I started the first episode with my son yesterday, he's a big Dune fan. We haven't finished the first episode yet, about 40 minutes in and I'm enjoying it so far. I had seen a lot of talk that it's not great but we're going to finish this episode and watch the second one and make our own minds up.
I found it disappointing… it lacks the gravitas of the Villeneuve movies, from just about every angle. the costumes were okay, I guess, and some of the production design stuff was decent, though other stuff was awful, like the evil robots 😑 I also thought it was pretty rushed… seems like the plot of the semi-prologue could’ve been expanded into the whole first episode, or season, or even the whole series… or go even further back, and tell the story of Butlerian Jihad with this show, and rather than whatever story they’re actually wanting to tell 🤷🏻♂️
I'm liking what I'm seeing so far from this series. My biggest issue with it is that I realised that there are only 6 episodes?! Having said that, this 1st episode was an hour long so hopefully they stick with that unlike the 6 episode Disney+ shows that had even shorter runtimes and felt rushed because of that.
The esoteric parts are interesting. The Bene Gesserit are not interesting in this. The nightclub scene is garbage. The writing needs to stop being Young Teen in sections, but early reviews say it does not improve. A level of maturity and stoicism is missing from much of the writing and performance. Travis Fimmel and Mark Strong are the highlights in that regard.
I could not watch more than 20 minutes of it. I feel like the bene gesserit order is a mysterious/shadow enity in the Dune Universe. They are elusive which makes them appealing as characters. Making a Series about the bene gesserit kind of takes away the mystic about who they are. Honestly the Machine Wars saga is way more interesting and worthy a TV show... but I guess we need more Female Centric TV shows.
I first read the Dune trilogy in the mid-1970s and still prefer these books over everything else that has followed, including Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse (which were both penned by Frank). God Emperor was a great sequel to the first 3. I have read or more recently listened to 20 titles in the Dune universe (~40 titles have been published most of the rest are more obscure and detailed than the first 20). The "Great Schools of Dune" is a prequel trilogy of novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, starting with "Sisterhood of Dune" in 2012 and it is this volume that is the inspiration for the 2024 television series. This title is fairly obscure - it is No 17 of the 20 Dune Audiobooks in my collection. I am listening to it again - luckily the audiobook is narrated by Scott Brick - who is one of my favourite narrators. (Thanks Audible and QUEST from W. F. Howes Ltd for this title). I consider Prophecy Episode One to be a great start. If "Dune Prophecy" is well received I could see the other books in the Great Schools trilogy also being made into TV shows/mini-series. (The 2nd and 3rd books being Mentats of Dune (2014) and Navigators of Dune (2016)). The economics of how this series makes money v-s costs is what will make any future productions happen or not. I am momentarily irritated by those reviewers who have already decided to dispatch the series to a trashcan based on episode 1 alone. Of course a TV show/Mini-Series simply does not have the budget or cinematic scope to deliver product of the same "scope, scale and looks" of a series of Movies designed to be seen on iMax. Any dismissive reviews (and there are quite a few) that give low production values are warped and just wrong. NEXT - Dune Prophecy is just a "Space Version of Game of Thrones" -- well the most obvious point is that Dune and the Dune universe significantly predated GRR Martin's Fantasy worlds (with "A Game of Thrones", the first book in in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, being published in 1996 - 30 years after Dune). I believe the great success of the movies is the reason we are seeing Prophecy and we will see more content from this universe -- my hope is that given the depth of the legacy all such productions will be closely based on the published work. "Dune" (or the first Book to be published) provides a great introduction to the Dune universe and the overall history. For anyone who has not read or listened to Dune, Dune Messiah or Children of Dune -- please do and do so in this order. Then work through the next 3 Frank published and then decide to go into the depths of the house, schools or history. The Dune universe, set in the distant future of humanity, has a history that stretches thousands of years (some 15,000 years in total -- 1 BG/AG = ~13000 AD. 10175 AG Birth of Paul Atreides; December 10193 Paul/Muad'Dib and the Freemen defeat the emperor and harkonnen and kills Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen) - the Dune trilogy covers the lead up to 10193, the period post the death of Chani and a 12 year gap through to Leto (Paul's son) ascending to the imperial throne as Leto II, and sets humanity on the Golden Path). [The acronym B.G. refers to "Before Guild", meaning that was the year prior to the Spacing Guild's monopoly on all space travel, transport, and Imperial banking. AG refers to "After Guild"]. The Herbert family continues to develop the universe - with in July 2020, Herbert and Anderson introduced a new trilogy of prequel novels called the Caladan trilogy, set after Dune: House Corrino (2001) and before Dune (1965). The books in the series are: The Duke of Caladan (2020); The Lady of Caladan (2021); and The Heir of Caladan (2022). I am sure more titles will be published from time to time.
