I watched it again, and...

I liked it even better! In fact, I may genuinely love this show and its young heroine, and I absolutely recommend it to anyone who's ever been a young nerd.

It's great fun, visually dazzling in a uniquely urban way, and really captures the feelings of nerditude and being out of step with the mainstream and adult expectations, but with more emphasis on the joys of nerditude than the pain. It takes the standard fantasy trope of a teen discovering they have superpowers and both tries to give is both the realism and the fantasy of that situation, and IMHO succeeds on both fronts, largely because young Iman Vellani is UTTERLY PERFECT.

They couldn't have cast the role better, the kid is charming and expressive, she's not a classic beauty but the camera loves her, she perfectly captures the knife-edge balance of being part child and part young adult. as the show captures the dilemma of trying to deal with adult problems without adult provileges. I never thought I'd find a film or show that captured the feeling of being a nerdy teen... but in a joyous way, not a painful one.