4K Blu-Ray Review: Dune Prophecy - Season 1

The Film

Adapted from Brian Herbert's trilogy of prequel novels, Dune: Prophecy is an intricate, beautifully realized sci-fi thriller that enriches the Dune experience in every way. At just six episodes in length, it's also frustratingly short. Surely a series this captivating would deserve a longer first season.

It's a positive complaint, in a way, asking for more of a good thing. Season one barely scratches the surface of the immense journey ahead, and Dune: Prophecy lays out a vast and tantalizing prospect of what's to come.

Ten thousand years before Paul Atreides, the Bene Gesserit have yet to become the power players that control the galaxy. Known only as The Sisterhood, they're led by the ruthless Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson), who sees the work of generational engineering a sacred duty to right the wrongs of her childhood horrors.

At her side is Tula (Olivia Williams), her gentler, but no less ruthless sister, who follows her headstrong elder into the darkness. But where Valya only sees pawns in her game, Tula won't let go of her innate goodness, no matter how desperate her actions become.

Dune: Prophecy is, as the title implies, all about prophecy, devotion, and fanaticism. It's at its best when it explores the inner lives of women who've built power for themselves in a hostile, patriarchal universe, yet who still live in fear and paranoia at the prospect of losing control.

Watson and Williams are immaculate as the Harkonnen's. Strong, icy, complex, kind, passionate, and cruel all at once. Their performances are as good as anything in Denis Villeneuve's superb films, and the prime reason to tune in weekly.

Watson's Valya, in particular, is one of the most fascinating characters on TV all year. Superficially, she's as evil as they come. Totally unscrupulous to hurt others to advance her cause. But she's driven by past wrongs, all of which are understandable, and there's a constant sense that her actions are under tougher scrutiny than similar ones committed by the men in power. Watson delivers a powerhouse performance, never allowing us to judge Valya entirely. Even as we recoil from her deeds, we can't help but empathize with them.

For her part, Williams is no less magnetic. Tula's past unravels over the course of the first four episodes, and it's a tragic series of events that feel inevitable. Which only adds to their misery. Williams carries the uncertainty and faith beautifully.

When Dune: Prophecy moves away from the Harkonnen's to the less interesting sub-plots involving House Corrino and their offspring, it plods. Political intrigue and grand theatrics have always been at the center of the Dune adaptations, yet they remain the least interesting parts of what is ultimately a deeply humane story.

Actors Mark Strong and Jodhi May are great in their parts as Emperor and Empress Corrino, yet they have very little to do this time around. They're unwitting pawns in a greater game, and the family drama involving their offspring is strikingly less intriguing than The Sisterhood.

Luckily, even these parts are livened up by a stellar and dementedly fun turn from Travis Fimmel, playing Desmond Hart; a man supposedly swallowed and resurrected by the great sandworm Shai-Hulud.

Fimmel is a prophet like Valya, and equally dangerous in his own way. He skulks in the emperor's house like a rabid dog, whispering his truth to anyone and no one. It's a great and unnerving performance that electrifies every scene that would otherwise sag.

After four episodes of six, which were sent for review, Dune: Prophecy left me eagerly anticipating for more. It's precisely what I wanted from a new series into this grand story. One that, for the most part, never strays from the promise of delivering an intimate story of religion and control on an epic, galactic scale.

Video

Dune: Prophecy already was a stunner on streaming services and it only looks better in pristine 4K. The bleak vision of the far future is grim and dark, yet the inky blacks and stellar details bring it to life in a way that's breathtaking. Check out the details on the Bene Gesserit clothes and how you can tell their ranking within the intricate hierarchy from the materials alone.

Elsewhere, the HDR shows off its strengths in the snowy sequences on Valya's planet and the horrific smelter factories on desolate mechanical worlds. Every single episode looks like a film, and the 4K disc, like Game of Thrones before it, showcases how much better a physical release still is compared to streaming.

Audio

The Nordic release packs the impressive and standard-setting Dolby Atmos and True-HD mixes, yet omits all other languages that are found in the other region releases. That means no 5.1. Dolby Digital in French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Czech. If that matters to you, it's best to order the UK or mainland Europe pressing of the season.

That said, the Atmos mix is sublime. Just as with video, this is HBO at its very best. Every little nuance in dialog and sound design is presented perfectly. Vocals come in clear and crisp, and the way The Voice hammers the speakers is exactly what you'd hope for in a production like this. It owes a lot to the Denis Villeneuve films in style, but when the end result is this fantastic, you can't complain.

Even more impressive are the ambient sounds that pepper the mix throughout the season. From distant waves crashing on the shore to the hollow echoes of the Bene Gesserit monastery, there's so much going on in every scene that fans of rich sound mixes will have a field day poring over the nuances here. If you have a high-end setup or one of the better soundbars money can buy, this is the kind of demo material you'll want to show guests when they ask how immersive 4K can get.

Extras

Most of the extras are marketing nonsense, but the two bigger documentaries on the third disc – Behind the Veil and Building Worlds – are standouts. Behind the Veil is almost 40-minutes in length and goes into detail about the visuals, set design, and how the production worked to stand out from Villeneuve's instantly recognizable films. It's the kind of great behind-the-scenes material we've come to expect from HBO and I hope it's a sign of more things like this to come in future releases.

The second documentary, Building Worlds, is much shorter at around 15-minutes, but is still interesting as it showcases more of the work that went into crafting each world as a unique whole.

The other stuff ranges from a few minutes to five, yet none of it really stands out. It's a lot of marketing PR hype that we get on YouTube already, and none of it gets any room to breathe in between the "we all love what we do" jargon.

Overall

I'm a huge fan of Frank Herbert's books, and I love Villeneuve's take on the material as well. After initial hesitation over a prequel, I've come to fully love Dune: Prophecy on its own terms as well. This is a fantastically crafted and mature exploration of fanaticism, faith, and revenge that deserves the attention of even those who aren't fans of sci-fi.

The 4K release is top-of-the-line, with superb audiovisual presentation and some decent extra material to boot. The Nordic edition is decent, though completionists will want to explore import options if they really want the most feature-rich version available.

For all others, this is a quintessential addition to the Dune saga.