'The 100': There Are No Good Guys

The100's premise, at first, seems interesting and vaguely familiar in the realms of young adult post-apocalyptic science fiction: a century after humanity nuked itself into oblivion, the only remaining people live on a self-sustained space station aptly named "The Ark." All crimes are punishable by death—unless you're under 18.

Estimates say it'll be another few spacelocked generation before Earth's radiation levels are survivable, but the Ark's leaders hold a terrible secret: the Ark is dying, and the only way to postpone the death of humanity is to eliminate oxygen use. How? By sending the 100 underage prisoners to the ground. If they die, Earth isn't survivable. If they do? Well, no one thinks they will.

Two birds, one stone, right? They get to get rid of 100 oxygen breathers and gain indispensable intel on ground conditions. But when the 100 get to the ground, nothing is how they thought it would be. Radiation doesn't kill them. And they are not alone.

Every terrible thing I do, I do for my people.

Sending your own daughter to a radiation-soaked planet with no way of knowing if she'll even survive the fall is... terrible, right? Unthinkable? Unconscionable? What if it's her life over the fate of all humanity? Would you still refuse?

The 100 find themselves at war with the native Earth survivors, which they call "Grounders." It's their territory, their land, and it has been since the nuclear apocalypse (Praimfaya)—but where else can these kids go? They immediately set up camp around the drop ship with food, water, shelter, and they can't possibly leave. So the Grounders have every right to defend their land, yet the 100 have every right to survive.

It's impossible to find an infallible character in The100, but it's also impossible to find an unsympathetic one. And that's what makes this show great, even more than the high stakes and unexpected plot twists. Everyone has their reasons, even the AI named A.L.I.E that sent the bombs to wipe out the planet in the first place.

In watching this show, I found myself uncertain who to root for. Who deserved it? Who in the entire show hadn't been involved in—or single-handedly enacted—outrageously destructive acts? Characters that I originally loathed grew into unique, nuanced, even wonderful human beings by the end of season 5.

The show isn't without faults—the CGI sometimes looks like something out of the X-Files. Or Buffy. (See: the butterflies.) But even the somewhat-okay images have charm, like the infamous two-headed deer or the radiation-soaked luminescent mushrooms. The Grounder getups look like something out of Mad Max, adorned with "worthless" (value's all relative 100 years after a nuclear apocalypse, isn't it?) trinkets, such as broken wristbands and anything shiny you'd find in a dumpster.

The first episode has our main character, Clarke, voiceover narrating something or another corny bit about what she imagines the ground is like, which serves only to provide an exposition dump. We really never have narration again, at least not consistently (not complaining), except perhaps at the start of season 5 (I won't spoil that one for you; let's just say, it was done quite well compared to the pilot).

"Clarke" and "Wells" aretwoof the very first names we are introduced to. A bit heavy-handed, isn't it? Especially considering (spoiler) Wells doesn't make it even halfway through the show. I'm surprised there wasn't a Heinlein or a Bradbury or an Asimov thrown in there, too. Still, you could argue that there's nothing wrong with dipping into the classics (heh).

Yet, despite these relatively tiny faults, I found myself drawn into and wholly believing in the show's world. The shiny butterflies and two-headed deer, the creepy mutated horses, the Grounder face masks that look to be made of bone... Believe me when I say, none of this is my aesthetic, and I usually don't jive with post-apocalyptic, which is just a testament to the100's masterful world building.

Another bit of praise: there are at least a few casually same-sex couples throughout the show. No one remarks on how it's strange, there's no drama about accepting them; it's pretty damn normal. And yeah, there's some hard tragedy between them, but certainly no more—maybe less—than any of the heterosexual couples experience. It's pretty fair.

The100 is astudy in the inmate subjectivity of morality. There is no absolute right or wrong. Everything we do, we do for the ones we love.

Seasons 1-5 are available in full to stream on Netflix as of August 15, when the fifth season was added. It seems we'll be getting a season 6, and there are even rumors of a possible seventh season. Staytuned!