They went to hard with the "Terminator" vibe for technology. The whole issue for Frank Herbert was that they made hams lazy, dependent on the owners of the technology. Discussing that in a smart way would be sooo much more interesting than "Rise of the Machines" for the umpteenth time
They are pretty long episodes, so I think it cam be fleshed out well.. but there is something about the acting that takes me out of it. It's like wayyy too serious. There is no change in personality between all the actors. IMO
I turned it off after a while I’m afraid - and I’m honestly a huge fan of the franchise and read all the novels. All the characters were really dry and it looked surprisingly cheap too. There was nothing to keep me engaged and it felt quite pedestrian and very pretentious.
I lost interest when they started taking a lot of creative liberties with things that imply huge canonical consequences. I have enough of canon meddling in Star Wars to see another great story ruined.
I really wanted to like it, I love the Dune universe. But the narration was KILLING me. There was so much TALKING AT THE CAMERA. It’s such horrible storytelling. Also, I was so annoyed at the lack of VISION for the show. This is 10,000 years before the main timeline and it looks essentially EXACTLY the same?! Are you KIDDING ME?! These showrunners could have created something so special, and I feel after the first episode that they’ve already fumbled the whole thing. Derivative, derivative, derivative.
Travis Fimmel carried Vikings, and he's going to be carrying this show for me, I can already tell. Decent intro but way too much talking without showing
Way too much exposition dumping. Telling instead of showing. That's just lazy writing. "Ah yes, look here comes Desmond Hart, let me read out a character description of him for the audience even though all the people in the room with us now know all of this already" "Shall we pick an acolyte to mentor the princess? Yes, let's read out their character descriptions also even though we both know this information already" There was A LOT of this nonsense in the first episode. Travis Fimmel continues to play Travis Fimmel in every role, by which I mean he plays "Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys". He may only have the ability to play that one character but he does play it well. IDK what the bar/club scene was there for. Desperate, early-days GoT vibes with that whole mess. Not the strongest of starts. But at this time of year what else you gonna watch?
I thought it was a decent setup. I just didn't realize there's only six episodes. That kind of makes me anxious.
Only six?! Not eight or ten?!
I started the first episode with my son yesterday, he's a big Dune fan. We haven't finished the first episode yet, about 40 minutes in and I'm enjoying it so far. I had seen a lot of talk that it's not great but we're going to finish this episode and watch the second one and make our own minds up.
I’m surprised so many people in the comments seem to have disliked it, I thought it was brilliant
I found it disappointing… it lacks the gravitas of the Villeneuve movies, from just about every angle. the costumes were okay, I guess, and some of the production design stuff was decent, though other stuff was awful, like the evil robots 😑
I also thought it was pretty rushed… seems like the plot of the semi-prologue could’ve been expanded into the whole first episode, or season, or even the whole series… or go even further back, and tell the story of Butlerian Jihad with this show, and rather than whatever story they’re actually wanting to tell 🤷🏻♂️
I'm liking what I'm seeing so far from this series. My biggest issue with it is that I realised that there are only 6 episodes?! Having said that, this 1st episode was an hour long so hopefully they stick with that unlike the 6 episode Disney+ shows that had even shorter runtimes and felt rushed because of that.
The Dune: Prophecy show does a phenomenal job of reminding it you how good of a director Villeneuve is.
Fingers crossed, I really like what I see so far. But we will see....
Haven't caught it yet. This weekend. But I'm excited.
The esoteric parts are interesting. The Bene Gesserit are not interesting in this. The nightclub scene is garbage. The writing needs to stop being Young Teen in sections, but early reviews say it does not improve. A level of maturity and stoicism is missing from much of the writing and performance. Travis Fimmel and Mark Strong are the highlights in that regard.
Travis will be carrying this show just like he did with Vikings. I want that guy to get a massive role that uses him well
I could not watch more than 20 minutes of it. I feel like the bene gesserit order is a mysterious/shadow enity in the Dune Universe. They are elusive which makes them appealing as characters. Making a Series about the bene gesserit kind of takes away the mystic about who they are. Honestly the Machine Wars saga is way more interesting and worthy a TV show... but I guess we need more Female Centric TV shows.
I like young Valya more than her middle-aged self. For now.
I first read the Dune trilogy in the mid-1970s and still prefer these books over everything else that has followed, including Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse (which were both penned by Frank).
God Emperor was a great sequel to the first 3. I have read or more recently listened to 20 titles in the Dune universe (~40 titles have been published most of the rest are more obscure and detailed than the first 20).
The "Great Schools of Dune" is a prequel trilogy of novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, starting with "Sisterhood of Dune" in 2012 and it is this volume that is the inspiration for the 2024 television series. This title is fairly obscure - it is No 17 of the 20 Dune Audiobooks in my collection. I am listening to it again - luckily the audiobook is narrated by Scott Brick - who is one of my favourite narrators. (Thanks Audible and QUEST from W. F. Howes Ltd for this title).
