The Power Season 1 Episode 1-3 Review: The World Is on Fu*king Fire

The Power premiere episodes light the spark to a potentially compelling series.

The Power Season 1 Episode 1, “A Better Future Is In Your Hands,” introduces us to some of the main characters that we’ll be following throughout the series. Then The Power Season 1 Episode 2, “The World Is on Fu*king Fire,” starts to show the girls discovering their abilities and the power they can wield, and The Power Season 1 Episode 3, “A New Organ,” gives us some important answers.

Individually, each episode works as an introduction to this world and these characters. However, they work best when you watch them together. The show’s pacing makes it more enriching and interesting with multiple episodes to view at a time. The series’s goals and messages are so much clearer with a multiple-episode weekly format.

Hopefully, this is only the case with the initial three episodes.

The pacing could become an issue in a one-episode-a-week format, so hopefully, the show uses the rest of the seven episodes to really further develop these stories and characters in an interesting way that doesn’t feel like the story drags along.

The Power is about women and girls finding their strength that goes beyond the ability to electrocute. It’s using that ability to gain confidence and take what they need and deserve. Also, it’s about those willing to help them take control of their power.

Margot, Rob, Sister Maria, Helen, and likely Tunde, represent that side of this story. We also have those who will stand in their way, like Daniel. Tunde is one of the most interesting representations of these helpers.

He’s a main character and one of the few male leads. He’s also one of the few male characters who doesn’t seem like a complete jerk. However, he’s not perfect.

He steals Ndudi’s story idea and then uses her tragedy to gain fame and recognition. Nevertheless, we don’t see him as villainous as some of the other male characters. Because he seems capable of change, we see him as hope.

Tunde can learn from his mistakes and use his opportunity to help these girls. It’s good to have a not-so-perfect male figure at the forefront because it keeps the show from seeming like an anti-men show.

It’s not that show at all. The series wants to lift the female characters up so that their power and control goes beyond the genetic mutation going on in their body. The Power must show these negative male images to highlight why these powers are necessary and revolutionary.

The idea that evolution can suddenly cause a new organ, though hard to believe, is an interesting way to explain these new abilities.

It gives an explanation that is more reality-based. It isn’t a miracle or a crazy phenomenon. It’s evolution or a mutation.

The transferring of power represents women helping other women by sharing their powers. The natural idea of sisterhood and using your privilege and opportunity to help others.

The idea of this power not being all good is also a smart way to treat this story.

Some of these girls can’t control it, others use it carelessly, and some use it to burn the world down. The multiple-narrative format really helps play into this idea. Each young girl is unique and how they approach their new powers speaks to their identity.

Allie has had a tough life and is very religious. She sees the power as a gift from her God. It grants her the freedom to use it in a way that suits her needs and protects her.

Jos is a typical teen girl who doesn’t quite know herself yet, which is why her power doesn’t work as she wants yet. It also seems most attuned to her moods.

Roxy is ambitious and wants to be taken seriously and loved. She sees power as an opportunity to get what she wants.

Each girl uses or develops their power in a way that fits their identity. As much as the power seems to be a side-effect of evolution, it also has an emotional connection to each girl.

This may be too on the nose for some people, the idea of power also representing the power within each of the girls, but it works because it gives the show a clear message. There are no subtleties for what these new powers represent and how they metaphorically connect to the idea of finding your power.

The Power doesn’t have a perfect start but it’s a show about characters and the characters are fascinating enough to keep you wanting to know more and what happens next.

What did you think of the first three episodes of The Power Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Power streams Fridays on Prime Video. 

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