The Power review: Amazon explains why society sucks for women

Three hours of episodes are required. The power to finally say the thing that it wants to say — namely that teenage girls have manifested the shocking (ha) ability to electrocute at will.

Some series may need more than three episodes, but that’s not a problem for some. The powerIt’s pretty typical of our world, except for one thing. So in order to hammer home the point that young women develop this power because of how much society mistreats them, we have to see nearly three hours of women being mistreated — from workplace microaggressions to sexual assault and everything in between. While it’s obvious that there is nothing subtle about the situation, the long duration of the mistreatment can make for a very frustrating experience. OK, OK, I get it.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Prime Video’s The Power.]

Photo: Katie Yu/Prime Video

Based on the 2016 novel with the same title The power isn’t restricted to just one facet of womanhood. It’s a broad cast that shows the diversity of discrimination women experience. Margot (Toni Collette), Seattle’s mayor, is struggling with double standards in politics. Roxy (Ria Zammitrowicz), the unborn daughter of a London mob boss fights off an invasion at her home that ends in the death of her mother. The most heartbreaking scenes, though, are the ones featuring Allie, a teenager runaway, whose powers developed after she was sexually assaulted by her foster father. Reminding women around the world that they suffer is vital. It is difficult to watch three episodes with women in pain while the story crawls along slowly towards a conclusion that viewers figure out at the end of the first episode. We get it! We really don’t need to suffer for two and a quarter more hours.

It is clear that the inventors of The powerThe women of the show want their audience to be as angry as they are. The women know something is up, but they’re being kept in the dark about any information. They’re degraded when they ask for help; they’re villainized when they don’t. Margot learns in the third episode that the government actually knows about what’s going on, but it’s just refusing to do anything about it because it doesn’t want people to panic. This is accompanied by a commentary about the fact that the COVID-19 warnings were misunderstood. This period of confusion, anger and frustration is understandable to a certain extent. But at a certain point, the show needs to trust that the audience gets what’s going on and knows that the way society treats women is unfair.

Image: Prime Video

Three episodes later, however, The power Finally, the plot takes flight with the goal of going somewhere rather than spinning around. The plot seems to be set up and locked in, with the goal of destroying the target society which is patriarchal and focuses on women. And it definitely feels like it’s going to do that, because this isn’t a show that is going to leave anything unaddressed. It’s going to do just the opposite. The powerWill purposely cover all the bases to ensure that everyone understands.

Maybe that’s true for those who are blissfully ignorant of all the evils in the world. But others are well acquainted with the bitter truth that society treats women unfairly and don’t really need more reminders than necessary.

Three episodes from the first season of The powerPrime Video is streaming these movies now.