Two competing streaming services with linear extensions (based on what went down at Comcast this week, I’m grudgingly conceding that this is the pecking order in this brave new media world) both launched expensive, highly anticipated scripted dramas this week. Both leaned heavily on pre-existing fan bases to gain sampling, and both were providing something other than Christmas-themed original programming for the typically lean weeks leading up to the holiday season. They’re each clearly aimed at a separate niche, but in said brave new world where #Barbenheimer and #Glicked are calls to action, I felt it to be practically an obligation to watch them both. Call it #LanDune, for lack of a better portmanteau.
DUNE: PROPHECY is a brand extension of a franchise that has been quite successful for Warner Brothers Discovery, especially during the challenged and complicated year of 2021 where it practically propped up thd company single-handedly with strong performances both in the theatres and on the still-evolving HBO MAX. On title alone, it attracted attention. But as BUSINESS INSIDER’s Palmer Haasch reminds, the title may be the strongest actual connection to the best-received components of the franchise:
Before the company behind HBO became Warner Bros. Discovery after a merger, it started development on a “Dune” prequel series focused on the politically savvy, supernaturally powered sect of women. After some staffing changes during the development process, a retitle, and a shift to air on the company’s flagship cable channel HBO, we’re finally left with “Dune: Prophecy.”
The series takes place 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides (played by Timothée Chalamet in Villeneuve’s films) and shortly after an event known as the Butlerian Jihad (when humans rose up against, defeated, and ultimately banned thinking machines). It hones in on the origins of the Bene Gesserit, known at the time as the Sisterhood, and the political machinations of a young Empire.
If you’re a true “Dune” fan who’s read at least some of the franchise’s auxiliary novels, this history should be vaguely familiar. “Dune: Prophecy” is partly based on Frank Herbert’s seminal science fiction work and on “Sisterhood of Dune,” a novel written by Herbert’s son Brian Herbert and sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson.
In other words, a deep dive into a world with far fewer strong male roles in a genre that works best when it appeals to men willing to invest in it.
And certain subsets of men such as the cultural elite represented by FORBES’ Eric Kain, were not all that unappreciative:
It’s not easy to judge a show based on one episode, which is all that I’ve seen of Dune: Prophecy so far. I find myself juggling mixed feelings, and I’ll sum up those feelings like this.
After watching the Season Premiere, I feel like I must go back and watch it again because there was so much going on, so many characters, such an enormous amount of exposition and explanation, that I’m sure I missed a lot. But there’s so much in the first episode that I found dull and convoluted, I really have no desire to go back and watch it again.
Even more telling was the news that GAMERANT’s Aayush Sharma imparted earlier this week:
- Dune: Prophecy is HBO’s lowest-rated project on Rotten Tomatoes in the franchise’s history, disappointing some viewers.
- The show’s audience score is 65% based on 250+ reviews, highlighting a gap between audience expectations and critical perspectives.
- These ratings also confirm that the title is now the lowest-rated Dune project on Rotten Tomatoes, marking a significant stumble for a franchise known for its high standards. Both movies have received near-universal acclaim and hold strong ratings on the review site. As of writing this, the first movie, which was released in 2021, holds a critical rating of 83%, and an audience score of 90% on RT. On the other hand, Dune: Part Two is the highest-rated project in the franchise with a critical score of 92% and an audience rating of 95% on the above-mentioned website.
Meanwhile, Paramount+ found a way to at least harness some of the attention being paid to the potentially final six episodes of YELLOWSTONE by debuting the latest entry from its creator, as DEADLINE’s Katie Campione explained:
The Taylor Sheridan universe continues to expand at Paramount with Sunday’s…launch of Landman…The series not only debuted on Paramount+, it also received an extra lift with a linear airing following the second episode of Yellowstone Season 5B. Set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas, Landman is a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs. Based on the 11-part podcast “Boomtown,” the series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.
And it features many of the casting hallmarks that have become signatures of the Taylor-verse, as USA TODAY’s Kelly Lawlor detailed:
The new series from “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan (armed with the blank check Paramount seems to have written him) stars Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore and Jon Hamm and is set in the rough-and-tumble world of the Texas oil industry. It checks all the boxes on the Sheridan hitmaker list: Beloved male baby boomer movie star; cowboy hats; blind worship of capitalism and the wealthy; and just enough explosions and bloodshed to make it seem like it’s an action show instead of a soap opera.
