Review: Dune: Prophecy, "The High-Handed Enemy" | Season 1, Episode 6
HBO's prequel wraps up a banner year for Wikipedia Shows
On Thursday afternoon, HBO renewed Dune: Prophecy for a second season. We’re at a point where the timing of such an announcement feels wildly variable: you can renew a show before it debuts for a boost of confidence, you can renew it immediately after it premieres as a show of strength, or you can sit on your hands for months and foster anxiety among the show’s audience (looking at you, Netflix, re: Heartstopper). And so my mind turned to the question: why now?
I could write a whole essay speculating on the logic driving renewal decisions, but let’s presume that HBO didn’t just make this decision yesterday, and have known since at least the first ratings started rolling in that the math on making another season worked for them and their partners at Legendary. The best explanation for waiting to announce on the eve of the finale is that it sends a message to current viewers that the episode they’re about to experience won’t be the end of the story, and it encourages future viewers that the show is worth their time as a holiday binge since they’ll get more at some future date (probably a long way out, given how blockbuster TV goes these days).
The screener for “The High-Handed Enemy” arrived only a few hours after the renewal announcement, if you’re wondering why this meta-discourse was so front of mind as I sat down to watch the season’s climax. As these reviews have reflected, I viewed this as a test of whether or not Dune: Prophecy deserves a second season. As with The Acolyte earlier in the year, it’s a weird case study of a show that has been a dramaturgical failure: the idea is solid, and the execution itself has been admirable, but there are some foundational choices in how to construct the story that have kept it from building the connection it needs to be sustainable. And after Disney cut its losses on its Star Wars prequel, HBO’s choice to soldier on with Dune is a decision this episode has to justify, regardless of when that decision was actually made.
I don’t think this was a particularly hard test to pass, all told, because there are some core elements that work in the show’s favor. From the beginning of the season, Emily Watson and Olivia Williams have given the show a tremendous anchor, and even if the season has been paced poorly there’s always been clear momentum in the Valya/Tula relationship as the center of the show. Despite being separated for almost the entire season, the early episodes established the tension in their relationship, with the flashbacks allowing more perspective. After the reveal that Desmond Hart is Tula’s son in the penultimate hour, it placed both women at the heart of the Sisterhood’s ultimate test, and it’s not surprising that Tula is on her way to the palace before the first act of this finale is done.