The 100

This show wants to be Battlestar Galactica very badly. It does not succeed.

The premise of The 100 has promise. In the future, nuclear missiles devastated the Earth. The only survivors are on the Ark, an amalgamation of space stations. Due to rising population and fewer resources, crimes are now punishable by death. However, crimes committed by those under 18 were held in a prison facility until their 18th birthday to which a review would determine life or death. One day, 100 juvenile delinquents are sent to Earth to see if they could survive on it. They can. But they’re not alone.

The pilot episode is terrible and while the rest of season one is a mild improvement, there isn’t enough good to outweigh the bad. Season two is frustrating since most of the adults on the show are stuck in recycling plots the teenagers already went through. It also doesn’t help that the Ark adults are utterly dumbed down so the teenagers look like they know what they’re doing in order to get shit done. The 100 is compared to Game of Thrones due to a high body count, but there are few genuinely surprising twists and the main cast is usually safe. It is also the kind of show that has no problems killing or torturing nonwhite people.

The 100 is also touted as a feminist show with strong female characters, but it’s very odd in its execution. Octavia becomes a warrior! But she doesn’t get a storyline that doesn’t revolve around a boy until the back half of season two. Raven is the science genius and is battling a disability! But she comes down to Earth solely for her boyfriend and her non-science thoughts are mostly consumed by him. Abby is a doctor and a leader! But she’s constantly being shown as the adult who doesn’t know any better about life on Earth because Clarke knows better. Clarke – does she even grow? She started caring about the 100 because she wanted to establish the status quo Ark culture on the ground. The only thing she seems to have learned is that doing so requires countless deaths and that she needs a way to resolve these deaths without feeling guilty.

The show is trying to bring more nuance in its world, exploring the contrasts between the Ark teens, the Ark adults, the Grounders (those on Earth who survived), and the Mountain Men (those who survived for generations in an advanced underground fallout shelter). What could be an interesting tension about the Ark people disrupting already established cultures with their colonialist views feels muddled because the show clearly favors the Ark culture and characters over the rest of the world. The Grounders speak a different language (though I don’t know how a pidgin language superceded English in the US), have no technology but are savvy enough to institute mild biological warfare and yet they’re considered the savages although the Ark people instituted a ridiculous capital punishment policy and the Mountain Men use the Grounders in unethical medical experiments. The Grounders have suffered mightily from those who think themselves superior but because the show favors the Ark people, they narratively win out. It’s pretty gross.

I wanted to like the show all my other friends adore, but it was a frustrating experience.