Teenage girls electrify in sci-fi shocker ‘The Power’

This is not your everyday story of electrifying female empowerment.

Prime Video’s new series “The Power” posits a world in which young women around the globe, in an inexplicable twist of nature, suddenly develop the ability to electrocute people at will — flipping society, and the patriarchy, on its head (“A world built for us, where we’re not afraid” says a protagonist).

The eight-part series, cloaked in sci-fi, takes a while to charge into high gear, but once it gets going is rife with social commentary that resonates in today’s culture.

“The Power” is based on Naomi Alderman’s eponymous 2016 novel and features an ensemble cast of younger, nuanced actors working alongside A-listers Toni Collette, John Leguizamo and Josh Charles.

Together, they form an exciting core that keeps the action moving at a brisk pace.

The series begins six months earlier, when teen girls Allie (Halle Bush), Roxy (Ria Zmitrowicz) and Jos (Auli’i Cravalho) start to experience the first inklings of their newfound electrical powers.

Allie, who’s living in the South with strict, creepy foster parents, hears a woman’s voice in her head assuring her everything is happening for a reason and that it’s time to take destiny in her own hands — which she does, literally, by frying her sexually abusive foster dad to death.

In London, Roxy lives a threadbare existence with her loving mother but craves the emotional support of her father, wealthy English businessman Bernie Monke (Eddie Marsan), who lavishes all his attention (and money) on his second family.

Jos, meanwhile, lives in Seattle and feels isolated from her parents — particularly her mother, who … wait for it … is Seattle mayor Margot Cleary-Lopez (Collette).

She’s married to Dr. Rob Lopez (Leguizamo) and her unforgiving work keeps her on-the-go 24/7, driving Jos’ resentment — while the mansplaining, condescending governor (Charles) tells Margot “don’t get your panties in a bunch.” Dude, really?

Then there’s Tunde (Toheeb Jimoh), an aspiring journalist who lives in Nigeria (Lagos) and starts to hear rumblings of local women with magical powers, which he soon sees for himself — posting a startling viral video just as an epidemic of thousands of young women possessing this high-wattage capability (some more than others) overcomes the planet in a tidal wave — causing fear, confusion and, in Seattle, hysteria and witch-trial-style finger-pointing. (High school girls are barred from riding school buses and are kept in one-person isolation booths in the gym.)

There’s much more, as the various story threads begin to converge and “The Power” grows, well, even more powerful.

It’s all very engrossing, with twists and turns you won’t see coming and some decent special effects (not on par with the “head-popping” of Prime Video stablemate “The Boys,” but effective enough so you get the point).

“The Power” offers a novel twist on culture and the ramifications of historical hierarchies, without any hitting-us-over-the-head preachiness.

The performances are all solid, even in the smaller roles, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how it plays out over the course of eight action-packed, thoughtful episodes.