CW's The 100

[Christopher]

Adding to the list of nitpicks by people who think too much{tm}...wouldn't it have been cheaper to send down a few drones to survey Earth instead of a costly shuttle? Please don't tell me they couldn't have built a few if they could waste an entire shuttle. They provided no gear for the 100 inside the ship? Just sent them down with the clothes on their backs and nothing else? No backpacks with their personal clothes? No portable comms unit inside the shuttle? Today, we have these things called satellite phones that bounce calls off satellites...those didn't survive the apocalypse to allow ground to station communication?

That's the thing, though: The real purpose of this expedition is not to survey Earth. If they'd really been serious about that, they would've sent down someone better qualified than a bunch of teen delinquents. The real purpose is simply to reduce the Ark's population by 100 so the remaining people aboard can get another month of life support. That works just as well whether the 100 live or die. If they manage to survive and send back useful data, that's a bonus, but it was a secondary concern. Mainly this was just about getting rid of them.

I mean, this is a society that summarily executes even the pettiest adult criminal. They may be squeamish enough not to kill their children outright, but they'd unhesitatingly do so as soon as the kids turned 18. So it's not at all surprising that the establishment wouldn't be overly concerned about the welfare or survival of these young offenders. This is basically an elaborate execution that gives them a slim chance to survive or at least to contribute something useful to society before they die.

 

[dansigal]

Adding to the list of nitpicks by people who think too much{tm}...wouldn't it have been cheaper to send down a few drones to survey Earth instead of a costly shuttle? Please don't tell me they couldn't have built a few if they could waste an entire shuttle. They provided no gear for the 100 inside the ship? Just sent them down with the clothes on their backs and nothing else? No backpacks with their personal clothes? No portable comms unit inside the shuttle? Today, we have these things called satellite phones that bounce calls off satellites...those didn't survive the apocalypse to allow ground to station communication?

That's the thing, though: The real purpose of this expedition is not to survey Earth. If they'd really been serious about that, they would've sent down someone better qualified than a bunch of teen delinquents. The real purpose is simply to reduce the Ark's population by 100 so the remaining people aboard can get another month of life support. That works just as well whether the 100 live or die. If they manage to survive and send back useful data, that's a bonus, but it was a secondary concern. Mainly this was just about getting rid of them.

I mean, this is a society that summarily executes even the pettiest adult criminal. They may be squeamish enough not to kill their children outright, but they'd unhesitatingly do so as soon as the kids turned 18. So it's not at all surprising that the establishment wouldn't be overly concerned about the welfare or survival of these young offenders. This is basically an elaborate execution that gives them a slim chance to survive or at least to contribute something useful to society before they die.

Not to mention that being their entire society seems to be created adhoc by those who could get to the few existing space stations we don't know if they have things like drones or other useful technology for this type of situation. Also, things like clothing is probably sparse that they aren't going to be sending extra on what amounts to a long shot expedition to see what's going on down on Earth.

 

[Christopher]

Not to mention that being their entire society seems to be created adhoc by those who could get to the few existing space stations we don't know if they have things like drones or other useful technology for this type of situation.

My impression is that the survivors were the people who were already crewing the 12 stations when the cataclysm wiped out everyone on the surface. Kind of like The Martian Chronicles, where the only survivors of humanity were the people already settled on Mars. So they wouldn't have much beyond what they had to being with or have been able to build in the subsequent 97 years. They have to make do with what resources they can scrounge. I recall a line of dialogue about the drop ship being unreliable because it had been sitting around unused for a century.

Also, things like clothing is probably sparse that they aren't going to be sending extra on what amounts to a long shot expedition to see what's going on down on Earth.

I doubt the CW execs would have a problem with the attractive young cast members not having much clothing to spare...

 

[dansigal]

Not to mention that being their entire society seems to be created adhoc by those who could get to the few existing space stations we don't know if they have things like drones or other useful technology for this type of situation.

My impression is that the survivors were the people who were already crewing the 12 stations when the cataclysm wiped out everyone on the surface.

