The Power - Amazon TV series

some of you might know that I'm a big fan of The Power by Naomi Alderman

which is a realistic and somber story about women becoming the absolute dominating gender and reshaping society (by the brute force of a hidden and inherited superpower)

here is the old thread about the book
www.superwomenmania.com/index.php?option...&id=30382&Itemid=195

So, last February Amazon bought the rights for an adaptation
www.theverge.com/2019/2/13/18224127/amaz...n-greenlit-tv-series

The production has started last october, to be produced by the Handmaid's Tale director
www.slashfilm.com/the-power-tv-series-reed-morano/

and the first cast announcement is Leslie Mann as the maverick female politician --and Fascist-- Margot
deadline.com/2019/10/leslie-mann-star-th...man-book-1202773045/

I know that for most here, the book is too brutal to be enjoyed. I, for one, can't separate Power from its Corruption (The Boys is the only Superhero-genre series that I watch), and it is thrilling to see a realistic rendition of some femdom fantasies elevated to a nightmarish degree, and see its social implications and meaning

Indeed darling, the book was good and I liked it, albeit, one won't find super-strong women throwing around Cars or shooting lasers. None of that sort. Alderman keeps things within human possibilities. A lot of mind-playing and new-world order type plots.  

Haven't heard of a release date yet, but it would be interesting how they produce it in a time where there's a lot of attention on super-powered women and goddesses like me. 

First of all I'm happy they are actually doing this, because at some point I thought it had been botched: the rights were sold already back in 2016 but the holders -Sister Pictures- weren't making any move forward, and I was thinking it might be because of the really nasty scenes (rape/murders/violence/mutilations/gore etc.) depicted in the book - very graphic and LOTS of them.

I am not sure how they are planning to portray most of those, maybe they will turn them down a little bit, but then again also The Handmaid's Tale (same director) and The Boys and GOT and whatever recent tv-serie are full of those, so I guess it's not a problem anymore, since we're all used now (?).

lowerbase wrote: Leslie Mann as the maverick female politician --and Fascist-- Margot

 

Fascist ? IMHO you are wrong here... in the beginning of the book she is actually one of the most likable character displaying a lot of moral values and empathy toward the others (except for Daniel but he is admittedly a dickhead - always attempting to mock/undermine her and her work) BUT sure, as the time goes by she starts showing big signs of desensitization (except for her daughter/family in general) and a general power/money-hungry behaviour (like the typical male in that kind of political position, her character obviously also had that evolution since it's a book about a reversal of roles). But ... fascist ? Tell me where and how ?

By the way, Margot's daughter Jocelyn will be portrayed by actress Aulii Cravalho who was the voice for "Moana" (Disney cartoon) and starred in the "Little Mermaid" live shows as the lead. I fail to see the resemblance with her "mother" -she is hawaiian and Leslie Mann is a typical blonde american- plus she is already a little bit grown up now (if I'm not wrong Jocelyn is a 12-13 years old teenager at the beginning of the book), among the reasons they probably chose her for (acting skills etc.), I'm sure you guys will easily notice (two really "big reasons" I'd say)

But ... fascist ? Tell me where and how ?

spoilers... spoilers all around

To me, the book is more about fascism than feminism.

Fascism is an elusive term and has many degrees. a Swastika on a flag and public persecution is basically the highest degree on which fascism becomes obvious to anyone. But there are many shades before reaching Holocaust levels (which is what happens in the last third of the book in Moldova, a genocide from a female dictator --with Margot's American support)

Margot might be an 'accidental fascist', in the sense she honestly thought
that her debate fiasco would end her political career; but doing the 'wrong thing' did the opposite making her to win the election by a landslide. By then, she becomes the face of the new order in US, where women can punish men because they can, with the open blessing of the voters. Not that Margot chose to be this, but she was chosen for this part (not that different from Hitlers and Mussolini's rise to power, both becoming more extremists as they grew more popular)    

Many people point out Umberto Eco's 14 Common Features of Fascism to make this social phenomenon more clear, I define fascism as something more simple, I see it as a subversion of Democracy, when 'the will of the people' becomes 'the dictatorship of the majority'. A political majority that aims to oppress the rest of the population --based on either color, gender, origin, etc-- by removing their rights, removing their civil protections and turning the state against them. Any Democracy can fall into this trap. Maybe any ideology can fall into this trap. Even Feminism.
 

lowerbase wrote:
Many people point out Umberto Eco's 14 Common Features of Fascism to make this social phenomenon more clear, I define fascism as something more simple, I see it as a subversion of Democracy, when 'the will of the people' becomes 'the dictatorship of the majority'. A political majority that aims to oppress the rest of the population --based on either color, gender, origin, etc-- by removing their rights, removing their civil protections and turning the state against them. Any Democracy can fall into this trap. Maybe any ideology can fall into this trap. Even Feminism.
 

Well said. 

BIG SPOILERS AGAIN SO DON'T READ if you don't want any.

lowerbase wrote: To me, the book is more about fascism than feminism.

