CW's The 100

[Ro_Laren]

I was looking up Star Trek on Google News and saw an article entitled "'The 100' is 'Star Trek' meets 'Hunger Games'." "The 100" is a new CW show that takes place some time in the future 97 years after a nuclear apocalypse. Apparently, there were like 12 space stations full of people in orbit of Earth when a nuclear apocalypse happened and 97 years later, TPTB want to "test the waters" on Earth. They do so by sending some petty criminals, who happen to all be teenagers, down to Earth to see if they can survive. I guess the "Star Trek" part of this show is the fact that people live in space on space stations. The Hunger Games connection is obvious: see if you can all survive. The trailer for this show actually makes it look kinda interesting. I don't ever watch shows on the CW, but I might check this show out. I like the Hunger Games (like zillions of others) and I also love Post-Apocalyptic shows. There are also some familiar faces on this show including Lost's Henry Ian Cusick.

Did anyone watch this show tonight / last night (the 19th?)

 

[Guy Gardener]

The CW started launching previews for this 6 months ago.

It's okay.

I noticed two blokes from Continuum in the cast, so you start thinking that maybe they're friends? (It's more likely that they have the same Agent.)

OH! Diary of a Wimpy Kid!!!!

(Devon Bostick.)

(I swear that kid is getting younger.)

I didn't think that Isaiah Washington was allowed to work in Hollywood after he beat up Patrick Dempsey during a homophobic rant?

(But then, I suppose, that he is woking in merely Canada?)

Near as I can tell, this is what I thought After Earth was going to be, but After Earth bombed so badly, that most people don't even remember its existence to make the comparison.

Ro, space, even air is at such a premium in the space station above Earth that there is only one punishment for citizens over 18 who commit any crime. Death. This is why all the prisoners they send down are 17 and younger.

 

[Taylirious]

I didn't like it. I wanted to.

 

[FreezeC77]

I'm more interested in the cast on the space station than I am the kids on the ground. God I feel old

Don't really see how 97 years is long enough for radiation levels which were enough to 'wipe out all humanity' to decline enough to then resettle... Although it looks like we'll have mutant humans or something on the planet.

Shouldn't they have radiation detectors or something?

I don't really see any Star Trek similarity though. Maybe the Space Station law that every crime is punishable by death from the planet that Wesley got sentenced to death for running on a lawn?

 

[Guy Gardener]

They only have the tech and resources they had 97 years ago.

Making all those uniform bracelets is ridiculous.

I can imagine then going to extreme ends to harvest/fish space junk and the worlds satellites as further resources for their little community... And really? Spacing CLOTHED citizens?

Talk about a waste of resources, that lady should have been stripped naked first before they tried to space her, and if you want to absolutely mercenary about it, the human body can be broken down into a lot of useful stuff other than soilent green, I'm thinking about glue and other building resources, and I'm pretty use there some pipes/tubes/bands in the body that would be at least as useful as hundred year old plastic, not that plastic isn't that hard to make, actually you can make plastic from people.

Meanwhile, given how things were going they should have been sterilising babies at birth, and most certainly sterilizing parents after their first child. Trusting people not to be people is stupid.

 

[FreezeC77]

They only have the tech and resources they had 97 years ago.

Making all those uniform bracelets is ridiculous.

I can imagine then going to extreme ends to harvest/fish space junk and the worlds satellites as further resources for their little community... And really? Spacing CLOTHED citizens?

Talk about a waste of resources, that lady should have been stripped naked first before they tried to space her, and if you want to absolutely mercenary about it, the human body can be broken down into a lot of useful stuff other than soilent green, I'm thinking about glue and other building resources, and I'm pretty use there some pipes/tubes/bands in the body that would be at least as useful as hundred year old plastic, not that plastic isn't that hard to make, actually you can make plastic from people.

Meanwhile, given how things were going they should have been sterilising babies at birth, and most certainly sterilizing parents after their first child. Trusting people not to be people is stupid.

I too thought it was odd that after she was sentenced for using 'too much blood' to save the colony's leader during surgery that they just put her into an airlock and was going to eject her into space.

That would show that their blood supply is limited. Shouldn't they have drained every last drop out of her body then?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Blood?

Duh!

Meanwhile, she is a lot of leather.

Her epidermis could probably clothe a small family.

I was actually amazed by how much leather was up there, and the children were wearing on the surface.

Is human hair a fair substitute for cotton?

I would have thought that after 97 years that most of the people would have been dressed in plastic or paper... However with a big enough social shift, turning up the environmental controls a little would make nudity pleasant, and they could have done away with clothing completely since they obviously did not need it for day to day and it is a ridiculous waste of resources.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I didn't think that Isaiah Washington was allowed to work in Hollywood after he beat up Patrick Dempsey during a homophobic rant?

Washington didn't beat up anyone. He did use a homophobic slur in an argument with Dempsey, but he didn't lay a hand on him.

 

[JD]

It wasn't anything mind blowing, but I enjoyed it for what it was. I knew going in that this was on The CW we probably weren't going to be getting any of what you guys seem to have been expecting, but I expected a Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic adventure and that is exactly what we got.
Definitely looking forward to watching more episode. I might pick up the book once I work my way through some of the other stuff I have waiting to be read.

 

[Levi]

I watched the first little bit of this and then fell asleep. I wanted to see the whole thing though, they made it look really good. But now after seeing what I did and hearing about the rest, it seems like the idea and concept behind this show is a good one, really wicked, could be awesome. However, probably due to the brass wanting profits faster or something, they seem like the rushed past so many details that any one with a sifi mind is going to have problems with the holes in the story, as many discussed here already.
Which is unfortunate, another show that has a lot of potential but is rushed and leaves gaps in the story.

