THE 100

** (out of ****)

 
No channel on television has a more defined personality than the CW. If you’re an hour long show about young, attractive adults who find out their life has a genre bend to it, you’re probably on the CW. If you’re anything but that, you’re definitely not on the CW. They made news when they announced a comedy coming out this fall, so attached are they to the drama of kids. For two hours a night, four nights a week, CW fans can tune in knowing exactly what they are going to get: a whole lot of soap, and usually some sci-fi. And people who aren’t in to that can write off an entire channel. The 100 continues the premise trend of the CW, but the question is whether it can break the quality trend of the network, which isn’t high. It can’t.

The 100’s high concept dooms it from the start. The pilot hyperventilates trying to get all of its exposition packed in there. On a different channel, the backstory of this show would take an entire season, and we’d probably never get a chance to meet the main cast. Here’s the quick rundown: humans of used up the Earth, and now live on a giant space station. Because resources are so limited, every crime is punishable by death, unless you’re under 18. If you’re a minor, you go to prison. I think you go to prison until you’re an adult, at which point they kill you, which seems kind of pointless. Anyway, the shady-as-fuck cabal that now stands in as our global government sends 100 of the most attractive, most cardboard-like prisoners to Earth. If they live, then everyone can go back to Earth. If they die, who gives a shit? Clearly no one watching the show.

So we’ve got Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies to go with our 90210. It’s an OK elevator pitch, but it seems totally unnecessary to reveal any of the backstory in this first episode, much less all of it. Everyone involved seems so ill-equipped to tell that kind of story, anyway. Once we’re on the ground, the show stabilizes a little bit. Half the kids want to take off the bracelets that send their vital signs and shit back to the people in charge, because fuck ‘em. If the government finds out that Earth is habitable, then they will all come down and put them back in jail. The other half wants to leave the bracelets on, because space only has a couple more months of resources left, and all of those people are going to die. Is the CW commenting on the war of words between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington? Probably not, but this is where the show gets as close to compelling as it ever will. From here, we know what to expect from the show. The kids will discover how the Earth is different than our Earth, how adults are mean and bad, and the quickest way for their clothes to fall off. They’ll also find out how easily they all slide into the two-dimensional stereotypes necessary for a story like this. The 100 isn’t a total failure, as it does its best to pull out of its expository nosedive, but it does feel like a bit of a waste.

– Ryan Haley