 

Ok, but the only real fascism acts from the lead characters come from Tatiana (please compare Margot with Tatiana and tell me they have exactly the same behaviour ! I mean, she had "hot" MALE slaves with whom to play as much as she wants ... a mockup of Berlusconi as Alderman stated herself).
And in the end, a bit of fascism surely comes from Eve, even Roxy realizes she is not entirely right with her mind (as she wants to 'restart' the world and Roxy is speechless to hear that) near the end of the book.

Margot might be an 'accidental fascist', in the sense she honestly thought that her debate fiasco would end her political career; but doing the 'wrong thing' did the opposite making her to win the election by a landslide.

Tell me how "fascism" is defined by that scene ? It was a mockup of Trump by the way, clearly too.
You abuse your opponent (mentally or physically, doesn't matter, Alderman just making a point there), and most of the voters think you're badass and worthy to be voted 'cause that's how they think you will govern once you are elected.
It's not about Margot, it's about the voters, us... the large majority of people (little bit of subconscious is at play here) will profile the candidates based mostly on the perception of how strong they appear, and this applies to what happened in the last USA election too, again.

By then, she becomes the face of the new order in US, where women can punish men because they can, with the open blessing of the voters. Not that Margot chose to be this, but she was chosen for this part (not that different from Hitlers and Mussolini's rise to power, both becoming more extremists as they grew more popular)

Hitler was elected but Mussolini not, he forced the King to give him the power. And you are confusing again Tatiana for Margot (who never became the President of USA either), as Margot never supported to persecute men in any way. But she liked to have reached that political position (and the money that comes from that).

In the end the book gives the message (other than showing to men how it feels to be a woman nowadays, because every single thing depicted in the book is happening to a lot of women in the world, right now) that whoever holds the power will oppress the others/weakest, no matter the sex. 
Alderman also wants to state that she thinks women would not be better than men if they'd reach higher positions in politic, money, or just standard interactions in society, as they would probably like all that and start behaving exactly as selfish/power-hungry men.

Sincerely, Trump is on the spectrum (as much as Bolsonaro)

But I'll leave at there because I don't want to enter into american domestic politics

My point is that you don't need a Genocide to label a politician/personality as fascist. The dogwhistles are enough. You need to stop Hitler before he reaches to power, not just after. And -Spoilers- Margot was going on that direction by leading the weaponization of teenage girls (as in Hitler's youth?)

The book exposes what Margot thinks of the world, and yes, she becomes as fascist as the stalinist artdeco book cover makes it to be . Men would be second class citizens under her rule. But -Spoilers- the book (the world) ends before it happens. Hitler once said that was a Social Democrat before entering the NSDAP, and Mussolini was a Socialist writer in several leftist newspapers. Both were intelligent and sensible people, and yet were transformed into extremists as the people started hailing absurd ideologies     

--by the way, I'm most curious about Tatiana casting. If I remember exactly, she's an ex-Olympic athlete celebrity and trophy wife. 

Hitler never was a 'good' man, just a decent artist (not in painting people, just ... things, like houses, etc.), he has always hated everybody, coming from a very harsh childhood too: his father was a very old & cold man who always beated him and his mother died very young by a cancer (and he blamed a jewish doctor for not being able to cure her).
Mussolini was once good (maybe ...) but they both were/became horrible people already BEFORE taking the power !

So you can compare them to Tatiana... surely not to Margot, as she never becomes a 100% 'horrible' person but of course she changes something in her behaviour (less empathic and more aligned with the other politicians in the pursue of career and money) once she is elected. So you cannot compare her to those two imho - let's agree to disagree on this one.
Tatiana will be portrayed by some russian looking actress with an unbearable fake accent, that's sure lol

A possible analog to a superpower is a cordless power tool with a large capacity lithium battery.     With an appropriate blade a cordless recriprocating saw can zip through boards, treebranches, etc at a rate that would turn most arms into jelllo.   Then you can continue by changing batteries or blades.   

More actors/actresses casted:

"During its Television Critics Association presentation today, Amazon unveiled the cast for its upcoming series adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s 2016 novel The Power. The 10-episode series will go into production in February, and when it does, it’ll star Heather Agyepong as Ndudi, Tunde’s close friend; Halle Bush as Allie, a girl who’s bounced between foster homes; Auli’i Cravalho (Moana) as Jos Cleary-Lopez, Margo’s daughter; Nico Hiraga (Booksmart) as Ryan a friend of Jos’s; Toheeb Jimoh (The Feed) as Tunde, a Nigerian journalist; John Leguizamo (Waco, Bloodlines) as Rob, Margo’s partner; Leslie Mann (Motherless Brooklyn) as Margo; Daniela Vega (Tales of the City), as Sister Maria; and Ria Zmitrowicz (Three Girls) as Roxy Monke, the daughter of a London crime boss."

