The 100: Currently The Best Show on TV

Yeah, you’re probably not watching it, and that’s a shame, because you know what?  Our long-awaited heir to the mantle of “Sci Fi Show That Asks Good Questions About Humanity” previously belonging to LOST and Battlestar Galatica has arrived.

But you probably aren’t watching it because it’s on the CW, and everyone knows that only girls ages 10-17 watch that channel.*  But if you can put aside your prejudice—and let’s remember that our culture reserves an absolutely obscene amount of totally unwarranted derision for “things teenage girls like” but that’s for another post—trust me, it’s worth it.  Now, it’s not without it’s flaws.  In fact, if after reading this you only watch the pilot, I fully expect you to show up on my doorstep with sad puppy dog eyes, asking “How could you?”  (The pilot is garbage, is what I’m saying.)  The pilot was so clearly pitched towards what people think the primary audience of the CW should be that it stumbles out of the gate.  But stick with it—the second episode is leaps and bounds better than the first, and by the fourth episode, it’s phenomenal.

*If you avoid the CW solely because of this idea, you’re missing out my friend.  It really airs a lot of quality TV that is also entertaining.  Arrow, Reign, and The 100 are all shows that are defying the “CW Is for Idiot Girls” stereotype that is in and of itself problematic. 

You’re probably wondering what it’s about, since I haven’t told you yet.  The plot, in a nutshell, is this: Roughly a century earlier, humanity blew itself to hell in a nuclear war.  The only survivors were those on space stations and the stations joined together to form a superstation called the Ark, with the idea that eventually, earth would be habitable and humanity could return home.  The Ark has very draconian laws—any crime is punishable by death if you’re over 18, and imprisonment if you’re under 18—and at the start of the show, its life support systems are failing.   So the leaders decide to send one hundred teenage prisoners—the titular The 100—down to earth to see if it’s habitable.  If it is (and spoiler alert: it is because otherwise this would be a very short show), excellent, humanity is saved.  If it isn’t, well, that’s a hundred less bodies on the space station and that buys them some time before they run out of air.  But then the 100 get to earth and discover that not only are they not alone, the earth’s current inhabitants want to murder them.  They also discover that teenage delinquents are unsurprisingly terrible at creating a functioning society.

The adults:

Abby Griffin:

Hair by Katniss Everdeen.

Abby is a Council Member and mother to Clarke, aka the best female protagonist ever but you haven’t met her yet so back to Abby.  Abby is a doctor and her husband was executed for planning to tell everyone on the Ark that their air supply was running out, and she masterminded the monitoring system attached to the teenage delinquents that tells the Ark if earth is habitable.  Mostly, Abby runs around worrying about her daughter and yelling about CHOICES and CONSEQUENCES and then defying direct orders and somehow never facing consequences for her decisions.  She’s not wholly likable, which I appreciate.  She’s flawed, but she’s trying.  It’s a theme with this show.

Jaha and Kane:

Otherwise known as "That guy from Grey's Anatomy" and "Desmond."

Kane is apparently the name they gave to Desmond-from-LOST on this show, but it’s useless because my brain ONLY sees him as Desmond and sometimes there’s dialogue like “we have to tell Kane!” and I’m all, “who the hell is Kane?  Do you mean Desmond?  Just say Desmond.”  It’s also very disconcerting because Kane is—at least at first—the bad guy.  And Desmond is the OPPOSITE of a bad guy, and it hurts my brain to reconcile a new name and a new personality.  Maybe this is just a sign that I’m a little too emotionally attached to LOST, but whatever.  He’s actually a very compelling semi-antagonist, mostly because he has good reasons for being shitty.  Jaha is the Chancellor (so...president?  Kind of?) and he is also a good mix of good-intentions-bad-actions.  His son is one of the 100, which is extra cold considering everyone assumed they were sending them down to DIE.

There’s also a bunch of background adults on the Ark, but most notable is Gaeta from Battlestar Galatica.  

I think this is a promo photo from BSG, but whatever.  Gaeta!

He has a different name but I haven’t learned it yet, so every time he pops up I’m like GAETA HI BABE GLAD TO SEE YOU’RE STILL IN SPACE.

The kids:

Octavia Blake:

On the plus side, being sent to a radiation soaked planet to die
is apparently great for your hair.

Octavia was imprisoned just for existing which shows you that the Ark does not fuck around when it comes to rules.  They have a strict one-child policy, and Octavia was her mother’s second baby.  She got away with it for sixteen years, mostly by hiding underneath the floor whenever someone came to their apartment, but she gets discovered and sent to prison and then on a suicide mission to earth.  Points in Octavia’s favor: she’s very pretty and friendly.  Points against her: She’s kind of an idiot.  But I suppose living your entire life in a 70 sq foot apartment would make one a little…less experienced at life.

Jasper and Monty:

Also working in this show's favor: roughly half the cast
is non-white.

These two adorable idiots are comic relief.  Locked up for “stealing some herb” (way to get around the censors, writers) they are around to be cute and adorable and a small bit of hilarity in an otherwise very bleak world.

