Naomi is cancelled. Who would’ve thought? The CW superhero show that promised diversity and inclusion, and a hero that no one was asking for on TV, has been cancelled after just one season. With ratings that have fallen precipitously week after week, ‘Naomi’ has proven that force feeding an unknown character onto fans, for the sake of identity politics, will never work. ‘Naomi’, along with other CW shows ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, ‘Batwoman’, ‘4400’, ‘Charmed’, ‘Dynasty’, ‘In the Dark’, ‘Legacies’, and ‘Roswell, New Mexico’, have all been cancelled, in what might be David Zaslav making a statement about expectations. It could also be The CW cleaning house on content that is catastrophically underperforming in the ratings, but I doubt it…The CW is not that smart. Either way, it doesn’t look good for DC as now they only have ‘Superman and Lois’, ‘Stargirl’, and ‘The Flash’, in their superhero line up. ‘Naomi’ being cancelled was not a surprise at all, and add to that, an executive producer/writer who believes that there is rampant white supremacy and is an activist, and you’ve got a recipe for a majority of fans who said, umm…no thank you.
The CW is an Unending Void of Stupidity
‘Naomi’ was doomed before it even aired its first episode. The CW in its seemingly unending void of stupidity, thought it was a good idea to make a superhero show about a superhero who essentially had no fanbase. No one was clamoring for this character, or screaming from the rooftops for Naomi to exist on The CW. But, in their obnoxious ignorance, The CW has been on this diversity and inclusion, identity politics laced obsession, with making sure they are the poster child for representation in their superhero universe. It has plagued every one of their superhero shows, even being lightly sprinkled in ‘Superman and Lois’, because apparently they’re so addicted to the woke, that they just can’t help getting that next fix. It also didn’t help ‘Naomi’, that The CW was trying to convince comic book fans, that this brand new character, who was a teenager, with a similar upbringing and backstory as Superman, was just as, or more powerful than Superman. I’m sorry, but you can’t just throw that kind of logic at die hard comic book fans and make it stick. Superman has had over 80 years of history in the comic books. Naomi had six issues that failed miserably(barely 100,000 issues sold combined), to the point that when DC tried to put a collected together…they couldn’t even sell that(2,196 sold).
Ava DuVernay Wasn’t the Right Fit For Naomi
Then, if that wasn’t enough, you had left wing activist Ava DuVernay signed on to write and executive produce ‘Naomi’. DuVernay is questionable when it comes to her resume. That’s not a slight, that’s just based on facts. She’s directed some shorts, a few episodes here and there of some TV shows, a few documentaries, and a Disney movie called a ‘Wrinkle in Time’, that failed miserably at the box office. She has executive produced a whole hell of a lot of content. But does that make DuVernay qualified? I’m just pointing it out, because I question what she brought to the table with ‘Naomi’, other than her extreme politics. DuVernay does fit a checkbox for The CW, and that would be in line with The CW’s agenda, but is that the right fit for a comic book superhero show. Of course it’s not, but it did fit The CW”s political narrative, and that’s exactly what they got. DuVernay brought a who’s who of representation to ‘Naomi’, thinking they were going to make fans believe that that was the world we all live in.
“It’s not about representation, it’s about normalization. We’re doing really muscular things that relates to race and gender and class but we’re doing it by playing it normal like it’s just a part of the everyday. I say it kiddingly but it’s real. The more you can portray images without underlining or highlighting them and putting a star next to them. By showing a different type of hero that centers a girl, a Black girl, that centers different kinds of folks. We start to make that normal and that’s a radical and revolutionary thing.”
What would be revolutionary, would be The CW actually making content that stuck to the plethora of great stories DC Comics has to offer, without having to pervert their heroes into a neon sign of representation.
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You Can’t Force Fans to Like an Unknown Character
‘Naomi’ failing and being cancelled is just proof that you can’t force the fans into liking something that’s just not that interesting. Brian Michael Bendis, the creator of Naomi, is a boring writer, and half the time is just repackaging what’s already been done. Naomi is Superman, and we already have a Superman on The CW. The problem with The CW and DC Comics, is that they think that the content they are creating is what’s popular, because it’s the world outside their window…that they live in. ‘Naomi’ was a perfect example of that bubble, with all the appropriate races and genders looped in to make The CW feel good about itself. ‘Naomi’ was a failed original character in the comic books, so what would make The CW think Naomi would be successful on live action TV? Because it was never about the success or failure, but about the message of diversity and inclusion. Well, the message was rejected soundly by the fans, because ‘Naomi’ was never representative of what the die hard comic book fans wanted. Now that might not fit the personal politics of people like Ava DuVernay, or anyone that works at The CW, but that’s the reality of it, and they need to accept it. And apparently they are, whether that’s willingly or not, is yet to be determined.