Potentially the case, but they didn't really explain one way or another. They just said the survivors were from the 12 countries that already had operating space stations. Presumably those countries also had operating space programs, so it's possible that some who weren't directly nuked made it off the surface.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Good setup. Terrible musical interludes. My wife will likely bow out based solely on that, but the show itself was interesting to both of us. I understand that this is based on a book - I wonder if they're following this book's plot?

And the show was screaming "FILMED IN CANADA!!!" to anyone who's ever watched genre TV, or more than one episode of Stargate. Doesn't help that Kelly Hu is slumming on this show AND Arrow too (I know she's from the States), but Alessandro Juilani had two whole lines here (adding to his couple from Almost Human earlier on), and that Asian henchguy was familiar from several things as well. Only a matter of time before we see other familiar faces from the Vancouver actor's pool...

Mark

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Good setup. Terrible musical interludes.

I thought "Radioactive" in the beginning was actually pretty clever as the lyrics worked pretty well.

 

[cylkoth]

That's the thing, though: The real purpose of this expedition is not to survey Earth. If they'd really been serious about that, they would've sent down someone better qualified than a bunch of teen delinquents. The real purpose is simply to reduce the Ark's population by 100 so the remaining people aboard can get another month of life support. That works just as well whether the 100 live or die. If they manage to survive and send back useful data, that's a bonus, but it was a secondary concern. Mainly this was just about getting rid of them.

Understood. Adding another month for the Ark to sustain itself by ridding themselves of 100 troublemakers, shouldn't have been their primary goal. With extinction around the corner, they needed to make sure the surface was someplace they could escape to, thus the waste of a valuable resource-even a possibly dilapidated drop shuttle (I must have missed the line where it was referred to as a clunker)-it looked pretty nice to me...the set designers making it look nicer than the script described possibly.

Even if the surface wasn't viable, they'd lose nothing letting the 100 take their personal stuff with them. It's still hard to believe the station leaders have been sitting on their hands not investigating whether Earth was habitable. I can accept the global satellite network failing, preventing them from surveying or photographing the surface , but they've waiting until 3-4 months before the end to do...this?

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

It seemed that the discovery they had only months left was a recent thing - it's Clarke's dad who discovered it, and by going public he got spaced and she ended up in jail. Earlier dialogue from the leader guy establishes that the Ark figured Earth had another century to go before being habitable again, so it stands to reason that no one was terribly worried about dying right away and we won't see anyone panicking for another episode or two, according to the season trailer at the end.

But we learn pretty quickly that Earth at least has breathable air and that no one's dying of radiation at least right away, so what's stopping everyone from going down to the surface? If you're faced with a choice of spacing people to keep everyone else alive or, as they've done here, send people down to an uncertain future, why not just send people down? Are they short on spaceships?

Mark

 

[Christopher]

My impression is that the survivors were the people who were already crewing the 12 stations when the cataclysm wiped out everyone on the surface.

Potentially the case, but they didn't really explain one way or another. They just said the survivors were from the 12 countries that already had operating space stations. Presumably those countries also had operating space programs, so it's possible that some who weren't directly nuked made it off the surface.

I'm extrapolating from Clarke's line in the opening narration that the war killed everyone on Earth. Either way, the various stations seem to have been large and advanced enough to already have fair-sized permanent populations -- not like the current space station with just three or four people aboard. And they wouldn't have had room to take in many refugees, I'd think.

I mean, unless they did some asteroid-mining, they'd pretty much be stuck with the resources and equipment they had at the start, which tells us they must've been pretty well-equipped and well-populated stations even before the war. And that means that, while it's possible that some refugees made it up from the surface, that isn't necessary for the Ark to have had a substantial population base to start with.

Good setup. Terrible musical interludes.

I'm not a fan of that type of music, or of the use of songs for underscoring to begin with, but I was amused by how appropriate, in a heavy-handed and literal way, the chosen songs' lyrics were for the events they accompanied. I recognized that first song with the "Welcome to the new world" ("new age"?) lyrics -- I think the CW used it in promos for something at one point -- but apparently its lyrics actually are about a post-apocalyptic, radioactive environment or something, from what I could pick up.

