nerd radio

Get ready for the new daily show

TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Naomi Episode 11: Worst Prom Ever

May 4th, 2022 by Todd Black Comments

At this point, it’s REALLY hard to see what Naomi as a show is trying to be. Because next week is the two-part season finale, and we’re honestly STILL treading the same ground that we have been for a while now, and it doesn’t really make sense as to why. And I’ll fully admit that I lowered this review score down half a point due to that last scene alone.

“Worst Prom Ever” honestly started out great, if not a little whiplash-y, Naomi’s parents revealed more about their time on Earth-29, and even revealed their connection to Naomi’s real parents (who again, we haven’t seen despite Zumbado knowing them and having his “memory share” ability…). And they even made a promise to Naomi to go “hard and fast’ with whatever choice she wanted to make in terms of running or fighting. I appreciated that.

Cut to, her and Annabelle getting ready for prom and Naomi literally saying “I don’t want to think anything else and just have a normal prom”. A) like that was ever going to happen. And B) she literally ditched school last week on a hunch about her real heritage, but NOW she doesn’t mind leaving that and doing something “normal”? Right…

And as you know, something like prom is perfect bait for things to go wrong, and that’s indeed what happened when a forcefield came and surrounded the entire school (and only Naomi and her friends noticed…). So the battle was on to get the forcefield down and try and save everyone. This would’ve been cool…if they didn’t overcomplicated things like they seem to do quite a bit on this show.

For example, that scene of Annabelle going “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” on the office? Very adorable. Naomi repeatedly lying to Nathan until finally he was fed up with it and she was FORCED to reveal the truth? Not so much. The flashback sequences didn’t help matters either. They showed the “origins” of their relationship and how they were “meant to be together” and yet she kept lying to Nathan because she didn’t want him to judge her and leave her…? Even though her literal BFF in Annabelle was fine with it, so why not Nathan? And let’s not forget that SHE broke up with HIM first as we find out (further making the flashbacks a bit superfluous) and then their “reunion” was anything but logical, and then…by the end of the episode…they broke up again because “we can’t be together”. Since when?!?!?

Another key problem here was Julian, yet another in a long line of forgettable villains, and one who honestly had Naomi dead to rights…but…let her go because…reasons? And he gave her a choice to potentially kill people because “he wanted her to have a choice”? Wasn’t the only point to either capture Naomi for Brutus or kill her? So…why didn’t Julian do that when he even admitted he had a way to negate her powers?

According to Zumbado, “We’re probably not going to like the answer to that”, and at this point, I’d be surprised if we even GOT an answer to that. Just saying. Speaking of Zumbado, it’s getting really old to hear Naomi’s parents blame him for everything, especially when Naomi was finding out about her powers on her own, and her mother said just scenes before that “maybe should never have hid your powers”. But the moment trouble shows up? Blame Zumbado! Seriously over that.

I’m also over her sudden “I have new powers conveniently!” bit. Because we’ve seen her use energy, absorb energy, and still don’t have a clear grasp on her powers, and then because she “believes in it” she now has superspeed. Yes, in the comics she’s fast and can fly, but we’ve never seen that here, but conveniently when she needs it, she has it, and naturally, it worked JUST in the nick of time…right…

In the end, “Worst Prom Ever” was sadly just another plodding episode that doesn’t really advance things and just muddles others. This was one of the CW shows roped in with Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow in terms of maybe facing cancelation. And to be honest, unless there’s a huge fan movement after the season finale next week…? I’d be surprised if it got renewed.

2.5/5

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!