Raven Reyes:

Raven could murder me and I would probably
thank her for taking the time to notice me.

Let’s get this straight: Raven Reyes is better than you.  She’s better than everyone.  She’s a sassy poor kid with excellent mechanic skills and a locked up boyfriend—Finn, who does not deserve her at all—and more guts and gumption than every single adult on the Ark.

Finn Collins: 

When Taylor Swift says "the fella over there with the hella good hair,"
I'm 90% sure she's referring to this fine gentleman.

Oh, Finn.  I have so many conflicting feelings about you.  On the one hand, I enjoy that your character arc went from “flirty playboy who just wants to have fun” to “moral center of the group.”  On the other hand, you are RUINING EVERYTHING.  And by everything, I mean your presence is standing in the way of a Raven Reyes/Clarke Griffin friendship, which would dominate everyone and everything and probably make a singlehanded case for matriarchy in the newly established colony.  Clarke and Raven are two thoroughly excellent ladies, and right now, you are an obstacle to them being thoroughly excellent friends and I just can’t deal with that.

Clarke Griffin:

Both the actress who plays Clarke and the
actor who plays Bellamy are Australian but their American
accents are flawless.  Snaps to both of them and their
vocal coach/speech therapist, because dang.

CLARKE GRIFFIN, everybody.  She’s blunt, she’s mad, she’s resourceful, she’s brave, and she gets my vote for president.  She isn’t perfect—she’s definitely prone to impulsive decisions and she can hold a grudge like nobody's business—but she’s perfect to me.  My one quibble with Clarke’s characterization is that her mother is a doctor and so…that means Clarke can be one to?  I get that they needed a camp medic and that Clarke had the most experience with medicine, but there’s a huge difference between “we should probably put pressure on that wound” and “I am able to perform complex surgeries with little-to-no assistance.”  My dad taught AP Bio and while I can probably talk you through creating a punnett square, I definitely can’t talk you through a Polymerase Chain Reaction because despite my dad’s best efforts I'm still not entirely sure what that is.  But whatever, Clarke is great so I'll allow it.  My favorite thing about season one Clarke, however, is how she learns and grows as a leader.  She wants to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but she quickly learns that when you’re fighting for your life, you don’t always have that luxury.  She makes difficult decisions and then owns them—and the consequences—without flinching.  She's also a kickass female leader and we always need more of those on TV.

Last on the list but first in my heart, Bellamy Blake:

I mean, it IS the CW after all.
They know what's up.

Bellamy is Octavia’s older brother, and he could win some awards for his insane levels of overprotectiveness--although given Octavia's aforementioned idiocy, some of it is definitely warranted.  He spends a good portion of the first three episodes literally roaring at everyone out of anger (and then Clarke just rolls her eyes at him and does whatever she wants and he totally just lets her, because even though he is trying to establish authority he recognizes that Clarke is smarter than him and he also not-so-secretly likes to get bossed around by strong ladies as evidenced by every interaction he has with both Clarke and Raven).  Bellamy has the absolute best character progression of anyone on the show—he’s a huge dickbag in the first episode but by episode four, you realize he’s actually just a wounded puppy doing his best to pretend he isn’t terrified.  Bellamy also exemplifies this show’s major strength: exploring why people do terrible things.  Because don’t get me wrong: Bellamy fucks up, and he fucks up a lot.  People die because of his decisions.  Lots of people.  But as the season goes on, you learn that he’s actually desperately trying to protect people but going about it in the absolute worst way possible--like giving a terrified twelve year old roughly the size of a chihuahua the sharpest knife in the history of EVER.  (That one backfires, big time.)  A good rule of thumb with Bellamy is: did he run his decision past Clarke?  No?  Then it was a bad one.  His reluctant friendship with Clarke is hands down the best part of the show.  They have diametrically opposing world views—Bellamy grew up poor while Clarke’s nickname is literally Princess—but complementary skills.  Clarke is really good at making decisions--and we've established that Bellamy is an unqualified disaster at that--but Bellamy is excellent at convincing people to follow him while Clarke lacks the necessary charisma. By the end of the first season, they are constantly consulting with each other over major decisions and band together to keep their little group of teenage idiots alive.  

I'm skipping a bunch of characters, like Wells (brave, sweet Wells) and Murphy (creepy, sociopathic Murphy) but really, just watch it.  

And finally, "the plot twist you totally see coming":

Like I said, the 100 arrives on earth assuming they are humanity’s sole survivors, but there’s already people on the ground. And because this is television, they look like this:

Bellamy tortures this guy, but  he feels, like, really bad about it.

and this:

Look!  It's Sierra from Dollhouse!
Let's send a gift basket to casting, because they
are nailing it.

Apparently, when the nuclear bombs went off a bunch of models were the only survivors.

Verdict:  Absolutely Perfect (with a "rough start" caveat).  The only reason you aren't watching this is because of the network it's on and that's bullshit.  Season one is on netflix and there's only 13 episodes, so if you really apply yourself you can be caught up in less than a week.