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Breaking Bad. Battlestar Galactica. Mad Men. Sherlock. Game of Thrones. What do these shows have in common? They’re all modern TV classics that hit peak popularity after their early seasons were available to binge-watch. Presenting Decider’s “Next Big Binge.” Let us tell you which shows to catch up on before their new seasons become the talk of the town and the gossip at your work’s watercooler. Our first pick: The CW’s The 100.
Don’t let its YA origins fool you: The 100 is not for swooning teenagers or people who like sappy love triangles. The 100 is a dark and grim dystopian saga about what happens when we’re pushed to our moral limits. During the CW’s panel at TCA last week, The 100‘s showrunner Jason Rothenberg explained that he wanted the show to be as grey as its color palette.
“I try to come up with scenarios that are so hard, in terms of the choice that a character has to make, that there’s no good choice,” he said, before citing a spoiler-filled example from the end of season two.
So what’s The 100 even about? The show started off as a post-apocalyptic Lord of the Flies. At some point in the not-so-distant future, after nuclear war devastates the Earth, humanity’s last hope is “The Ark.” See, after the nuclear holocaust, the scientists and people living on 12 different space stations in Earth’s orbit banded together to build one massive station nicknamed “The Ark.” They created a new civilization where scientists ruled, you could only have one child per couple (because of life support issues), and any and all crimes were met with the death penalty. Juvenile delinquents are put into jail and their crimes are judged again upon the kid’s 18th birthday. If the crime is bad, the kid is sent out the airlock, and if not, they are forgiven and brought back into society.
The 100 focuses on the one hundred juvenile delinquents that are sent down to Earth to see if the planet is finally habitable. The story focuses on Clarke (Eliza Taylor), a smart teen girl who was imprisoned for being a political dissenter. She tries to lead and aid the ragtag group of kids vying for power and freedom on the Earth. Taylor told the crowd at TCA that “this is the first opportunity I’ve had to actually play a character with true integrity and strength.” Of course, not everything is as it seems, and there are strange threats and crazy revelations at every turn. The show is full of twists and turns, gruesome deaths, and impossible decisions. It’s not for the faint of heart.
As the seasons have flown by we’ve watched as The 100 has transformed from a sci-fi Lord of the Flies into a mediation on what it takes to survive. The female characters have seen the most transformation. Most of them started out as innocent damsels or plucky assistants, but now they are the ones driving the drama and calling the shots.
Maria Avgeropoulous plays Octavia on the show, a teen whose only crime on The Ark was being alive. Her mother gave birth to her after already having a child, Bellamy, and hid Octavia underneath the floor of their quarters for her whole life. Like Clarke, Octavia evolves into a fierce warrior. She praised the show’s treatment of female characters, saying: “If women want to get something done, they go do it. There’s not a damsel in distress [on this show] having to ask her man to go do it for her.”
Rothenberg added, “We don’t write women characters, you know, we write strong characters or weak characters.” That’s what makes The 100 so sublimely compelling: You watch as these characters make the choices to die or survive, lead or follow, transform or perish.
Right now is the best time to jump into this strange and addictive tale. The first two seasons are available to binge-watch on Netflix and the heavy-hyped third season debuts on The CW on January 21st. Good news for cord cutters: You can stream the brand new episode on Hulu on January 22nd.
So, jump into The 100 right now so you can be ahead of the curve when this show explodes later this month.
