The 100 Seasons 1-2 Review

The 100 (2014-2020)

Season 1 - 13 episodes (2014)
Season 2 - 16 episodes (2014-15)
Season 3 - 16 episodes (2016)
Season 4 - 13 episodes (2017)
Season 5 - 13 episodes (2018)
Season 6 - 13 episodes (2019)
Season 7 - 16 episodes (2020)
Rent The 100 on Amazon Video (paid link)
Created by: Jason Rothenberg
Starring: Eliza Taylor, Bob Morley, Marie Avgeropoulos, Isaiah Washington, Lindsey Morgan, Richard Harmon, Paige Turco, Henry Ian Cusick
Rated: TV-14
Watch the trailer

Plot
Set 97 years after a nuclear war destroyed civilization, a spaceship housing humanity's lone survivors sends 100 juvenile delinquents back to Earth, hoping to repopulate the planet.

Verdict
It's an interesting premise that soon succumbs to soap opera like drama and bland cliches. After watching two seasons, I have no desire to continue. Despite the action, it's boring. New groups of people appear out of nowhere whenever the show needs drama. It's a show that's not very engaging as it seems like something I've seen before where groups war for territory and there's infighting amongst the groups.
Skip it.

Review
While I like the premise the show is shallow. Nuclear war destroys Earth, but a number of space stations and their inhabitants survived. Now with dwindling supplies, one hundred juvenile delinquents are sent to Earth to see if it's survivable. It's a bit dramatic, but this has a lot happening. The space station is dying, Earth isn't exactly safe, and the delinquents are more interested in enjoying their freedom than setting up a base for the people still on the space station. Clarke (Eliza Taylor) becomes the de facto leader of the kids on the ground. This has various factions of good, bad, and other on the ground and on the space station.

Season one isn't great, but it's fun enough to binge. At times it feels like Lost with kids, though nowhere near as compelling. It turns out that people did survive on Earth; there are multiple factions that survived and are warring. The space station launches a ship to the surface. Most of the season is the kids on the surface facing off against the Grounders. We get snippets of why they were imprisoned. One of the kids falls in love with a Grounder, but that whole sub-plot seems purely plot driven. The final episode of the season is the big face off between the two groups, but the space station also sends another ship to the ground. This whole show is a bit typical, doing just enough to keep it interesting. This just doesn't have the depth. Many character make decisions just to serve the plot or create drama.

I debated on whether I would continue this show. It only does just enough and season two gets worse with new characters and factions appearing. Throughout the season I found it difficult to remain interested. We get a new faction that didn't feel the need to make an appearance until this new season, and have never been spotted by the Grounders.
Clarke and her friends wake up in an underground vault that seems perfect. There's food, resources, and the people seem civilized. Of course Clarke has doubts and must escape.
In addition to Grounders we also have underground ferals, the Reapers. This show is trying to do too much and spread too thin. There's not enough plot. After taking a break from the show, it was difficult to resume. This show just fills time and that's about it. I'd like to finish this series to write a complete review, but I don't think that's going to happen.
This season derives tension from Clarke and her mom, Grounders and Sky People, and we get the Mountain Men who are against everyone and want to use Grounders as a cure for radiation sickness. There's just too many factions, and that makes the drama feel manufactured. This show wants to win you over with quantity not quality. At the end of the season the Grounders and Sky People team up to take in the Mountain Men.

Two seasons was all I could take of this show. General reviews rank seasons two, three, or four as the best. If that's the case I've chosen a great stopping point.