TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Two-Part Naomi Season 1 Finale

I honestly had high hopes for the Naomi series when it was first announced. Mainly because I liked the comic by Bendis and Walker, and Naomi as a whole felt like a good fit for the CW and what it tends to like to do. But the more that the series went on, the more that things kind of ran in place, and by the time we got to the finale, suddenly we were running full sprint despite various things not making sense, and the results were both eye-rolling, frustrating, and quite frankly…lame.

I’m going to be weaving in between the two episodes as a lot of the key flaws honestly intertwine with one another. For example, right before going to the portal to Earth-29, Naomi gave a LONG speech about not “being able to make choices on her own” and I’m like…uh…are you sure about that? Because literally half the season is about Naomi making choices…usually because she doesn’t trust her friends or family or allies…and then having them backfire on her. Such as her going to Star Labs even though she was told it was dangerous. Or going to that alien bar that she had never gone too before and thinking that “nothing could go wrong”. Or in just the episode previous, she went on a road trip with Annabelle (still the best character in the show BTW) to go and find the “power source” because she “knew she had to” even though it was dangerous. Even putting Annabelle’s life in danger AFTER she learned about the person chasing them because she “had to find the source”.

So yeah, that didn’t hold up at all.

Another problem here is that when it honestly gets boiled down to it…Naomi at times is a really horrible friend. Just in these two episodes she basically insulted her friends, didn’t trust them to help her, tried to ditch them at other points, put them in danger even when they were asking her to stop, and so on. Sure, I was glad that Anthony (who has been missing for a few episodes if you recall…) and Lordis (still need to do more with her) learned the truth about Naomi, and that the team came together like in the early episodes to try and “save the day”, but how they did it was almost laughable.

Especially how Naomi used super speed to get away from them, and yet…they met back up, got a plan, and then basically dispatched two aliens with abilities without breaking a sweat? Say what now? Speaking along those lines, I mentioned it last week but I’m REALLY tired of Naomi’s abilities showing up in a Deus Ex Machina kind of way that helps her get out of any situation without any true danger or threat.

The fight with the red-eyed man (which once again was horribly shot) for example went from him “trying to take her out” to his weapons getting destroyed by her “invulnerable skin” and literally bailing with “above my pay-grade”. That’s so dumb! Especially since Brutus is supposed to understand how powerful she is, but he’s apparently not sending someone who can actually hurt her? Furthermore, that red-eyed guy said that the previous aliens were supposed to kidnap her, so why didn’t Julian (the force field guy) do that? He had Naomi trapped and yet he just…let her go. Why? It truly doesn’t make sense.

And that brings us to Brutus. Who I have VERY mixed feelings on. Because A) he doesn’t look intimidating at all. B) to counter that point, is played by Ray Porter, the voice of Darkseid in the Snyder Cut, hence, he’s awesome), and C) To counter THAT point, despite supposedly being Naomi’s “biggest threat”, she took him down with one hit, and even Zumbado was able to contain him for some time. If it was that easy, why didn’t they just take him down before with the 29? And that was another time when Naomi was trapped, dead to rights, but her “powers activated” just in time to save her…because…reasons.

Adding to all of this frustration was the once again “we go around and around” talk about running, fighting, destiny and “being ready”. Just in these last two episodes Naomi kept asking “am I ready?” and asking about how Superman would handle it as if he was also able to get things done the first time. Except, we KNOW she’s a No.1 fan of Superman, and thus knows his stories via the comics. Superman struggles all the time with his immense power and doing the right thing at the right time. That’s literally his arc! He has all the power but needs to know when to use it. That’s the beauty of it all. And yet she acted as if he never struggled ever.

Finally, and arguably most frustratingly…the ending. It was very obvious given how they hinted at everything (including NOT showing the faces of Naomi’s parents…again…), but as we find out, Naomi’s adopted parents…were apparently her kidnappers because…they were radical scientists who felt she could “fix the tear” and thus “needed to be taken to prove them right”? WHAT?!?!?!? And apparently, despite Zumbado knowing them, he didn’t know THAT about them, or, Akira (who also know Naomi’s parents and about the dangers of the world) didn’t know about these two radical scientists?

And, of course, only AFTER that revelation…did Naomi learn to fly…wow. Just…wow.

Look, the state of Naomi as a show is up in the air right now, and frankly…I’m not sure it deserves a second season. They didn’t advance anything until RIGHT at the end, many of the characters are underdeveloped, and while there IS a potential plotline to go and do with finding the 29…I honestly wonder how well they’ll handle it, if they’ll handle it well at all. We’ll find out soon enough more than likely. In the meantime…just go read the comics, Season 2 is out now in part.

2/5