2022 · Based on 1 season, 13 episodes through May 10, 2022 ·
Naomi McDuffie is a smart, confident teenager who loves Superman and runs a fan website in Port Oswego, Oregon. After a strange event makes her faint and hints at a hidden alien past, she investigates with her best friend Annabelle and a group of classmates. A tattoo shop owner named Dee becomes her guide, while her adoptive parents hide key facts about her birth. The season mixes high school friendships, romance, family secrets, and superhero fights in a bright but slow mystery drama.
Naomi is presented as a black girl who grows into a hero with powers like Superman, and the story makes her race and gender part of the show's identity. The series also presents her as bisexual, with a male ex-boyfriend and repeated romantic interest from Lourdes, a girl who shares her love of comics. The show gives major roles to a mixed-race adoptive family and a broad group of friends, while Naomi's power journey repeats the message that being different can be a strength. Most episodes still focus on alien origins, trust, family, and learning to accept her power, so the identity message is visible but sits beside the main mystery.
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Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Naomi.
Woke representation / casting
Naomi is a black teenage girl, a top student, and the super-powered lead who can match Superman. The McDuffie home joins a black daughter, a white father, and a South Asian mother in a leading family. The main teen group and alien cast also use a broad mix of identities in important roles. The creators publicly frame this as making a black girl hero and bisexual attraction normal.
45%
Woke political dialogue
Not present. The teens talk about aliens, family trust, school, and becoming heroes. The season does not give them recurring speeches about current politics or activist causes.
0%
Identity-driven story themes
Naomi is presented as bisexual through attraction to Nathan and Lourdes. The love square appears early, and flirtation with Lourdes returns later before Lourdes tries to kiss her in episode 10. The show treats that attraction as normal and lets Naomi's parents accept both crushes. The alien mystery remains the main plot, so the identity theme is recurring but not the whole story.
48%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Not present. The military and Commander Steel hunt aliens as part of the science-fiction danger. The show does not tie that threat to modern complaints about Western institutions, race, class, or gender.
0%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The series changes the comic's plot and expands its cast, but no clear identity-driven change to established canon is confirmed. Naomi remains a black hero from the source material.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Some right-leaning posts called the show woke because it centered a black female hero and a bisexual lead. Other posts called it a preachfest or linked its low ratings and cancellation to “go woke, go broke.” The X search found notable but scattered reaction around the premiere and cancellation. No clear boycott campaign was verified, and review-bomb claims were mostly secondhand.
35%
Creator track record context
Ava DuVernay has a strong record of work about black identity and racial injustice. David F. Walker and Jamal Campbell are known for black representation and inclusive superhero work. Brian Michael Bendis has a moderate record of creating diverse heroes. Jill Blankenship and most other listed crew have little activist public history, so the overall context is mixed but leans toward representation.
58%
Production
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