I'm someone that has tried to be a fan of the Dune empire a lot more than I actually AM a fan of it. I like sci-fi and I want to get involved in one of the most famous stories ever told in that realm. To that end though, I have tried and failed to get through the original book several times now. I just don't find the overall story very easy to follow or even that interesting. The super nerds can go ahead and get upset with me if they want to, I am prepared for that.
I didn't even realize that Dune Prophecy, a prequel to the films, was even being made let alone had 4 episodes out already, so when it popped up on my Plex, I was eager to try it out.
Now unfortunately, I think a lot of people are going to be turned away right from the start of Dune: Prophecy because it does a "tell don't show" fast-forward with about 5 minutes of narration and things going on in the background that is IMO very difficult to follow as a ton of names are thrown at you and the past million years or whatever are thrust upon you in that time. By the end of it I had no idea what the hell was going on but to be fair to them, I was relatively lost in both of the movies and the reason why I gave up on the book (never got past the first one) was because I would read a chapter and then wonder what the hell was going on beyond a few of the major names.
Dune is kind of like an intellectual's science fiction and is going to be the cup of tea for people significantly more dedicated to their watching than the average Star Wars fan. Things get thrown at you quite quickly and even after the first episode was over, I struggled to have a grasp on what it is that I am supposed to be focusing on.
That may sound like I am encouraging people to not watch this but that is not the case. I think the show is just fine at this point but if I wasn't a rather dedicated Sci-fi fan already, I think I would have given up before I even got halfway through the first episode. I've never been a fan of narration getting us up to speed on where the story is already in place and time and for it to go on as long as it did before any real "right now" dialogue even happens, well that is going to scare the casuals away.
However, I will admit that this has the makings of being a futuristic Game of Thrones if they play their cards right and on that note, when I first started watching GoT all those years ago I actually gave up on that as well for kind of the same reasons. I referring to the show as "Game of Talking" and didn't understand why people were so into it. Later, I would devote some time to it and it became my favorite series of all time excepts for maybe Breaking Bad.
I think that if Dune: Prophecy sticks with the model they have going right now and manages to keep their customer base interested enough to keep watching, that people will take to this series and it could really take off. I think it will be a tough battle though because people have short attention spans and sci-fi is one of the most difficult genres to get people to embrace.
Another thing that might scare people off other than the pacing is that this is NOT an action-centric adventure but then again, neither was GoT. If that is what you are expecting then you will likely be disappointed. There are some pretty epic action sequences but they are also kind of shoddy on the CGI. That is to say, they are very clearly CGI and not much in the way of practical effects appear to have been used. This show is more about being a drama than an action showcase and this could scare of the less "serious" viewers out there.
There is also a very large contingent of people out there that think that the Dune "world" is too confusing to warrant a prequel as many of the people who are turning up for the high-budget films are already confused even though the scope is significantly smaller in those.
Should I watch it?
I believe that if you are a fan of sci-fi you should get in there, slowly get in there but still get in there. If you aren't really a fan of such things, I think you would be better of waiting a while to see where this goes before jumping in. Much like other epic series with such a budget and scope, whether this one is worth the 6+ hours you will have to invest in it in season one will largely be determined by how the writers managed to wrap this one up. For the casual viewer, this one is going to be a tough sell because there are so many characters already and I feel it is one of those shows that actually takes a lot of patience to get one's interest flowing. I am on the fence about this one and am only a few episodes in. I don't want to write it off yet though and I wont because it does have all the makings of something that has potential to be something great.
I don't actually believe it is great already, but it could be. So for that reason I am going to take my time and wait until I can devote my attention to it entirely without distraction. I will say that already I can see that this is NOT a show that you can have on in the background as noise while you look at your phone. Do that for more than a few minutes and you are going to be hopelessly lost.
For now this one gets a "maybe" rating from me.
the only legal way to stream this is through a Max membership