We already knew about Auli'i and of course Leslie, new entry Ria Zmitrowicz looks good ! Well, in all fairness she was supposed to be ugly-ish and 'muscular' type of girl in the book (kind of a tomboy) but I won't complain much
Halle Bush got an important role but I can't seem to find anything online ^^;

Sister Maria and Ndudi are smaller characters in the book so maybe they will be more important in the tv-serie ... else why bother naming them in the announcement. And last but not least, they still missing an actress portraying Tatiana ?!

After a very long, complicated and troubled production, first halted due to the pandemic and then plagued by actors availability issues (big roles have been replaced too), the Amazon Prime Video tv serie is going to be released on 31 March, one episode each week.
10 production stills have been released some days ago, and today the first teaser trailer. I will leave my thoughts after watching the first episodes, for now it's too early to express an opinion (but from the trailer I can already say that quite surely the book will remain better).



 

By reading through various articles in the last 3-4 years, and hinted between the lines (Sister Production deleted it from the ''incoming'' main list at some point) , it's quite clear that this serie has been on the verge of being canned multiple times... at least twice !

But since they had shot so much of it and tossed so much money already, the producers even changed the showrunner and some executives to keep going, until it was finally a wrap couple months ago (the only info of this wrap was from John Leguizamo's Twitter).

Unlike the book (people who read are generally smarter), this serie is gonna have a hard time to find enough following, compared (for example) to The Handmaid's Tale, because now not only most men (readers/viewers) but also a lot women aren't going to be happy (they can't wrap their heads on the meaning of all this, just like some of the female readers they will mainly think "but we wouldn't be so bad in reality !", which was NOT the point of the book).

I am gonna bet also it will last only one season, but, hey, I thought the same of "Bastard!!" (Netflix anime adaption of a late80s/early90s outdated, non-PC, campy and demential fantasy manga), and instead they announced a second season lol

ps. I really like Auli’i Cravalho (the actress/singer who gave the voice to Disney's Moana), and the actress (Zrinka Cvitešić) who portrays Tatiana (the worst character of the book for sure) too. On the other hand Ria Zmitrowicz (Roxy) looks quite ugly here ... but in the book she was meant to appear like that, so the combination actress/make-up is on point, I guess.

 
 



 

Several other trailers (mostly small bits but also a couple of relatively long ones) have been released in the last month, and judging from them I can confirm that they are diverting a lot from the book, for the best or the worst I don't know, we will see. It's gonna be 9 episodes (not ten as announced initially), three episodes released on 31 March and then one episode each week until the (season ?) final episode in May.

I just wanted to post an interesting interview with the (new) showrunner Raelle Tucker, known for her work on Supernatural, True Blood and Jessica Jones. By her own words she was a big fan of the book and tried to be part of the production from the very beginning.

Also (though she doesn't explicitly say it) it's confirmed that the production was on the verge of being deleted... but at some point, 5 years later, with many hours already shot by the previous team, they called her to take command and try to salvage/fix it. At the end of the interview she also says it could be expanded into multiple seasons, she doesn't say it but of course it depends if the "good numbers" will be there... which i doubt, just by seeing the mostly negative reactions/very low likes on the Youtube trailers. But it was like that for the book too, and it sold a quite relevant amount of copies.

To conclude, I have read in another article that Reed Morano was kicked out in a not friendly way (they won't even name her in interviews and/or the show credits, by contract) since there were big disputes on the direction to give to the show.

 

 

This is what is called in Hollywood a troubled production  Not  a goog sigh  for the shows  chances of lasting  very long.

Well, we got at least one entire season anyway, which as far as I can understand from the interview, will cover most of the book (basically all of it except the apocalyptic very end). Fine by me.

Official channels where to see the 20 or so trailers/small bits twitter.com/thepoweronPrime



 

Ok the first 3 episodes have been released today, and as expected, the show is diverting from the book a LOT. Only the Allie story is mostly the same (until now, at least...).

Good expansion on the Tatiana backstory, which was only hinted in the book. Ok-ish for Margot and her daughter Jos with more space to her husband/dad too... not so good for Tunde (too many changes and he looks like a dumb fool the whole time), and sadly total disaster for the Roxy scenes. I really have no idea how they managed to spin the lead character of the book into a lame parody of herself.

In general, some of the changes are ok (like Allie being mute in the beginning), but a ton of others make really no sense to me (the airplane crash -not in the book- is totally cringy, for example). I know they cannot adapt a book 1:1, would be impossible for the mandatory TV narrative rhythm etc., but let's say that if you are a total fan of the book, then give it a try, else... avoid without second thoughts. I really don't think something is gonna improve in the next episodes anyway.

Ps. They adapted just 18 pages in the first 3 episodes, and I think I have read they covered only 1/3 of the book with this season (8 or 9 episodes). This means they are really thinking to make new ones, but that depends on the magic ''numbers'' (views etc.) as already said.

Will probably check it out but my streaming queues on various services are so huge that it will be a while. Truly a golden age of content. I could take two weeks vacation and spend every waking hour burning through my queues. I not sure I would get through everything.