And the show was screaming "FILMED IN CANADA!!!" to anyone who's ever watched genre TV, or more than one episode of Stargate. Doesn't help that Kelly Hu is slumming on this show AND Arrow too (I know she's from the States), but Alessandro Juilani had two whole lines here (adding to his couple from Almost Human earlier on), and that Asian henchguy was familiar from several things as well.

The actor's name is Terry Chen. He's one of two recurring Continuum players I noted here, the other being Richard Harmon (whose face seems to doom him to playing creepy and menacing characters; in this case he was one of the bullies who became Bellamy's enforcers by the end of the episode).

Only a matter of time before we see other familiar faces from the Vancouver actor's pool...

You say that like it's a bad thing.

-even a possibly dilapidated drop shuttle (I must have missed the line where it was referred to as a clunker)-it looked pretty nice to me...the set designers making it look nicer than the script described possibly.

Well, it's in space. It's not like there's a lot of stuff in the environment to cause it to rust or get covered in barnacles or anything. What matters isn't how it looked, but how it functioned -- it went off course, it made a rough landing, and its communications array and other important equipment didn't survive re-entry and impact. Clearly not a reliable piece of equipment.

It's still hard to believe the station leaders have been sitting on their hands not investigating whether Earth was habitable. I can accept the global satellite network failing, preventing them from surveying or photographing the surface , but they've waiting until 3-4 months before the end to do...this?

We're talking about an iron-fisted dystopian regime. Rulers like that aren't prone to disrupt the status quo on which their power is based, even if they know it's heading their nations for disaster. That's why things got so bad in the USSR and why they're still so horrific in North Korea. The Ark's leaders know that as long as the human race is confined to the Ark, they can maintain absolute control, but if people are free to go back to Earth and live there, then the dictatorship will dissolve. So naturally they resisted attempting to resettle Earth until they had no other choice.

Heck, they're probably hoping the expedition will conclude the Earth is still unlivable, that it will just buy them enough time to fix the life support systems and restore the status quo on the Ark.

 

[dansigal]

Even if the surface wasn't viable, they'd lose nothing letting the 100 take their personal stuff with them. It's still hard to believe the station leaders have been sitting on their hands not investigating whether Earth was habitable. I can accept the global satellite network failing, preventing them from surveying or photographing the surface , but they've waiting until 3-4 months before the end to do...this?

Or not everything is what it seems and people have secrets and know more than they are letting on and there will be plot twists, as tend to happen in shows like this.

It's just the first episode, I recommend just going along for the ride for a bit before questioning all the things that don't make perfect sense.

 

[dansigal]

I recognized that first song with the "Welcome to the new world" ("new age"?) lyrics -- I think the CW used it in promos for something at one point -- but apparently its lyrics actually are about a post-apocalyptic, radioactive environment or something, from what I could pick up.

I think SyFy used it while promoting Defiance

 

[Christopher]

^Oh yeah, that's probably it.

 

[cylkoth]

It's just the first episode, I recommend just going along for the ride for a bit before questioning all the things that don't make perfect sense.

But..but, we're genre fans. It's what we do!

 

[Ro_Laren]

It thought the show was interesting enough, but I didn’t care for some things such as the music. I know that the 100 exiled teenagers are just that: teenagers, but I kept finding myself thinking, “don’t do that, do this…” For example, if I had been dropped onto a planet that no one had set foot on for 97 years, I would not start screaming and jumping for joy as soon as I landed. What if crazy mutant creatures were on the planet and tried to attack me? The first thing I would do is try to find a weapon and then I would have been like Clarke: I would have tried to find a way to get to the supplies. Speaking of supplies, we can only guess why these teens weren’t given any. Either 1) the supplies at the station were really low so TPTB decided to leave the teens to their own devices 2) they forgot to give the teens supplies, 3) they didn’t feel like giving the kids supplies.

As far as Clark’s group goes, it annoyed me that Octavia jumped into the water. Look before you leap! And of course, it annoyed me when they all started screaming once the DOWK guy made it over the river.

