Half-Assed Review: "The 100" on Netflix

 

So, I have been seeing the graphic for this show on Netflix for years, and someone finally convinced me to check it out. As a rule, I watch very few movies, and even less TV. A few cartoons, maybe, and select shows (Peaky Blinders, Umbrella Academy, GoT, etc.)

This was actually a pleasant surprise. First of all, it was apparently produced for the CW, which is a channel for senior citizens, I thought, and only worthy of skipping over. It later found a home on Netflix, and I agree with that decision. It's slick and well-produced.

Before I finished an episode, this felt like a worthy successor to 'Lost', which I have never, ever watched. I am relatively confident in saying this show was better. It's more pertinent, and contains far fewer loose ends, knowing what we know now about Lost. Because you are very unlikely to be stranded on a desert isle, but you are definitely facing a coming collapse and further dystopia, whether you are aware of it or not.

Based on a novel I also haven't read, it successfully tells two stories. One is decidedly sci-fi, involving a surviving group of humans on a decaying space station, post apocalypse. The other involves a group of youth sent back to Earth to determine the viability of a return for the others.

Much as the logo suggests, it is a clash of worlds. In fact, it's a clash of worlds within a clash of worlds. The space station culture vs. the newly-minted earthling culture. The newly-minted earthlings vs. the survivors on Earth that they didn't know about. For starters.

So, there's a lot to work with there. The space station is a fairly harsh survival scenario, where laws are absolute, death is the primary penalty, and everything is for the good of the collective. Except where concerns their leaders, naturally. On Earth, it's very much a Lord of the Flies situation. In fact, power struggles are what this show is all about. Everyone wants to rule everyone, with a few genuine leaders in the mix, trying to do what's best for the groups involved.

There are plenty of twists and surprises. It's not all entirely predictable. It's also fairly brutal and edgy at times, at least when you consider who produced it. There is poignancy of a sort, emotional drama, love (and love triangles). Sort of something for everyone, here. It really should appeal to the Hunger Games crowd.

In fact, the only character names I know (kinda...) are women. That's not just because I have a preference, there, but because they're some of the most compelling characters. (Clarke, Raven, and Octavia, if you're quizzing me.) But there are also memorable male characters, forgive me for not knowing their names.

Lots of betrayals and double-crosses. It ain't Game of Thrones, for sure, but there is plenty of intrigue. Fluff+, perhaps, but fluff that can still occasionally make you think a bit. I'm gonna wrap up this lazy-ass review with a score of 8/10. I hear it very much loses the plot in later seasons, but it went on for something like seven or eight of them. I plan on stopping before that point.

I do have a bit of trouble ignoring what I consider to be major plotholes. I don't think third-generation people raised on a spacecraft would just be entirely comfortable rushing out into a forest to live. I also feel that there would be some slang developed by that point. The international nature of the space station (actually a merger of twelve different country's stations) doesn't really translate into any difference on screen. They're all excessively homogenized. 

But, meh. It's TV. I think it's far more worthy of your attention than One Tree Hill or whatever passes for entertainment on the CW... If you're looking for something interesting, give this one a few episodes worth of attention.

THE 100 ON NETFLIX