The Power released the first 3 episodes to tease us into wanting more. It worked. I want more and I wish I didn’t have to wait for Prime Video to release new episodes week by week. Why? Because this story is about women who can literally burn down the patriarchy.
The Power works on the premise that teen girls develop an organ, similar to the organs in an electric eel, that can shock and shoot electricity. The opening episodes set up the story world, introduce us to the numerous main characters, and tease us with the knowledge that “this changes everything” in terms of the power dynamics of how the world is run.
The question for future episodes is clearly, what would happen if women ruled the world? I can’t wait to see what comes next.
The series was developed by Naomi Alderman based on her novel with a 100% women writing staff. The directors are all women. In the world of this particular TV series, women do rule the world.
Here’s a quick description of some of the characters. Margot (Toni Collette) is the mayor of Seattle. Her husband Rob (John Leguizamo) is a doctor. The have three kids, the oldest is Jos (Auli’i Cravalho). Jos is one of the newly empowered teens singled out to tell the story.
Other teens who carry important roles as powerful include Allie (Halle Bush). Allie is a foster kid with a voice (Adina Porter) in her head telling her she’s going to lead all the electrified girls. By episode 3 she’s found her way to a convent lead by Sister Maria (Daniela Vega). I love seeing Daniela Vega in the cast and have my fingers crossed that this trans nun gets the power along with all the girls she’s collected under her care.
Roxy (Ria Zmitrowicz) is the unacknowledged daughter of mobster Bernie (Eddie Marsan) and she’s mad as hell about her situation. Anger plays a part in the girls discovering their ability to shoot electricity from their fingers. Name a woman who isn’t mad as hell about the way women are treated by the patriarchy. What? I can’t hear you.
Tatiana (Zrinka Cvitesic) is older. She’s a former gymnast now married to a disgusting and gross military type in some European dictatorship.
In Africa, wanna be reporter Tunde (Toheeb Jimoh) breaks the story of girls shooting electricity from their fingers. His video of his friend getting zapped goes viral and he drops everything to pursue the story. The tale needed a sympathetic male character and Tunde is it.
I admit the situations are drawn in broad strokes. Men telling women to calm down, not be so emotional. Men telling women to not get their panties in a wad. The women watching this series don’t need to be shown these things, but I think the men might.
The real question I want answered from this series is do women with power become just as terrible as men with power? Can a world run by women actually be better? Or is the human creature hopelessly flawed whether man or woman? If the past is any clue, matriarchal societies were peaceful. I will be watching to find out where this fictional world takes the story. Will you?