Sally Ann Melia
Sally Ann Melia, SF&F
Sally Ann Melia reviews the next two episodes of the new SF Tv series The 100 and asks, when given a second chance at life, why can't The 100 behave better?
The 100 tells the story of a future Earth where post a nuclear apocalypse, the only remaining humans live on the Arc, a giant space station, where they hope to wait out three - six generations to then restore life on the planets surface. When Oxygen cleaning equipment starts to fail, as an experiment 100 convicts (all under the age of 18) are sent down to see if they can survive on Earth.
The opening episodes set up this strong story and an interesting cast of young characters, with threats from both within and without.
Earth Kills is a tense episode where Jasper who inexplicably has been healed by the Grounders (people who still live on the planet) but is dying slowly and in agony. With more than a passing reference to The Beach (2000), the newly arrived youngsters decide they cannot bear to listen to Jasper die, and a huge wrangle starts as to whether to kill him quickly or see him saved. This is very tedious, but leads to lots of screaming and bickering, but you do start to wonder about the moral compass of the writers and characters.
I won't say much more except we get two hints the Grounders are more sophisticated than you might think, they have medicine and an advance warning systems. Also as in Lost (2004), the actors now start to find things underground, in this episode a car, which provides a handy hiding place.
At this point I was starting to groan, at one the rather infantile arguments the characters were having, and the easy get-out-of -jail free tickets the writers were giving themselves to sort out difficult plot lines.
Episode 3 ends with an unexpected murder and Episode 4, starts with heroine Clarke kneeling at a freshly dug grave. meanwhile the youngsters convinced the grounders are to blame are building incredible walls, for which you have to give them much credit.
We have still to see the grounders, and they are much missed.
The Episode then degenerates into silliness when the real murderER is found, and the youngsters seem to tip between crowd hangings or sentimental protectiveness of the cutesy killer. (Again the writers give themselves an easy get-out instead of sorting out this problem - but I'll let you watch and see.)
At this stage, I am waiting to see what the Grounders look like, but these two episodes are a bit disappointing.
I guess I would just like to think that 100 young people given a second chance would behave better than this. But that's me being hopeful.
The 100 tells the story of a future Earth where post a nuclear apocalypse, the only remaining humans live on the Arc, a giant space station, where they hope to wait out three - six generations to then restore life on the planets surface. When Oxygen cleaning equipment starts to fail, as an experiment 100 convicts (all under the age of 18) are sent down to see if they can survive on Earth.
The opening episodes set up this strong story and an interesting cast of young characters, with threats from both within and without.
Earth Kills is a tense episode where Jasper who inexplicably has been healed by the Grounders (people who still live on the planet) but is dying slowly and in agony. With more than a passing reference to The Beach (2000), the newly arrived youngsters decide they cannot bear to listen to Jasper die, and a huge wrangle starts as to whether to kill him quickly or see him saved. This is very tedious, but leads to lots of screaming and bickering, but you do start to wonder about the moral compass of the writers and characters.
I won't say much more except we get two hints the Grounders are more sophisticated than you might think, they have medicine and an advance warning systems. Also as in Lost (2004), the actors now start to find things underground, in this episode a car, which provides a handy hiding place.
At this point I was starting to groan, at one the rather infantile arguments the characters were having, and the easy get-out-of -jail free tickets the writers were giving themselves to sort out difficult plot lines.
Episode 3 ends with an unexpected murder and Episode 4, starts with heroine Clarke kneeling at a freshly dug grave. meanwhile the youngsters convinced the grounders are to blame are building incredible walls, for which you have to give them much credit.
We have still to see the grounders, and they are much missed.
The Episode then degenerates into silliness when the real murderER is found, and the youngsters seem to tip between crowd hangings or sentimental protectiveness of the cutesy killer. (Again the writers give themselves an easy get-out instead of sorting out this problem - but I'll let you watch and see.)
At this stage, I am waiting to see what the Grounders look like, but these two episodes are a bit disappointing.
I guess I would just like to think that 100 young people given a second chance would behave better than this. But that's me being hopeful.
