I was dissatisfied with Naomi Alderman’s THE POWER, in which women acquire the ability to throw lightning, upending the patriarchy. The Amazon adaptation, also named THE POWER worked much better for me.
In the opening episode we meet our cast, including Allie (Halle Bush), a teen fleeing an abusive foster-parent situation; Mayor Margot Cleary-Lopez (Toni Collette) and her family; Roxy Monke (Ria Zmitrowicz), a British mobster’s daughter frustrated dad’s shutting her out of the family business; and Tunde (Toheeb Jimo), an ambitious Nigerian reporter. Roxy discovers she can generate lightning. Tunde sees a friend of his demonstrate the same power and uses the story to make his career; Allie uses the power to kill her abusive foster dad, then runs away.
As more young women acquire the power (it later develops they can transfer the power to older leaders), it’s clear things are going to change. Women don’t have to worry about walking home alone. Roxy begins to demonstrate her potential to her father. Allie becomes a cult leader. An Eastern European country serving as ground zero for international sex trafficking discovers the trafficked women are no longer putting up with their shit.
The pushback is intense with various politicians insisting we need to Do Something to protect our boys from girls who can hurt them at any time. Maybe single-sex schooling, with girls taught at home? Registration of all girls with the power? Margot, whose daughter has the power, becomes the political defender of the women with the power; her son becomes obsessed with the online misogynist Urbandox and begins regurgitating talking points (his father cooks because Mom has emasculated him! Everyone should conform to gender roles!).
I liked the show better than the book partly because it has more time to build the situation and develop the politics. The show puts more of a focus on American misogyny, where I thought the book treated it lightly in contrast to, say, Middle Eastern patriarchy. Margot is a more rounded character than (IIRC) the more ambitious politician in the book. The TV show also establishes that one intersex male-presenting character has the power; the book didn’t have any intersex or trans characters which I’ve read was a subject of much discussion online after it came out.
One thing that didn’t work was Allie. The voice in her head feels like a cheat, conveniently directing her where the plot needs her to be. I’ve read there was something similar in the book, though I don’t recall it, but it still feels forced.
Another issue is that so far we haven’t had any women willing to sell out to the patriarchy. Plenty of women such as Suzanne Venker, Caitlin Flanagan or Charlotte Allen oppose gender equality and argue women (other than themselves) should stay home, care for babies and make Dad his martini when he comes home. I don’t doubt some women who acquire the power would be willing to use it against other women, either for personal advancement in the patriarchy or out of sincere belief. Still other women with the power might be TERFs, racist, neo-Nazis etc. (we do see one girl dismiss the intersex kid as a disgusting freak).
Overall, though, I think the show did an amazing job.
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