Across the world teenage girls are experiencing a strange sensation beneath their collarbones, a tingling in their hands and sudden jolts of electricity sparking from their fingertips…

This new series from Amazon Studios is based on the 2017 novel by Naomi Alderman. This first episode sets out the premise and it does so with an assured hand and some superb direction courtesy of Logan Kibbens. Alderman had significant involvement in the adaptation of her book and it feels like that was a positive collaboration since the show captures some of the book but, honestly, improves upon it.

Maybe it was simply a story that was better suited to a visual medium.

Told from multiple points of view across several very different locations this feels like a show with a story to tell that’s both high concept while remaining character driven. This is only the first episode so a lot could change but given the narrative structure of the book and how the initial episode unfolds I get a sense we’re in for something pretty coherent with a solid through line.

If you don’t know the story it’s worth pointing out that The Power finds a way to subvert traditional power politics between male and female presenting people. In short, imagine if all the historic and traditional power dynamics between men and women were overturned.

The show is very straightforward in this sense but it feels like the working out of the consequences is going to be complex, nuanced and, inevitably, painful to watch because abuses of power in any context are awful.

Before we get to that though we have a slice of the normal, of people in their settings as we’d recognise them now. Then comes the change, although it’s not clear what it means in this episode, but it’s also not that important. As with many speculative stories the origin of the change in the world that backgrounds the narrative is only half as important as the fact of the change itself.

In some ways this is a superhero story, in others it’s one about power (but aren’t all superhero stories exactly that?) and in others this is simply a tale about how the people react when the world changes.

It is beautifully shot and structured with transitions between the various points of view made at just the right moments and with the framing feeling just right to pull you into what’s happening in each location.

Verdict: It’s safe to say I really enjoyed this opening episode and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Rating? 8 power hungry politicians out of 10.

Stewart Hotston