HBO Dune: Prophecy has shown promise since the first episode premiered, but it's a reminder to revisit a landmark series. THE Dune spinoff takes place more than 10,000 years before Denis Villeneuve Dune films, which revolve around Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen, the second Reverend Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit Order, played by Emily Watson. The series is expected to portray Valya's plan to avoid "a reckoning" and implement similar themes to one of HBO's best shows created for it.
HBO's 2019 limited series Chernobyl received widespread praise and acclaim for its depiction of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in the USSR in 1986. In the first season of Watson on HBO, she played Ulana Khomyuk, a conglomeration of all the scientists who helped nuclear scientist Valery Legasov. (Jared Harris) upon discovering what exactly happened in Chornobyl. The basic concept of the series is how lies and deceit can lead to disaster, proving to be a favorite HBO pitch.
Dune: Prophecy shares similar themes with HBO's Chernobyl
Dune: Prophecy and Chernobyl deal with truths and lies
Dune: ProphecyThe first episode of contains messages about how humanity survives on truths and lies. During one scene, Reverend Mother Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams) teaches future truth-tellers about the human mind. She states: "Humanity's greatest weapon is lies." She also tells the class that humanity uses lies as a survival mechanism. This talk is intended to explain to young truth-tellers that they will learn to identify signs of someone lying. The foreshadowing in this scene also indicates that lying will be a central part of this series through various angles and characters.
Chernobyl demonstrates the same theme in relation to lying but in a different way. In this series, lies were used by the Soviets as a measure to control the prospects of disaster. The Soviets lied to their people, saying everything was fine, until they were forced to evacuate the city of Pripyat. Scientists work to uncover the truth behind the secrets and lies, which leads to the discovery of a faulty design that contributed to the nuclear disaster. The lies that persisted before, during and after the explosion of the Chernobyl power plants drive the plot.
How Emily Watson's Dune: Prophecy character is different (and similar) to her Chornobyl role
Valya is trying to manipulate events while teaching her disciples to detect lies
Watson's characters in the two shows are drastically different, but they revolve around the same sun. Khomyuk is a kind and caring woman who will help anyone she can. She feels the weight of the world on her shoulders after researching and interviewing all the engineers responsible for the explosion to find out how an RBMK reactor explodes. She is persistent in her efforts, which helps convince Legasov to speak the truth publicly.
Watson's character in Dune: Prophecy is a cold and calculated thinker who believes it is his destiny to develop what will become the sect of the Bene Gesserit Order. Her visions led her to take drastic measures to ensure her order controlled the genetic lineage. She aims to influence politics to ensure the future avoids the devastation she saw in her visions. The common element behind the two characters is the way she deals with the concept of truth. In DuneWatson's character manipulates the truth; In Chernobylshe works to uncover lies.
Chernobyl holds impressive Rotten Tomatoes scores of 95% with critics and 97% with audiences. The same cannot be said of Dune: Prophecywhich debuted lukewarm Rotten Tomatoes scores. Hopefully, Dune: Prophecy will improve its initial reception, but it seems unlikely that the series will reach the heights of its predecessor.