The 100 Season 2 (The CW)

I’m going to get this out of the way right now, The 100 is the best show on The CW. Which is quite frankly something that I’d never thought I’d say even at the end of its first season, because that was when Arrow was really hitting home with some excellent episodes and we’ve had The Flash since then. However, Arrow started to drop in quality as Season 3 began, just as The 100 was really stepping up a gear. In fact, I’d not just call it as the best show on The CW, but one of the best Science Fiction shows on television period, matching up with the likes of the clone-drama Orphan Black, and the procedural-turned heavy serialized science fiction thriller Person of Interest. It’s something that I’d have never expected The 100 to do, and really rewards those who stick with it after the first few episodes aren’t unfortunately the strongest that the series has ever been.

The conclusion of season 1 left the characters in a very unexpected situation as it delivered one of the strongest cliffhangers that I’ve seen in a while. Following the battle against the Grounders, the 100, who have been captured by the Mountain Men who make their home in Mount Weather. It turns out that Mt. Weather (which was the original objective of the 100 to reach way back in the Pilot), is actually the home of humans who have survived the Nuclear War and retreated underground, trapped in the Mountain because to step outside would mean instant death. There, the 43, of which the number includes Clarke (Eliza Taylor), Jasper (Devon Bostick) and Monty (Christopher Larkin), find themselves adapting to life inside the Mountain, which is overlooked by President Dante Wallace (Raymond J. Barry, who played Arlo, Raylan Givens’ dad, very well on Justified – to the point where it’s now odd to see Barry in a role where he actually cares about people other than himself). However, Clarke is incredibly sceptical about the apparent safe haven that she finds herself in, wanting nothing more to be freed.  With Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Finn (Thomas McDonnell) are presumed dead, things are made all the more complicated by the fact that Ark Station, and all its residents (aside from Thelonious Jaha (Isaiah Washington), who remains in space,  has crashed down to Earth, with its inhabitants finding themselves on Earth for the first time.

So that’s basically where we pick off at the start of Season 2, and it’s great to see The 100 continuously developing and changing over the course of the extended sixteen episode count that we’re given this season. It continues to be heavily serialized, with hardly any filler episodes found within, which is rare for a show that has to use longer episodes like this. It also continues to be incredibly bleak for a show on The CW, feeling more at home with the likes of The Walking Dead in terms of tone than that of The Flash, for example. It isn’t afraid to put its characters through the wire and do things that the majority of any other show on network TV would shy away from. Deaths don’t just happen in the season finale, they’re scattered throughout the show, and those deaths don’t just happen to nameless characters – there’s a shocking moment midway through the season that really punches you in the gut and leaves you breathless. Alliances are made, forged, tightened and broken over the course of the season, with several unpredictable betrayals (the one in Blood Must Have Blood, Part One, is easily one of the most shocking moments of the show), and more. Those who hate the CW’s apparent mandate of creating love-triangles left right and centre will be pleased to know that romance will be pushed to the side here, although that said, there are few moments but none as out of place as last season’s seemed to feel.

The characters, most of whom have already been pushed through hell and back, are pushed to the limit again. They make choices that you won’t like and actions have consequences. Nobody is the same at the start of the season as they are at the end and it’s great to see these characters constantly changing and developing. Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), one of the most problematic characters of early Season 1, really becomes one of the show’s strongest in Season 2, undergoing a total transformation. Jasper and Monty become far more than just the comic relief characters. Murphy (Richard Harmon) and Jaha both undergo transformations that you would have never expected their characters to take as the show puts them in an unlikely partnership midway through the season. And Bellamy steals the show in the final few episodes as he gets to Die-Hard his way through the tunnels underneath Mt. Weather on a solo mission that’s very awesome to see. And that’s before we get to Clarke, the main character, who gets some incredible development, as the show isn’t afraid to do things to its main character that others would avoid. So it’s safe to say that the show knows what to do with a lot of its characters and balances them very well with some excellent pacing throughout most of the season.

Despite the large increase in quality, The 100 does still have a few flaws. A few scenes here and there feel rushed and the ending cliffhanger doesn’t feel as jaw-dropping as the first season’s was (even though it features a very cool use of Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London), and there are a few episodes that aren’t quite as good as most of the season. However, that said, there are no unwatchable episodes here, and I’d still rather watch an episode of the second season of The 100 rather than most of anything else on TV. This show (which has an excellent new title sequence, by the way), really establishes itself as the next Battlestar Galactica in this season and if you’re a science fiction fan who hasn’t watched it yet, what are you waiting for? Go check it out now. Season 3 can’t come quickly enough.

VERDICT: 9/10

The 100 Season 1 (The CW)

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