... IMO.

 

[Christopher]

I found it surprisingly enjoyable. I liked it more than any other CW genre pilot episode in years, though it remains to be seen if it can keep it up. I like the cast, and the situation is interesting and fairly plausible. My full review is on my blog:

http://christopherlbennett.wordpres...t-thoughts-on-the-cws-the-100-spoiler-review/

Don't really see how 97 years is long enough for radiation levels which were enough to 'wipe out all humanity' to decline enough to then resettle...

I get the impression that the people on the Ark haven't been told the whole truth about the apocalypse.

I don't really see any Star Trek similarity though.

Yeah, the headline writer who described the show that way must not have been very familiar with space opera. I'd think Galactica would be a better comparison. The Hunger Games comparison is a huge stretch too, although I guess it is about a dystopian society sacrificing the lives of its young people, so it's not entirely off the mark. Still, I was reminded much more of Lord of the Flies and the settlement of Australia by convicts.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I didn't think that Isaiah Washington was allowed to work in Hollywood after he beat up Patrick Dempsey during a homophobic rant?

Washington didn't beat up anyone. He did use a homophobic slur in an argument with Dempsey, but he didn't lay a hand on him.

I like my version better.

He snaps Dempsey's neck while screaming "Death to all homos!"

 

[JD]

I think it's worth keeping in mind that the main focus of this is going to be the kids on Earth, so we probably aren't going to get a whole lot of in depth stuff with way of life on the station. It does look like we are going to be going back and forth some, but I think the station stuff is going to be more of a B-plot with the Earth based stuff as the A-plot.

 

[Christopher]

I think it's worth keeping in mind that the main focus of this is going to be the kids on Earth, so we probably aren't going to get a whole lot of in depth stuff with way of life on the station. It does look like we are going to be going back and forth some, but I think the station stuff is going to be more of a B-plot with the Earth based stuff as the A-plot.

No way. All their big-name, expensive actors are up on the Ark -- Paige Turco, Henry Ian Cusick, Kelly Hu, Isaiah Washington. They're not going to shove them into the background.

Not to mention that they surely put a lot of money into building those station sets, and that it's cheaper and more practical to shoot on a soundstage than on location. So they're going to want to use the station sets regularly. Although I imagine the 100 will reach Mt. Weather eventually and the facility there will be a main standing set.

 

[Mister Fandango]

I'm just happy that a CW show actually explained why the main cast is comprised of teenagers. Of course, it didn't explain why they're all close to being supermodels despite the conditions they've been living in for a century, but... it's a step.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

It was "too CW" for me, I'm afraid. I haven't cared for any of the shows they've recently launched. Maybe I'm the wrong demographic for these things but I find them all really dulll. I tried but I only made it like halfway or so.

 

[JD]

I think it's worth keeping in mind that the main focus of this is going to be the kids on Earth, so we probably aren't going to get a whole lot of in depth stuff with way of life on the station. It does look like we are going to be going back and forth some, but I think the station stuff is going to be more of a B-plot with the Earth based stuff as the A-plot.

No way. All their big-name, expensive actors are up on the Ark -- Paige Turco, Henry Ian Cusick, Kelly Hu, Isaiah Washington. They're not going to shove them into the background.

Not to mention that they surely put a lot of money into building those station sets, and that it's cheaper and more practical to shoot on a soundstage than on location. So they're going to want to use the station sets regularly. Although I imagine the 100 will reach Mt. Weather eventually and the facility there will be a main standing set.

You could be right. It's just that all of the marketing seemed to mainly focus on the kids, but I guess that might have just been to draw the CW's target audience. According to the review on IGN Kelly Hu isn't in any of the 3 episodes after the pilot they saw .

 

[Guy Gardener]

It was "too CW" for me, I'm afraid. I haven't cared for any of the shows they've recently launched. Maybe I'm the wrong demographic for these things but I find them all really dulll. I tried but I only made it like halfway or so.

Humanity on Earth survived.

Savages.

One of them Threw a spear THROUGH the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Kid, just to say "Welcome to Earth."

 

[Spot's Meow]

I wanted to like it, but I thought the pilot was really terrible. It was like opposite-Lost, by which I mean things were moving too fast. But I've noticed this in other CW shows as well, they just sort of jump into the drama as if you already know what's going on, rather than providing the needed exposition and build up of emotions and stories that are needed for the viewer to really care about the characters and what happens to them. I remember The Secret Circle being exactly the same way, though I stuck with that show until the end for some reason.

 

[cylkoth]

Egads...there's more science fiction and fantasy shows on The CW, than on the Syfy Channel.

Like several others have said, I actually wound up liking this more than I thought I would. The effects were beautiful, the station sets nice and slick. And the teens didn't grate. I thought I'd hate the stalker teen son of station ruler-who gets himself arrested to be near Princess, but he won me over...so naturally he gets killed(?)

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? Yeah, yeah, it would kill the drama we're manufacting.
Surly rebel teen leader wants to not worry about anything...like what's he gonna eat tomorrow. And nobody else bothers wondering either, let's just revel in rebelling against the station overlords and party like it's 1999.

The adults and their squabbling were far more interesting. I hope they don't get the token adult treatment and the mysteries and intrigue of just what is going on are fully explored and given adequate screen time.
All in all, a nice start. I'm in...for now.