Luke Owen reviews the first episode of The 100…
Adaptations of novels aimed towards teenage audiences are usually criticised for three things – a lack of pace, a lack of subtly and a lack of build. There is much to be said about The 100, the new US drama shown here in the UK on E4, and it really falls into those three categories. The first episode has no pace, it’s as subtle as a kick to the groin and it builds about as well as a LEGO set with half of its pieces missing.
Set in a futuristic world in which the survivors of the human race live on a station in space because the Earth was destroyed by nuclear fallout, 100 teenage prisoners are sent down to their former home planet to see if it’s safe for the rest of civilisation to return. Within no time at all, alliances are formed, feuds are started and a lack of leadership begins to show cracks in this already hostile group. On top of that, what are they going to encounter when they arrive on a planet that’s been abandoned for nearly 100 years?
With any science fiction show where you have a fantastical world that is not the same as the one we know, you have to establish the rules and surroundings if you want anything to have any impact. However, The 100 is a clear indictment of the “MTV Generation” who need everything given to them all at once and as quickly as possible to make sure they’re not heading to their Twitter feeds to see if something else is happening. Despite having to set up quite a bit, the show is quick to get the plot going with the mission being explained, the prisoners on the ship, the ship crashing and the realisation Earth is okay within the first 10-minutes. 10 minutes! You don’t even have a chance to learn character names let alone where the hell they are or what they’re doing. Because of this you have no reason to care about anyone or anything and there isn’t a sense of danger on Earth because nothing is set up about it. There is a scene in which the ship they’re on crashes but because it’s glossed over within several seconds, it doesn’t have any impact – even though two characters die.
Instead, what we’re treated to is horribly written shoe-horned dialogue that is used as exposition rather than character development. Everyone sounds the same because everyone has the same purpose – explain the plot in simple terms so as not to confuse the audience who may have Facebook notifications that are more important. It doesn’t really treat its audience with any respect to work things out for themselves so everything is just laid out in the simplest of manners so you don’t have to think.
So with a pace that feels like the show is being played in fast forward and dialogue that wouldn’t pass most first drafts, The 100 really suffers because it doesn’t build any tension. It’s so quick to dive into its futuristic Lord of the Flies plot that characters aren’t given time to expand or grow. The 100 would have benefited on having the first episode build to the second by introducing characters, concepts and tension so this mission to Earth could have meant something. It’s frustrating as the show looks to have some good ideas leading into future episodes with the tease of monster sized creatures, deformed animals and a vicious tribe, but its lack of build means that it’s hard to care about it enough to want to tune in next week.
The first episode of The 100 wasn’t terrible, but it really suffers from believing market research information about its target audience. Teenagers are smarter than this and badly-written, pace-less and tension-less shows like The 100 will not help this stigma that they need things dumbed down to keep them interested. The first episode does end with a good cliffhanger, but there is little drive to keep you hooked for an entire season.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published July 9, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
