sisters.
Depending on the specifications of Dune new generation, this first episode struggles to nuance its planets, characters and situations, to the point of becoming unintentionally funny when a character makes fun of the emptiness of Wallach IX… in a room that is almost as empty. From the monolithic emperor of Mark Strong to the no less monolithic leader of the community, political intrigues are no exception to the rule.
The universe deployed here is ultimately more of a generous space opera than a mystical planet opera, with its futuristic clubs and space cocaine. But it's as if the showrunner refused to do without the large empty expanses and the grandiloquent tone of the films.so much so that most of his characters seem weighed down with the same seriousness, while their dialogues are often very far from Muad'Dib's tirades.
Worse still, this discrepancy between the issues and the general atmosphere already makes the whole thing absurd. The Imperial Palace, the most powerful house in the Imperium, is occupied by a maximum of 15 pelos (in the event of a mega-party) and its most prestigious inhabitants can sludge without worry on the other side of the planet. Once again, the situation of the Corrino is difficult to compare with that of the Atreides who had barely landed on Arrakis. Yet, she is represented in the same way, thereby reminding us how Foundation was, against all odds, able to appropriate this component of Asimov's work.
Of course, the disappointment is all the more significant as the series, in the great tradition of HBO, features exciting political themesalso inherited from the saga of Herbert. Ideas for the moment embodied by the troubled character of Desmond Hart, played by a Travis Fimmel equal to himself.
The cliffhanger would even make you furiously want to ignore the standardization of these adaptations of Duneif it was not the consequence of a crude narrative ease, made possible precisely by this standardization, these empty corridors and its ghostly protagonists. Clearly, it lacks a little spice.
A new episode of Dune: Prophecy is available every Monday on Max since November 18, 2024
Related News :