What Is Prime’s ‘The Power’ Based On?

One of the most popular shows on Amazon Prime Video today is The Power, a great series for showing what young women go through daily and how they use their incredible gifts to try to elevate themselves in a society that tends to see women as second-rate citizens. Of course, because this series has supernatural elements, teenage women developed the ability to electrocute people. So, if that’s the case, what is The Power based on?

The Power is an adaptation of the 2016 novel of the same name by Naomi Alderman. In fact, in the book, women became the dominant sex due to the power that they developed. However, the premise of the book is that it is a book within a book and recounts the events that happened when the power first emerged.

One of the things that make The Power so unique is that it tells the story of a book within a book in the sense that the storyline in the movie is a book being retold, even though this entire storyline was originally told in Naomi Alderman’s novel. So, with that said, let’s look at what The Power is all about and where it is based on.

What Is The Power All About?

We know that Amazon Prime Video is known for producing some of the most forward-thinking shows and progressive storylines in the era of streaming services. In that regard, The Power is one of the newest shows that allow us to see a more progressive storyline than most, and that’s because it emphasizes powerful women characters. So, what is The Power all about?

The Power initially takes place in a matriarchal futuristic society, which means that women are now the dominant sex in the world. This is because women possess something called “power,” which eventually allows them to overpower men and become more dominant in society. However, the series quickly returns to the current era long before the planet became matriarchal.

In the current timeline, young teenage women in the middle of problematic times suddenly developed the ability to electrocute people. Pretty soon, many other teenage women worldwide developed the same ability as the world started changing due to the abilities that young teenage girls possess. Turmoil quickly overcame society because of the power, as different women struggled to use it. Nevertheless, some women could use the power to elevate themselves in a society that was never too kind because men were still more dominant.

As such, the story follows the story of four women named Allie, Jos, Roxy, and Margot while also emphasizing other characters, such as Tunde and the influential parents of Jos. All of the abovementioned characters are looking to try to navigate through a world that is becoming more and more different from what it used to be due to the effects of the power and how teenage women are developing such an ability.

What Is The Power Based On?

Of course, considering that The Power’s storyline is clearly fictional due to the supernatural elements that come with it, it isn’t based on a true story. There’s also the fact that the story takes place years before the “present” events of The Power, which is a future where women are more dominant than men due to the power. So, what is The Power Based on?

The Power is based on Naomi Alderman’s novel of the same name. This book was published in 2016 and won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction in June 2017. Later, it was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2017 by The New York Times. 

This book was so ahead of its name and is incredibly influential due to its women-focused narrative. The Washington Post described the book as “one of those essential feminist works that terrify and illuminates, enrages and encourages.”. The Guardian described the novel as “endlessly nuanced and thought-provoking, combining elegantly efficient prose with beautiful meditations on the metaphysics of power, possibility, and change.”

The story of The Power is unique not only in the sense that it was able to make waves in the world of feminism but also in how it approaches the storyline. This novel is a book within a book because of how the storyline is told from the perspective of an author who received a manuscript from a man in the future, 5,000 years from now.

In the era that takes place 5,000 years in the future, women are the dominant sex due to the effects of the power. Meanwhile, the book within The Power tells the story of how the power started in the present day. As such, the main storyline of The Power follows the story of when this ability first manifested and how women eventually became more dominant due to the effects of the power.