I consider Prophecy Episode One to be a great start. If "Dune Prophecy" is well received I could see the other books in the Great Schools trilogy also being made into TV shows/mini-series. (The 2nd and 3rd books being Mentats of Dune (2014) and Navigators of Dune (2016)). The economics of how this series makes money v-s costs is what will make any future productions happen or not.
I am momentarily irritated by those reviewers who have already decided to dispatch the series to a trashcan based on episode 1 alone. Of course a TV show/Mini-Series simply does not have the budget or cinematic scope to deliver product of the same "scope, scale and looks" of a series of Movies designed to be seen on iMax. Any dismissive reviews (and there are quite a few) that give low production values are warped and just wrong.
NEXT - Dune Prophecy is just a "Space Version of Game of Thrones" -- well the most obvious point is that Dune and the Dune universe significantly predated GRR Martin's Fantasy worlds (with "A Game of Thrones", the first book in in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, being published in 1996 - 30 years after Dune). I believe the great success of the movies is the reason we are seeing Prophecy and we will see more content from this universe -- my hope is that given the depth of the legacy all such productions will be closely based on the published work.
"Dune" (or the first Book to be published) provides a great introduction to the Dune universe and the overall history. For anyone who has not read or listened to Dune, Dune Messiah or Children of Dune -- please do and do so in this order. Then work through the next 3 Frank published and then decide to go into the depths of the house, schools or history.
The Dune universe, set in the distant future of humanity, has a history that stretches thousands of years (some 15,000 years in total -- 1 BG/AG = ~13000 AD. 10175 AG Birth of Paul Atreides; December 10193 Paul/Muad'Dib and the Freemen defeat the emperor and harkonnen and kills Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen) - the Dune trilogy covers the lead up to 10193, the period post the death of Chani and a 12 year gap through to Leto (Paul's son) ascending to the imperial throne as Leto II, and sets humanity on the Golden Path). [The acronym B.G. refers to "Before Guild", meaning that was the year prior to the Spacing Guild's monopoly on all space travel, transport, and Imperial banking. AG refers to "After Guild"].
The Herbert family continues to develop the universe - with in July 2020, Herbert and Anderson introduced a new trilogy of prequel novels called the Caladan trilogy, set after Dune: House Corrino (2001) and before Dune (1965). The books in the series are: The Duke of Caladan (2020); The Lady of Caladan (2021); and The Heir of Caladan (2022). I am sure more titles will be published from time to time.
But mentats are computers
GOT books do that exactly
Terminator
They went to hard with the "Terminator" vibe for technology. The whole issue for Frank Herbert was that they made hams lazy, dependent on the owners of the technology. Discussing that in a smart way would be sooo much more interesting than "Rise of the Machines" for the umpteenth time
I wish Jason Momoa was about then pounds lighter for _Dune…_ or that they’d loosened his collar a bit 🤷🏻♂️
They are pretty long episodes, so I think it cam be fleshed out well.. but there is something about the acting that takes me out of it. It's like wayyy too serious. There is no change in personality between all the actors. IMO
I turned it off after a while I’m afraid - and I’m honestly a huge fan of the franchise and read all the novels. All the characters were really dry and it looked surprisingly cheap too. There was nothing to keep me engaged and it felt quite pedestrian and very pretentious.
I lost interest when they started taking a lot of creative liberties with things that imply huge canonical consequences. I have enough of canon meddling in Star Wars to see another great story ruined.
Here here
I'm hearing some commentary about the two halfs of the pilots.
I really wanted to like it, I love the Dune universe. But the narration was KILLING me. There was so much TALKING AT THE CAMERA. It’s such horrible storytelling.
Also, I was so annoyed at the lack of VISION for the show. This is 10,000 years before the main timeline and it looks essentially EXACTLY the same?! Are you KIDDING ME?! These showrunners could have created something so special, and I feel after the first episode that they’ve already fumbled the whole thing. Derivative, derivative, derivative.
Do u realise how many great movies and shows have a opening monologue from the main character at the camera?
Travis Fimmel carried Vikings, and he's going to be carrying this show for me, I can already tell.
Decent intro but way too much talking without showing
#1st🎉🎉🎉⚡⚡⚡
Nice try
Way too much exposition dumping. Telling instead of showing. That's just lazy writing.
"Ah yes, look here comes Desmond Hart, let me read out a character description of him for the audience even though all the people in the room with us now know all of this already"
"Shall we pick an acolyte to mentor the princess? Yes, let's read out their character descriptions also even though we both know this information already"
There was A LOT of this nonsense in the first episode.
Travis Fimmel continues to play Travis Fimmel in every role, by which I mean he plays "Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys". He may only have the ability to play that one character but he does play it well.
IDK what the bar/club scene was there for. Desperate, early-days GoT vibes with that whole mess.
Not the strongest of starts.
But at this time of year what else you gonna watch?
First