'The Power' review: Compelling drama with provocative concept

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Stepping into the dystopian void left by the end of the "Last of Us" season, "The Power" depicts a world where teenage girls have suddenly developed the ability to generate enough electricity to simultaneously start fires and shoot bolts from their hands.

It's an epic, nine-episode production, with the narrative encompassing storylines in Moldova, the United Kingdom, Seattle, the American South and Nigeria. 

The teens in question include Jos (Auliʻi Cravalho), daughter of Margot (Toni Collette), the mayor of Seattle, and a doctor named Rob (John Leguizamo). Allie (Halle Bush) is a foster child living under abusive circumstances. Roxy Monke (Ria Zmitrowicz), daughter of London crime boss Bernie (Eddie Marsan), develops the evolutionary trait as well.

There's more, of course, including the aspiring journalist Tunde (Toheeb Jimoh,  "Ted Lasso"), whose viral video of an electrical attack in Nigeria becomes the first warning to the powers-that-be of this burgeoning phenomenon. A whole other subplot tells the story of Tatiana Moskalev (Zrinka Cvitešić), the wife of the Moldovan president.

The series from Raelle Tucker, Naomi Alderman and Sarah Quintrell is an adaptation of Alderman's 2016 novel.

MY SAY "The Power" draws on a strong central metaphor, as its characters discover this extraordinary new power, begin to learn how to utilize it and find the government and society at large looking for ways to keep them from practicing it.

There's no need to spell out what this show has to say about being a young woman in today's world. The focus on the different standards imposed on these girls and on the older female characters remains resolute. 

A screening of the first three episodes reveals a strength drawn from those allusions. That gets enhanced further by the ways in which "The Power" shows how difficult it can be to convince a skeptical, divided public that anything genuinely strange and transformative might be happening in an age of deepfakes, advanced filters, incredible special effects advancements and more.

The showrunners work with a broad canvas to advance these ideas and there are times where the jumping between characters and settings grows a bit disorienting. It's not immediately clear, for example, where the Moldovan subplot fits in, while major figures including Tatiana and Marsan's crime boss have been drawn so broadly they veer into caricature.

A smaller scale would have allowed for more focus on how the individuals affected with this sudden new power adapt to it, but very often, just as things start to get interesting in a particular corner, we're thrust elsewhere.

Still, heady production values and crisp pacing make this a consistently edge-of-your-seat production. And there are plenty of reasons for intrigue as "The Power" slowly unpacks the layers of mystery, while also depicting some of the most fundamental human failings.

BOTTOM LINE It's a compelling, epic production with a strong central concept.