WHY YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING THE 100.

I've recently got into the TV show "The 100" (pronounced "The Hundred"). Usually when I start to watch a new series I'll watch maybe three or four episodes a day, and end up finishing/getting up to date within a week or two. With The 100, I watched twenty-seven episodes in three days, amongst the usual everyday life things like eating/doing work/sleeping/going to university. This was an impressive feat, and I wondered what it was about this show that got me so hooked, so quickly.


(Note: this post may be a little scrambled and confusing - I've been working on it for about a week and I just keep adding more ideas to it. I'm trying to keep it coherent so as to do the show justice but it's probably ended up quite a lot like a stream of consciousness. My apologies if it's incomprehensible.)

If I'm honest, my expectations weren't super high. I'd not heard a heck of a lot about it; just its vague premise and the fact that a bunch of the actors used to be in Neighbours (which I embarrassingly used to watch every single weekday when I lived at home). As an adult (apparently) I've been finding the teenagery shows I've been watching since 2011/12 a little repetitive, and just a bit too young for what I want to be watching, so I was worried I'd risk falling into that trap again by watching The 100.

For some reason I assumed it would be pretty generic, but there's something about this show that completely defied my preexisting ideas. My advice to you for any series is: don't judge a TV show by its pilot. I watched the first episode and the characters were so far underdeveloped (obviously) and immature and I didn't know yet if I wanted to root for the protagonist or any others. As an episode it was a bit jumbled, but it only took a few more to majorly up its game.

The show's biggest theme is SURVIVAL. A lot of people (myself included) have meekly tried to attach a romantic element to it, but romance plays the tiniest of roles against the much stronger themes of survival, morality, war, hope, trust, death and faith. Do not be fooled by the fact that it airs on the CW: yes, it's largely about teenagers, but this is not a hormone-fuelled romance show, nor should it be treated as such. You will find infinitely more teen angst from the characters' tragically desperate desire for survival than from them fighting amongst themselves over who gets to date who.

Nonetheless, while romance isn't the locus of the show, it has certainly won a small victory in the world of TV as a whole with its treatment of queerness. Without wanting to give too much away, in the second-to-most recent episode the subject of queerness and/or bisexuality has been put into light, and, *~shockingly~* it really wasn't the central part of the episode! What? Can this be? Two people of the same gender share a kiss and their sexuality does not become the focal point of their character? The next episode we move on and, yep, it's still not been made into a big deal. This is exactly the kind of attitude we need on television these days, especially when many viewers are young, impressionable and sometimes confused.

In fact, on the subject of characters, one thing The 100 does with incredible finesse is developing theirs. When watching, I found there were times I hated certain characters, only to find myself over time slowly beginning to warm to and understand them. There is one particular character who I really disliked at first (understandably so) but who my friends assured me I would lose my distaste for and, well, they were right - even after I vehemently refused that I would ever like him.

I enclose a few snapshots of conversations I had with two of my friends about him, just so you can see how my opinions changed: (I've blurred out his name just in case anyone is super touchy about spoilers.)

The next day:

I never thought I'd turn to him for comic relief but here I am. He did some awful things. He killed multiple people. He betrayed his friends. He urinated on someone. But like I said, here I am, having significantly warmed to him. The 100 develops its characters in such a way that you learn exactly why the 'bad guys' do what they do, and while you're (hopefully) on the side of the protagonists, the lines between what's right and what's wrong are definitely blurred to the point where the 'good guys' don't always (and in fact, frequently they do not) make the right decision.

On that note, another SUPER IMPORTANT aspect of The 100 is the fact that every single character is strong. There is no difference between the strength between the males and females - they are all strong in ways that show that ultimately they are just fallible humans making the best of some awful situations. Every character is complex and nuanced and impossible to dismiss straight away as 'the bad guy'.

In my tiny feminism-riddled brain, I feel I have to at least affirm the fact that in this show it appears that gender equality is at a peak. It's definitely nice to see that, hey, even though the world as we know it has been torn apart by radiation and war, in the 97 years since the apocalypse at least the patriarchy has also ceased to exist. You'll find that leaders can be either male or female, and that their position as leader is based on merit, not patriarchal lineage and whatnot. Strength of character is ten times as effective in a leadership role than brute force (although we should definitely acknowledge that the women are just as kickass as their male counterparts in terms of combat skills in this show).

In all honesty, the very fact that the leaders are female isn't a big deal. The fact that men fight women with all their strength isn't a big deal. In our world, we are currently striving for this idyllic gender equality, and in The 100's world it is merely portrayed as the norm. (The norm, that is, in their world ridden with radiation, weird giant water snakes and traitors at every corner.)

The 100 has an awesome cast, where even the secondary or tertiary characters are played fantastically well. There are always multiple storylines running through each episode; moving parallel to, intersecting or blocking the paths of others, and so every character always has an important role to play, even if they seem like only a minor character in comparison to the protagonists. The cast itself is huge, but it's never hard to keep up with who's who - and you cannot help but identify with at least one of them.

I always feel on edge when watching each episode (in a good way) - it buries its way into my emotions without me even realising. I have just come from watching part one of the season finale and I reacted very strongly to a certain aspect of the episode. The very fact that I was so angry/dismayed/confused/disappointed proves just how deeply I've rooted my love for this show. A few hours later, now, I am questioning my response - the very scene that brought all these emotions to the surface has made me ask even more questions. What makes a good leader - doing what is good for the people or doing what is right? Do emotions make us stronger or weaker? How important is upholding authority if you make sacrifices to your own character by doing so? When faced with a difficult choice, should we just pick the lesser of two evils? - So many questions, and so many more continually swirling around my brain.

Alas, I would like to begin to conclude this post by complimenting Octavia Blake: the girl who has time to intricately weave her hair into tiny plaits even during wartime. She's a badass warrior, fiercely loyal sister and a dextrous hair-braider. Truly an inspiration. Secondly, of course, evidently there are flaws to the show, whether it's things in the plot that don't quite make sense or any potentially problematic insinuations that are made - but every TV programme has its faults. This post is about what is good about it - and as you can probably tell, there is a lot to say. Finally, okay, look, on a totally superficial level, one thing you've got to admit is that everyone in this show is so wonderfully nice to look at (they're on the CW, what do you expect?) If this smouldering gaze can't convince you to watch it then I really don't know what else there is that I can do.

Hopefully this rather extensive post has persuaded you to check out at least the first few episodes. If you do start it, let me know what you think.

See you next time!

Georgia