After 97 years away from earth due to a nuclear disaster that pretty much wiped everything out, survivors in space send 100 young criminals (well, sort of criminals) to earth to see if it’s livable or not. The catch? The 100 have a limited amount of time to communicate back to their ship before they either die of radiation poisoning or before the residents of the ship run out of air (the latter is more important). In addition, the 100 have to also be careful about what survived the nuclear fallout.
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Love the premise of this show. It has an edgy bit of sci-fi, some thriller elements in it and a lot of unknown terror waiting to be created from the multitude of possibilities the show might teeter off into. You get that feeling when you watch the first three episodes. You get the urgency of the situation, the realness of it all and the constant reminder that you’re watching something sci-fi. That’s a lot to love in a short amount of time.
Sadly, it never goes beyond those three episodes.
The beginning of the show introduces you to our hero named Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor), who is wrongfully accused of being an accessory to her dead father’s crimes against the residents of the Ark (the ship they’re living in above the earth). She is tough from the get-go, intriguing as a a potential hero and strong enough to see this show through. I mean, Taylor nails this persona right out of the gates.
Clarke is put together with 99 other inmates and sent to earth to see if everything is ‘all clear’. The potential for disaster? Radiation poison is the number one problem, while loss of communication with the Ark and evil current earth residents is a firm second and third. Much like the 100, we’re shuttled off quickly through the opening episodes and jarringly thrown into a desolate situation on earth. It all happens so fast that it’s tough to question what is happening, rather we just have to go along with it.
It seems a bit abrupt at the beginning, but the point of the first few episodes is to give you a real feeling of panic, disruption and survival. The first few episodes provide that and create logical chaos with a group of strangers having to pull together and survive in a place that has its own issues to work out.
Then things get a bit flat lined in terms of creativity.
The bickering within the 100 gets old quick. The group flip-flops back and forth between wanting to do what’s right and wanting to do what they believe is necessary. The first part of the season has the group fighting each other and quickly shifts to the group fighting against an unknown enemy (Grounders) in unfamiliar territory. The group never firmly establishes who the audience should be supporting and who is clearly the hero. Even Clarke is written confusingly as someone who can’t really make decisions that is best for the whole. That is an odd main character, and definitely someone who is built in one-dimensional fashion.
To try and right the ship, because it looks like the writers somehow lost their way a bit with the group, they create an opposite to Clarke in self-appointed leader, Bellamy (Bob Morley), who is a tough character to love or relate to. Clearly at the beginning he was meant to be a road block for our hero, if not antagonist against Clarke’s intentions. Regretfully, he never firmly establishes himself as such, and thus springs into a confused mess of a character. Some moments the character is likable (Ex. His relationship and protectiveness of his sister is commendable), most times he is not. Sometimes he is the enemy, but somehow makes his intentions somewhat good. He is just plain confusing to feel anything about.
Anyway, the second half of the season has Clarke and Bellamy bumping heads with regards to justice within the group (after some unfortunate deaths), leadership during attacks and communication with the Ark. It’s like watching two siblings fight over and over again, which can get old quick. To break it up a bit, the story shifts back and forth from earth to the Ark. The Ark’s situation is a bit better, but similar in nature and a little more bland in intensity. For the better part of the first season, the residents of the Ark are battling to make sacrifices (including a 300 people dying willingly to preserve air) and struggle with the fact that they sent their kids and loved ones down to earth, possibly to die. Of course, the entire time you’re watching this you’re going to ask, “Why don’t you just take a chance and go to earth? You’re going to die anyway.” It’s logical and I wondered that myself for a good portion of the season. The drama on the Ark connects well with the drama on earth, but it’s slow going in story development and the characters just aren’t developed enough to care anything about. Much like Bellamy’s situation, it’s tough tell who is the bad guy and who is the good guy. Maybe that was intentional, but it seems like they could have established these folks better.
I will say that the Ark drama is at times riveting. The 300+ people who sacrifice their lives during the show is intense and enormously sad. Beyond that, there isn’t a lot here that makes you feel for the situation at hand. Again, it comes back to why they aren’t going back to earth if they’re going to die anyway. I know the show wants to create this great power struggle on the Ark in regards to leadership, but the struggle doesn’t seem real or sinister.
At the end of the day, The 100 is a fascinating show with a solid premise. How it treats and executes that premise feels a bit disorganized, and the characters can feel very lackluster at times when it comes to solid development. You expect to have a standout hero in this type of show and a standout villain. Neither of those, outside of the Grounders, really rears its head. Everyone is suspect for both and because of that they can come off dull and forced. Having said that, I still have hope for the show because I think it can be salvaged, rebuilt and treated with care. Again, it’s a cool premise that deserves a bit more organization than it’s currently getting. Season two starts next month, so it will be neat to see where the writers take it.
On the Blu-ray side of things, the quality is good. You have some artifacts and graininess rearing its head during the earth scenes. When you get a heavy amount of grays in the forest areas, you can see the little imperfections in the picture. That’s not to say that the quality is DVD standard, as it’s much better than DVD, but it’s definitely not up to par with other Warner Home Video releases. It does look gorgeous in the green, red and black ranges, though. When the light is conducive to those colors, you can see some fine details in the clothing, environment and other objects. There isn’t any color banding in the picture, which is a big plus. Overall, I have seen better shows like The Originals and Supernatural, but The 100 does have its visual moments.
As for special features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– In the Beginning
– The Ark
– A New Earth
– Grounders, Reapers, and Mountain Men
– 2013 Comic-Con Panel
– Audio Commentary and unaired scenes on the Season Finale
For a show like this, it’s nice to see some good features. The four initial featurettes are good, giving you a bit more perspective on production intentions. The comic-con panel is solid. The audio commentary is gold. Not a tremendous amount of features, but quality over quantity.