A long-gestating prequel, about the women who seek to guide a galaxy, is splashy, somber and insufficiently spicy.

The initial reviews and the Rotten Tomatoes score for HBO’s upcoming series Dune: Prophecy are considerably subdued, compared to the Dune movies. The show, taking place 10,000 years before the events of Dune (2021),

Prophecy and while critics are mostly impressed with the HBO series, it sounds like the first four episodes struggle to live up to Denis Villeneuve's

The new series traverses the formative years of the Bene Gesserit sect, the simmering tensions between the great houses of Herbert’s world and the wake of the war with the “thinking machines”. But with an exposition-heavy first episode,

This is a spoiler-free review of Dune: Prophecy's first four episodes. The show premieres on HBO and Max on November 17, 2024, with new episodes airing Sundays through December 22.

Dune: Prophecy hits our screens this weekend, and critics are getting the first say on the series, which serves as a prequel to Denis Villeneuve's Dune universe and follows the lives of the Bene Gesserit.