After a torturously long production, thanks to Covid, and the loss of various cast members, the TV adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s award-winning novel, The Power, is finally making it to TV screens – and it’s not even a tiny bit worse for wear.
Across the world – from grimy London to American Midwest via Lagos – teenage girls are developing mysterious electrical powers. The show takes its time introducing our main characters, and it’s immediately clear that the creative power behind the show is almost entirely female. The teenage girls in question are not the impossibly glamourous ‘high school students’ of US network TV – these girls feel and look real, from scowling gangster’s daughter Roxy (Ria Zmitrowicz) to deceptively resourceful Allie (Halle Bush). The show follows a lot of characters, but introduces them with a deft mix of depth and concision. You know them and care about them quickly.
As the first three episodes play out, a political situation begins to develop that feels alarmingly plausible. Toni Collette plays Margot, the mayor of Seattle, and it looks like the show will have room to expand on the book’s political backdrop largely via her character. She and John Leguizamo play a married couple struggling with their daughter’s power, and have a chemistry and ease together that is a joy to watch.
If you’re expecting superhero fight scenes you’ll be disappointed. This isn’t that sort of show. It’s character-led and slow-moving, but keeps you absolutely gripped, so that when sparks do fly – not always in the way you expect – it packs a real punch.
Fans of the books will be delighted to know that the series is very faithful to the source material, and that when it does diverge, it’s generally to flesh out something interesting.
The Power will premiere exclusively on Prime Video on Friday, March 31 with new episodes available each Friday, leading up to the season finale on May 12.
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