97 years into the future, humanity has been
driven off Earth by a series of wars which have rendered the planet
inhospitable. The only known survivors inhabit a group of twelve space stations
called The Ark, home to 2400 people. Due to a limited amount of resources all
crimes are punished by death unless the criminal is under eighteen years old. So
far, it’s a system that has kept humanity alive. However, when the Ark starts
to fall apart, a drastic measure is needed, so in order to test out whether
Earth is survivable, the adults agree to send one hundred eighteen year olds
down to the planet’s surface.
Right from the fact that it’s on the CW,
you know it’s going to be a show that you’ll either love or hate. It just
depends on how high your tolerance level is, because there are plenty of flaws
and logic gaps to be found here. But if you can put that aside, The 100 is a show that becomes far more
watchable when it goes on, drawing to a compelling conclusion that establishes
the series as one of the best on the network, alongside the likes of Arrow, Supernatural and The Originals. Granted, it isn’t saying
much when you consider the wealth of better shows to be found elsewhere, but
for what it is, you could do far worse than The
100.
You can expect the standard CW tropes to
come from this show. All the teenage actors, and thus the characters themselves
are young and model-esque, which they really shouldn’t be given what their
characters have been through. Thankfully though, they don’t remain that way
throughout the season, as the show drags our characters through hell and
emerges as one of the darker series to come from this network.
The show has a large cast of characters,
split between the kids on the ground and the adults on The Ark. As a general
rule, the adults are better actors, which is no surprise really, and whilst
there is no real breakout performance the cast, for the most part, are
tolerable, even if they may seem annoying at first. Eliza Taylor’s Clarke, the
main protagonist of the series, particularly falls into the trope of a young,
naive hero – but over the cause of the series adapts and grows, rapidly
changing into an entirely different character from the start. In fact, there’s
a lot of character growth over the
course of this series, something which may surprise you, but rarely does the
show have a character who’s the same at the start of the series as they are on
the end.
Although it is in another league entirely,
the most obvious comparison to this series is with the epic Battlestar Galactica reboot. Both share
similar themes, a dark tone and even similar actors, with Alessandro Juliani
(Lieutenant Geata on BSG, Sinclair
here) and Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh on BSG, Councilwoman Diana Sydney here). It’s
great to see these actors again and hopefully we’ll be seeing more awesome Battlestar actors showing up in the
future. Other adult members include Isaiah Washington (Chancellor Thelonius
Jaha), and Paige Turker (Clarke’s mother), who put in strong performances.
Much like Battlestar, The 100 has a thirteen episode first season with the
last two ending in a thrilling two-part “We
Are Grounders”, which is easily the highlight of the season. Its tight
constraint and plotting allow for few filler episodes and as a result you’re
better off watching the whole thing if you want to try and catch up. There aren’t
any real unwatchable episodes, even if the pilot suffers from perhaps too much exposition
at times, but eventually the series manages to find its feet and become really
entertaining.
As one would expect from CW shows, you get
your standard pop music soundtrack thrown in over the course of the series.
Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive is one
of the most recognisable songs that the series has to offer, but the best use
of music comes in the finale with Radiohead’s Exit Music (For a Film) playing over the ending montage that really
sets a strong direction for season two.
The pace moves along frantically and there
are plenty of twist endings, fast paced sequences and great reveals. It’s
consistently unpredictable and the series is not afraid to kill off a major
character or two, and there are plenty of deaths that happen over the course of
the series so it’s probably best not to get attached to anyone.
The
100 itself perhaps shows one of CW’s riskiest
options yet. They’ve never really gone full science fiction in the past and
whilst there are several tropes commonly found on the network, it does work
despite this. The effects are largely good and the drama is for the most part,
pretty entertaining. Of course, there are flaws aplenty here, with perhaps the
biggest one being the love triangle between Clarke and two other characters,
Raven (Lindsay Morgan) & Finn (Thomas McDonnell), but on the whole The 100 gets off to a largely promising
start and it’ll be interesting to see where the series goes from here.
VERDICT:
7.8/10
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