But the opinions of those being paid to offer them are even less laudatory than the one that Kain proferred. As Lawler continued:
Slapped together with little regard to a sensible framework or even characters whose names you can remember, “Landman” is Sheridan’s laziest work, and his most obscene. The series would be bad enough if it were just dull and insipid, which it is, but it comes with an intensely off-putting bit of male gaze that makes the series read as soft-core porn for old men who want to leer at teenage girls without any repercussions. It verges on outright disgusting, set against a generic setting and plot beats copied from old “Yellowstone” scripts.
DEXERTO’s Daisy Phillipson expounded with a somewhat more detailed explanation for her vitriol:
The new TV show centers on Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton), whose job is to negotiate land leases for oil tycoons.
Where Tommy has been written with complexity and grit, the complaints have largely been around how the female characters are sexualized, one-dimensional background lurkers.
You’ve got Tommy’s ex-wife, Angela (Ali Larter), whose scenes mostly involve her flirting with her former husband, and their daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), whose highly inappropriate sexual admission to her father had everyone’s toes curling.
And let’s not forget Cami, Monty’s wife. Her scenes have been inconsequential so far, despite the character being portrayed by Demi Moore.
This is where much of the criticism comes in, with viewer one writing on Reddit: “Landman is the worst f**king show on TV, along with the current season of Yellowstone and most if not all of Sheridan’s television series.
“Poorly written, misogynistic toilet paper based in a reality that doesn’t exist – just fantasies in Sheridan’s mind of how he wants life to be and what he wants to be will never be. He doesn’t understand real dudes and definitely doesn’t understand women.”
Ah. but Sheridan DOES understand his viewers. And in times like this where a majority of America is more than comfortable privately expressing their indifference to misoygny and political incorrectness, can anyone really be surprised which of these two is off to the more successful start?
As DEADLINE’s Campione shared yesterday:
The series, which dramatizes the oil boom in the heart of west Texas, delivered 5.2M cross-platform same-day viewers, according to Paramount Global. The company says that, on streaming alone, it’s the biggest global series premiere for Paramount+ in two years, since 1923. Landman joins Tulsa King and 1923 as the top three biggest launches in Paramount+ history. When accounting for three days of viewing, it also became the best domestic premiere ever for the streamer, Paramount says.
Meanwhile, all THE WRAP’s Loree Seitz could squeeze out of her accounting earlier this week was this:
“Dune: Prophecy” debuted to a lukewarm audience. The series premiere of “Dune: Prophecy” brought in 1.2 million viewers across HBO and Max on Sunday, according to Warner Bros. Discovery internal data. Viewership for the debut episode of “Dune: Prophecy” saw a 75% uptick the day after its premiere, growing to reach 2.1 million viewers across platforms.
Now, to be fair, LANDMAN’s numbers come with a rather pronounced asterisk, given the fact that its Paramount Network linear showcasing was a one-off. And as Campione confessed, it’s also apples to oranges when attempting to directly compare them with DUNE.
Paramount Global did not provide streaming-specific numbers for Landman, though more about its performance may come to light when Nielsen reveals its streaming report for this week in about a month. Since Paramount is still locked in a dispute with Nielsen, these numbers are a combination of linear data from VideoAmp and internal data from the company itself.
And I’ll add my own skepticsim that based on these thresholds and the FOFO attitude of streamers, especially those in ownership transition, we may indeed never know how well received LANDMAN ultimately proves to be over time. But all that said, a premiere two and a half times the number of a live-plus-one delivery on a combination of linear and streaming is an advantage that would be exceptionally difficult for any show to surmount, especially one that is not exactly garnering a boatload of needed buzz and zeitgeist as is the case with DUNE: PROPHECY. And the density of its plot and the investment necessary to connect the dots to the Denis Villeneuve executions won’t help.
Meanwhile, I can’t say I minded the “distractions” that the likes of Randolph offered, and I’m hardly in the core SES that seems to embrace this sort of approach, be it for what one chooses to watch or who one chooses to vote for.
It sure looks to me like LANDMAN will continue to be number one in this contest. With a bullet.
Until next time…