After the events of a nuclear apocalypse 97 years ago, humans are forced into space onto a space station called the Ark. The Ark is the last surviving space station from the nuclear apocalypse which all nationalities became a part of. Many Arkers dream of the ground but they’re told, they have 100 years still on the Ark, another 4 generations of space living. The first episode explores who “The 100” are, their struggles and their conflicting opinions on survival.

This television series is based off the book of the same name by Kass Morgan. The television series has some different characters compared to the book but some of the characters like Clarke, Bellamy and Wells are Kass Morgan’s creation and have the same-ish storyline to the same characters in the television series. The book and the television series have the same storyline as each other.

When re-watching the first episode, I thought that it was very rushed to what I remember. I thought that there was some background to Arkian life but having not watched series 1 since I watched it for the first time, I’ve clearly forgotten some detail. But Arkian life is revealed in flashbacks and also within each episode throughout the 4 seasons. The main objective of the first episode, and the first season, is to get to a place called “Mount Weather” as is revealed to the watcher, this is where some supplies are to help “The 100” survive on Earth. It can be only implied that these resources are left at Mount Weather or left behind when the nuclear apocalypse occurred.

As the first episode of a new TV show, to me when I watched it for the first time I was hooked. I wanted to know how they would get to Mount Weather, the struggles they would face while trying to get there, not only between the tensions and different opinions that Clarke and the others face, but also the struggles on the road. I have been an avid watcher of the show after I binge watched the first 2 seasons on the Canadian Netflix before I came to university (thank you VPN) and streamed the rest of the seasons as it came out on the CW in America (I couldn’t wait for it to be shown on E4 2 months after it aired in the US, like 2 months, that’s a lifetime when you want to watch your favourite show).

Many people haven’t heard of “The 100”, not even me when I watched it for the first time. I came across it when I was googling for a different show to watch and “The 100” came up, strong reviews, 8-point-something on IMdB, I just had to give it a go. The show is very underrated, the different seasons have a strong plot and storyline, all the different characters a very well developed as the seasons go on and new characters are introduced and different characters die all the time (probably not to the extreme of Game of Thrones though). It really is a good watch if you’ve recently finished Stranger Things and wondering “well, what do I do with my life now”, this is the answer. If you like dystopian, post-apocalyptic science fiction, this show is for you.

Overall, the first episode is a really strong pilot, it lays down the opening of the storyline really well and introduces some of the main characters well and leaves loads of room for more story and for the programme to be explored. Below is my untouched commentary of the first episode of season 1, it does contain spoilers as it is my reaction to when I re-watched the episode again. I recommend you read the commentary if you’ve already seen the first episode or after you’ve watched the first episode.

If you wanted to watch it and see what all the fuss is about. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are all on Amazon Prime Video for your viewing pleasure.

May we meet again - for the next review/commentary of the next couple of episodes, thanks for reading!

STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS COME BACK AFTER YOU HAVE WATCHED THE EPISODE
  
Episode 1 – Commentary and Viewpoints

This commentary will contain some spoilers and opinions of my own of the show. I re-watched the episode at the same time as writing this commentary.

4:00 - I can’t remember the episode being this fast paced. I thought there was some background into their lives on the Ark but nope, straight on a dropship and down to Earth you go my children.
5:00 - Clarke, one of the main protagonists of the show, immediately takes the role of leader, when on the dropship she knows what would happen when the parachutes came on to slow the dropship down to reach the ground, some others don’t think of this, they get thrown about in the dropship and already 7 minutes in, 2 of the original 100 are already dead due to incompetence.
8:00 - Also, there is so much eye candy in this show its unbelievable like Marie Avgeropoulos as an example.



9:00 - I didn’t realise “Radioactive” was the song of choice when the dropship landed, nice, love a bit of Imagine Dragons.
12:00 - Everyone is happy to be on the ground, apart from Wells, and Clarke, who want to find Mount Weather where some supplies are left over from before the apocalypse, they see this as the main goal.




13:30 - Since watching all the 4 seasons of “The 100” I can see how far the characters have come, Bellamy, rebellious, does not want to lead, selfish, Octavia, does not want to follow orders because she has “followed orders all her life one way or another”.
General thought - Character Development is one of the reasons I love this show so much, it shows their changing decisions and their awareness that they’re not there to have fun but to survive.
14:00 - Clarke, from the start, is showing signs of becoming a great leader, rational thinking, great planning for them to get to Mount Weather.
General thought - Some of those who were in the Skybox, the juvenile prison, did not officially commit a crime, like Octavia for instance but you’ll see her story later in the series.
18:00 - The motivation for sending “The 100” to the ground is also revealed in this episode, at about half way through the episode you’ll see that oxygen is a main commodity.
General thought - You may also be wondering while watching this episode that “What does it mean when they keep referring to ‘floating people?” Floating is an act of execution after a person on the Ark commits a crime, those who can be floated have to be over the age of 18. These people are put into the air lock, the air lock is closed from the inside then released from the outside releasing the person into space, therefore floating them as they are floating through space because of zero gravity and also as they would not be wearing a space suit, there’s the oncoming death.
23:00 - Octavia is a bit of an idiot really, “oh look a body of water, let’s go for a swim”, but let’s be honest, when you’ve been couped up in prison for some or most of your life and you go down to Earth and also being in space, that would probably be the first thing you would do but you’ll see what happens. Also Clarke is like "damn gurlll"


28:00 - In this show, or in the first few episodes, there are a lot of grudges being held again people like “oh you floated this person” or “oh you did something I didn’t like” and they’re just taking to it the extreme, not only on Earth where its kind of understandable because you have to do anything to survive, but on the Ark??? All the characters have different views on what to do best to survive, e.g. Kane and Abby.
General thought - There are some aspects of Jason Rothenburg’s writing I don’t like, for instance the way that he treats certain characters in the show, for instance Wells, later on in the series you’ll see why but also it shows in later series’ as well, especially with a character called Lexa in Series 3 that I’m still very salty about.

References: https://seat42f.com/shining-the-spotlight-on-the-100-composer-tree-adams.html
http://octaviagifs.tumblr.com/tagged/1x01
http://octaviagifs.tumblr.com/tagged/1x01/page/2
http://octaviagifs.tumblr.com/tagged/1x01/page/3
http://theark99.tumblr.com/

All images/gifs belong to their respective owners, The CW, or The 100 TV series.

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