As far as Wells is concerned, what were they talking about his leg for? I don’t remember it getting hurt and was confused when he didn’t leave with Clarke. Regardless, he should have realized sooner that it was pointless to try to argue with the troublemakers and he should have kept his mouth shut when they were trying to take off their wristbands. If I were him, I would have tried to keep a low profile until Clarke returned.

 

[Christopher]

It thought the show was interesting enough, but I didn’t care for some things such as the music.

I've long since resigned myself to having to put up with pop music underscoring in modern shows. It was a little more intrusive here than on other shows, but not by much.

I know that the 100 exiled teenagers are just that: teenagers, but I kept finding myself thinking, “don’t do that, do this…” For example, if I had been dropped onto a planet that no one had set foot on for 97 years, I would not start screaming and jumping for joy as soon as I landed. What if crazy mutant creatures were on the planet and tried to attack me? The first thing I would do is try to find a weapon and then I would have been like Clarke: I would have tried to find a way to get to the supplies. Speaking of supplies, we can only guess why these teens weren’t given any. Either 1) the supplies at the station were really low so TPTB decided to leave the teens to their own devices 2) they forgot to give the teens supplies, 3) they didn’t feel like giving the kids supplies.

Well, like I said, we know the main purpose of this was just to reduce the Ark's population and give them more time to try to fix the life support systems. Thus, it's understandable why they sent people ill-suited to the responsibility and didn't supply them adequately. That's one thing I like about the premise. On a lot of shows, it's hard to believe that qualified professionals would behave as childishly as TV protagonists often do. But here the whole idea is that the characters are immature, irresponsible, and dumped into a situation they're not qualified to handle, so at least the resulting melodrama feels justified.

As far as Wells is concerned, what were they talking about his leg for? I don’t remember it getting hurt and was confused when he didn’t leave with Clarke.

He was limping. His leg was hurt in the rough landing, I think. Remember, two people were killed in the landing because they weren't strapped in. It's inevitable there were some other injuries as well.

Regardless, he should have realized sooner that it was pointless to try to argue with the troublemakers and he should have kept his mouth shut when they were trying to take off their wristbands. If I were him, I would have tried to keep a low profile until Clarke returned.

But it's in situations where everyone thinks that way that the troublemakers have free rein to ruin things. It's important for somebody to stand up to the bullies and extremists even when the odds of triumphing are low. The easy battles are not the ones most worth fighting.

 

[JD]

I thought Wells hurt his leg when he got into the fight with the trouble maker.
As for Radioactive, the song you guys were talking about up thread, I love it, and it has one of my favorite music videos. It stars Lou Diamond Phillips as the overlord of a puppet fight club.

 

[Sgt. Sacrament]

I only saw the first half hour, but I thought it was funny how every single actor/actress who was sent to earth could be a model. Every one! Assuming that the show lasts, it will be funny to see over time if their hair gets oily and greasy, or if somehow they have access to showers and all kinds of hair products.

I love Henry Ian Cusick from "Lost", but I must say that it's really weird to hear him copping an American accent... it comes off very nasally.

The show was more interesting than I thought it would be... but we'll see. I rarely invest much time in a new show since Firefly was killed in its first season.

 

[Christopher]

I only saw the first half hour, but I thought it was funny how every single actor/actress who was sent to earth could be a model. Every one!

This surprises you? TV and movie casts have always been disproportionately populated by good-looking people. I'm sure the same was true of theater companies in earlier eras.

 

[Guy Gardener]

They weren't that attractive, but in space no one can get fat because no one is allowed to over eat because there is not enough food.

Although it's fortunate that the war started in the future, Becuase antigravity had been invented on the station, and no one was crushed by Earth's gravity the instant they tried to stand up after landing.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I love Henry Ian Cusick from "Lost", but I must say that it's really weird to hear him copping an American accent... it comes off very nasally.

I've seen him in enough post-Lost appearance playing an American that I've gotten used to it...somewhat. I wish that they'd let him use his real accent here.