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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Naomi Episode 8: Fellowship of the Disc

March 23rd, 2022 by Todd Black Comments

If there is one thing really holding back Naomi in its first season, it’s a sense of true purpose and point. Which is odd because this show does have a point, it’s about Naomi learning who she is and where she came from. But right after getting real answers from last episode, we were put right back on the grind to trying to getting more answers via “Fellowship fo the Disc”.

It was fun and interesting to start, with a mini-golf double date, Annabelle coming to terms with Zumbado being a “good guy”, and a potential new threat in regards to whoever stole the disc. But once we got deeper into the episode, the more lackluster it got, and questionable at times.

For example, Naomi herself was very inconsistent in how she saw and did things with various people, and herself. For example, she didn’t tell Dee or Zumbado about losing the disk because she didn’t want to get “grounded” by them. And then she told Annabelle that she was fine with moving away in order to “protect everyone”, and yet, she later investigated the very place she was captured before, was more than willing to put Jacob in danger because of her “needing his skills” to get answers and more. She seemed to understand her parents “go bag” situation and yet she didn’t understand that no matter where she went, she would be putting people in danger. Not to mention, even when she had just gotten to know her powers, she was MORE than happy to get her crew together every single time to find clues to her past. So…why suddenly have the change in heart?

The answer would be, “because they don’t have time”, as the very stereotypical storyline featuring Zee and Zumbado “revealed”. The two “mentors” to Naomi clashed over how to train her, and naturally, things came to blows and a resolution was…kind of gotten? They agreed to work together to help Naomi…which honestly shouldn’t have been a hard thing to do given that they could each help her in a different way. It’s also weird to see Zumbdao being “suddenly so worried” about Naomi when the majority of the series has had him telling her to stand down, stay away, and so on and so forth. But NOW, after he’s revealed (almost) everything to her…now he has to speed up her training? And it doesn’t matter if it hurts everyone she loves as long as she gets Brutus? Yeah…no.

I’d also like to note that this episode definitely took liberties with some things, not the least of which was both Naomi AND Jacob getting into a GOVERNMENT BUILDING without much issue…and the army conveniently coming in AFTER they had taken some things of value. There’s no way.

The other other B-story of this issue involved the return of Lourdes, which I should be happy about (especially since she finally got more story than, “I’m crushing on Naomi”), but it was trope city. Not the least of which is that apparently Anthony and Nathan are now “best buds” (ok…) and they acted like arrogant jerks to Lourdes for most of the episode. Including not understanding what SHE wanted or needed and thinking that they could just “fix things” without her input. In other words, “typical guy thinking”. Also, them not knowing ANYTHING about comic books? No, just…no.

The twist at the end with there being another alien (or aliens) in the house during the party was a nice twist. If you know the comics, you know that Naomi’s parents aren’t entirely human…so…could they be the answer? Or will the show pull another twist?

In the end, “Fellowship of the Disc” was fine, but it didn’t stand out for various reasons, hopefully the “Mystery Party” will liven things up.

3/5

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!