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Telly addicts

The Power (Naomi alderman)

33 replies

MaireadMcSweeney · 09/04/2023 16:34

Did anyone know this existed? I've just found it on prime and I'm loving it. I adored the book too. Toni Collette is in it. Anyone else watching?

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JarByTheDoor · 14/04/2023 23:44

I've watched the first three episodes and found the first couple slooooooow, and very heavy-handed. (The third one slightly less so, but still as fragmented as the first two.)

While I suppose this concept was always going to be a bit on the "hitting you around the head with gender politics" side of things, I didn't think we needed, for example, carefully-spelt-out role reversal of the "give us a smile luv" trope, nor was it very realistic, and I think the audience could've been trusted to get things like the parallels regarding women having knowledge of their own bodies and autonomy over their biological functions without a three-minute lecture about abortion rights.

DP (male) finds it even more offputting than I do, and I can understand why — unless you're the self-flagellating type, it's a bit relentless. I don't believe in protecting men from having to hear about the shit men put women through on a daily basis, but there are limits to how didactic you can get in something that's meant to be at least partly for entertainment, especially when other aspects of the production aren't really stepping up to compensate for the preachiness. The Handmaid's Tale did it pretty well — we both watched the first couple of series of that avidly, and he was totally on board with the feminist messaging, leading to some interesting discussions. HMT was far less clumsy, with less of a "this is a wish-fulfillment drama for women to watch and fist-pump at" vibe (for obvious reasons).

I realised after episode two that the reason aspects of it seemed vaguely familiar to me was that I'd already read the book, but decent SF should be more memorable than that. The main conceit could be a fascinating idea, and IMO to do it justice properly you'd have to look at societal changes over multiple generations, as well as how it plays out in the initial stages. I personally find the long-term consequences more interesting to think about than the short-term upheaval. I can't remember if the book did address that — I don't think so — but if it did, then it didn't come up with anything particularly interesting or memorable to me, even though it's a concept I find intriguing and would enjoy exploring.

For example, WRT the longer-term effects, deeper voices are usually considered to have a little more gravitas, a little more authority, and if you trace back the probable origins of that feeling, it pretty much boils down to the fact men are physically stronger than women (and also that children have high voices too, which could, alongside sexism, be part of the reason behind deeper voices being taken more seriously). How many generations would it take for the cultural association between deeper voices and gravitas to disappear, if it ever did? Could we end up with a world where male politicians train themselves to use a higher, lighter speaking voice to improve their credibility? Or would we end up with a culture with a different physical power balance between individuals, but retaining many of the vestigial, fossilised privileges and prejudices developed over hundreds of thousands of years of physical and social evolution? Are any of our beliefs and behaviours that are to do with men and women, sex and gender, the relationships between individuals of the same or different sexes, or male/female intra- and inter-group dynamics, somehow inherent, such that even with a change like this, old patterns of behaviour would remain?

With high-concept fiction like this (i.e. something with a big central idea that you can get across in a sentence or so, in this case "What if women were suddenly more physically powerful than men"), the concept is what draws people in, but you've got to deliver on the story, the characters, the pacing, the ramifications and implications of that big idea, and everything else as well. Having it be predictable, preachy, full of irritating characters, clichéd, confusing to follow, slow to get going and so on means you'll lose viewers pretty quickly. I haven't got much to watch at the moment so I'll probably give it a couple more episodes in the hope it improves, but so far I'm disappointed.

Felixss · 21/04/2023 12:47

I am really enjoying the concept but I hope they don't use the book ending. There would be far more women protesting against the power trying to hide it. Many women will side with oppressive men. Inherently women aren't as violent as men its not just a strength thing. A vast majority of violent crime is perpetrated by men. We could use weapons but we generally don't. We use relational aggression instead, high testosterone causes aggression. It's why they have the term roid rage.

MaireadMcSweeney · 25/04/2023 18:55

Well I've just caught up and seen that the male character who gets the power is 'intersex' so despite it being completely incorrect (born with both??? Had surgery as a baby????) and attributing it to higher oestrogen rather than having female chromosomes (annoying! If he has XY chromosomes he should not have the skein) it's not quite as bad as I thought. I assumed it would be a regular XY on synthetic oestrogen who got the power which would make zero sense at all.

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Felixss · 12/05/2023 22:33

I'm trying with this show but the actress who plays Allie has no charisma at all compared to the book. It's hard to believe she becomes an all powerful cult leader its unbelievable.

underneaththeash · 12/05/2023 22:39

I liked it. FF through the trans nun. Daft on so many levels.

Theimpossiblegirl · 13/05/2023 11:05

Spoiler alert

I've watched it to the end. They've cut it short and not ended it in the same way as the book. I suppose so that they can get a few more seasons out of it. I enjoyed it.

It wasn't clear if the trans nun was gifted the power or just felt it. Trying to keep everyone happy I guess...

JustDanceAddict · 24/05/2023 07:12

Just finished the series but haven’t read the book. Interesting premise, but weird ending as it didn’t really conclude.

Freeballing · 24/05/2023 07:23

We watched this last week. I hadn't read the book. I thought it was a good concept and had so much potential but it completely fell flat for me. The pacing was very slow and it felt like nothing much really happened.

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