‘Naomi’ premiered this week on The CW, and it was lackluster at best. I didn’t have any expectations going in to the first episode, other than it’s a CW show and it will probably be woke as hell. I will say, that for the most part, ‘Naomi’ wasn’t woke, it just suffered from bad writing, bad direction, and god awful special effects. In a nutshell, ‘Naomi’ is the perfect example of why The CW is up for sale. The first episode ranking was pretty decent at 800,000 viewers, but honestly, that’s probably just from a bump because it followed ‘Superman and Lois’. If the writing and direction is any indication of how the rest of the season will play out, I fully expect it to lose more of its audience. ‘Naomi’ is just not that interesting, and a superhero show should grab you from the very first episode, and ‘Naomi’ failed on that front. You also have the executive producer of the show saying on multiple occasions, that the show isn’t about representation, while saying it’s about representation, and then you see the first episode…and it’s about representation.
Naomi is Just a Long Winded Story That never Gets to the Point
‘Naomi’ was a character created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and David F Walker, back in 2019 and was cancelled after its 6th issue. The story centers around Naomi, who is from an alternate universe Earth, and is brought to Prime Earth by her parents, because of an environmental catastrophe on Naomi’s Earth. This environmental(of course)catastrophe turned many of Naomi’s Earth’s citizens into super powered beings, including her parents. There are subsequent wars, where total populations have been wiped out, and to save Naomi from certain death, her parents cast Naomi to Prime Earth. As a result of these actions, her biological parents are killed. Naomi is adopted by a Prime Earth couple, and doesn’t know anything about her powers, until she starts investigating the origins of where she came from. The comic books barely had time for Naomi to really explore everything about her origins, and some reviews stated that the comic book felt like one long origin story that never really got to the point. And that’s what The CW’s ‘Naomi’ feels like as well.
You’re Watching One Tree Hill, I Mean Riverdale, No Wait, It’s Nancy Drew…or is it Scooby Doo?
I’m not going to go into every detail, because the first episode was so convoluted and disorganized and didn’t feel like a superhero show at all. Good or bad, the very first episodes of almost all of The CW’s superhero shows have come up with an origin story that was tight, well planned, and showed some kind of superhero powers. ‘Naomi’ was an expose on how not to write a superhero show. The dialogue between Naomi and her circle of friends was 90’s cheesy, and her parents, who are both good actors in their own rights, come off as uncomfortable and dorky. The only character in this episode that felt anything equivalent to real, was Naomi herself. The actors playing her friends all seemed like they were reading the script on spot, as the camera was rolling. The villain in the show, Zumbado, who hails from Naomi’s alternate universe Earth as well, is laughable in his obligatory villain trench coat and long stares, that are supposed to be ominous. There’s a scene between Zumbada and Naomi half way through the episode, that should be a big reveal, because it gives fans a first look at one of Naomi’s possible powers, that just takes forever to develop, and ends up being anti climatic. ‘Naomi”s first episode is also overpoweringly filled with teen angst. I mean, this one likes that one, and that one likes this one, and everyone likes and wants to be with Naomi, and then everyone is cheering for Naomi….give it a rest. It’s typical for a CW superhero show, but could we at least get a few episodes in before we are bored to death. The whole episode felt like it was at war with itself and couldn’t find its identity, so it decided to go with the themes from ten different shows.
Are Superheroes Real or Not?
In addition, as good of an acting job that Kaci Walfall did playing Naomi in this first episode, it couldn’t withstand the many writing flaws that this episode had. Throughout the entire episode, Naomi is perfect, and does everything right. Kind of reminds me of Rey from the Force Awakens, where she is automatically the bestest ever! This character, right off the bat has no flaws and everyone loves her. Not to mention that Naomi is also being courted by three or four of her friends, who all represent a different race or gender. Why is that necessary? There’s also the fact that apparently, superheroes don’t exist in this universe, but then they do, when we see a fight between Superman and Mongul, and then they don’t exist again. Which is it? Naomi is also supposed to be this avid Superman fan that collects comics. Why couldn’t we see one shot of her reading a comic book to fill in some back story? For someone as touted in Hollywood as Ava Duvernay is, the writing in this first episode was some of the worst I’ve seen. Maybe that was done on purpose to showcase Naomi’s character, but that’s weak sauce for a new superhero show that no ones heard of.
This Show Will be About Duvernays Politics No Matter How She Slices It
‘Naomi’ feels more like a vehicle for Ava Duvernay’s politics, and also questions Duvernays capabilities when it comes to writing. She seems wildly unfamiliar with the superhero genre, and it shows. When you have Naomi and her friends breaking and entering into someone’s place of business, that doesn’t give you the sense, that the potential superhero in your show has a moral compass. Yet, we are led to believe, immediately, that Naomi is a perfect human being. Her parents seem very centered, and are adamant about family time at dinner where no phones are allowed, for example. But when Naomi is determined to find clues about her past, she has no qualms about breaking the law. Duvernay has insisted on many occasions that ‘Naomi’ isn’t about representation, yet talks about how special it is to have black representation in the superhero universe. In an article from Variety, Duvernay said that Naomi being a black teenager, who loves comic books, and then ends up being a superhero herself, was an important part in that representation.
“Naomi being a confident young Black woman was also important to DuVernay, who specifically recalls seeing the art for Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker and Jamal Campbell’s “Naomi” comics before reading them and being taken with the fact that “she had locs similar to mine.” The fact that the character starts out as “just as a teenage Black girl who loves comic books” was also an important piece of representation to the powerhouse producer.“The more evolved way to think about representation is that she is treated like any other hero and that her powers are not specific to the way that anyone treats her,” DuVernay says. “And so, one of the reasons why I liked this is she literally has powers that will eventually [be] almost identical to Superman. The fact that DC has this Black, teenage girl superhero who eventually will have powers that are on par with Superman — who is the quintessential cis, white male superhero — is a thrilling proposition. And in order to really do that, you’ve got to throw away any kind of social construct and just dive into the fact that she’s a badass.”
Stop Using Our Superheroes as Your Political Bullhorn
So representation is not a part of your desire to make this superhero show? If Duvernay was truly interested in making a superhero show, and it be just about the characters, then why does she feel the need to preface Naomi as a black teenager or Superman as a cis white male? Why couldn’t we just say Naomi is a teenager and Superman is Superman? because that isn’t how Duvernay sees the world, and that’s what has ruined these TV shows. When you portray your political world view onto a comic book character, that was never represented that way, you have sunk the ship before it even hit the water. I will give ‘Naomi’ a few more episodes to find its footing, but it doesn’t look promising. ‘Superman and Lois’ should be the example to follow, but I think Duvernay is too stubborn to take that advice. It’s sad how many show runners think that using our superheroes, as their own personal political bullhorns, is the secret to success. It clearly is not.
