Pilot
Episode 1 of Naomi begins with the obligatory superhero origin story. That’s right, we’re back with a brand new CW show and let’s hope this is more Stargirl and less Batwoman. The episode itself begins with a look at Naomi, who’s a good student, has a big circle of friends and is apparently good at skateboarding… despite almost falling off her board several times. At school the next day, Naomi meets her friend Anthony, who didn’t show up at Nathan’s party because he was given the wrong address. Naomi reassures him that it must be a mistake, but it definitely isn’t. Anyway, Naomi receives a message about something happening involving Superman in the main square and hurries out of class to catch a glimpse of this. En-route, she experiences buzzing in her head, and blacks out just after seeing someone whiz by overhead. The whole town is abuzz with this news, as Naomi heads home and speaks to her parents. After breaking up with Nathan, Naomi has a new love interest in Lourdes, the purple haired geek in town who knows a lot about comic books. She urges Naomi to head over though, breaking up this chat with a call to action. En-route to her shop, Naomi skates by and notices a broken camera. What she doesn’t notice however, is a mysterious figure watching her from the shadows. Naomi figures something is going on and calls on the expertise of Nathan to help figure this out. Checking the video footage they’ve obtained from the main square, they notice a figure flying around, causing havoc. It appears to be Superman. Watching it slower, Naomi notices Dee, a shadowy guy from the tattoo shop, watching Superman. It appears the pair have history, so naturally Naomi heads off to get some answers. According to Dee, he planned the Superman stunt, hiring someone with a jetpack to help drum up publicity for the town. It’s definitely suspicious, especially when he brings up details of Naomi’s life, including her adoption date and becoming surprised when he sees her wearing glasses. It appears Naomi may have superpowers too, typified by a look at her increased vision later on in the episode. After hitting a blip at a big debate, she notices a slip of paper from afar and manages to read what it says, including evidence of Superman in the forest nearby. Alone, she heads off to investigate. En-route though, she notices Zumbado walking through the forest “on a hike.” Well, he very clearly isn’t dressed for it and that’s something Naomi is quick to point out too. It soon becomes clear that he’s been following her, demanding she hand over a mysterious disk she’s found on the floor. Zumbado also encourages her to use the powers growing inside her, but as she’s knocked back, he takes the disk from Naomi and hurries off. That night, Naomi gathers her large group of friends as they work together to break into Zumbado’s dealership. Aside from finding a weird newspaper headline about something flying overhead back in 2004, there’s not a lot else to go on. When Zumbado returns that night, all the kids scarper. Naomi however, returns to Dee who admits the Superman thing wasn’t actually his doing. He does have special powers and admits as much to Naomi. He sprouts metallic wings, as all the lights explode. Dee implores Naomi to ask the right question. After composing herself she asks, “Who am I?”
The Episode Review
Who are you indeed, Naomi .With The CW Network in trouble and reportedly not making money, shows like this seem to be the reason why. This isn’t offensively bad and illogical like Republic of Sarah, nor is it anywhere near the old high standards of those early Arrow and Flash seasons. Instead, Naomi is…. passable. The story here is okay, its main character is okay and the band of characters are all, again, okay. There’s absolutely nothing here to wow audiences, unless you count piggybacking off Superman’s legend. The problem with Naomi is the hook, or lack thereof. We’re told that this is Naomi’s origin story but there’s nothing here that really stands out as unique and different. Some of this comes from a lack of discernable weaknesses. All heroes have them and it’s the reason why Spiderman is so popular. Naomi though has everything going for her. She has a massive circle of friends, ex boyfriends and currently lovers, a loving, acceptable family and the adoration of teachers at school. So where is her weakness coming from? Of course, it’s still early days and it could be that Naomi’s powers puts a damper on all of this, uprooting her from her perfect life and plunging her into a depressive downward spiral where she has to grapple with her new powers while continuing to fit in. As someone who knows next to nothing about this comic, I’m only going based on the show so we’ll have to wait and see if this one improves over time. For now, a lukewarm-at-best pilot isn’t the best indication that this is going to be an unmissable superhero show – especially airing the same day as Superman and Lois. Hopefully this one can pick up the pace.
