'The 100' Season 7 Countdown: Why it's the perfect show to binge-watch during the pandemic
To the uninitiated, getting on board to watch 'The 100' just before its final season might be somewhat daunting -- after all, this is a post-apocalyptic show and this might not be the best time to view it. However, you're seeing the fans' frenzy online and you want to know what the big deal is.
The CW's 'The 100' is loosely based on Kass Morgan's young adult novel of the same name. In the show, Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor), an underage delinquent is chosen with 99 other underage delinquents to be sent down to Earth -- which was wiped out by a nuclear war around 97 years in the past.
For Clarke and the others, this is the better option -- though they don't know it yet. In the world of 'The 100', where the last humans live in space in a space station which will soon run out of oxygen supply, any minor infractions mean the biggest punishment -- death. If you are underage, you are imprisoned until the age of 18 when you go through a review to decide whether you live or die.
So these delinquents are sent down as guinea pigs with bracelets that monitor their vitals. Should they be able to survive, the others on the space station, known as the Ark, will follow. But mystery and politics abound from the first episode -- a fight for power and a fight for survival.
It is this that makes 'The 100' a very compelling show. With each season, the story gets subtler and more nuanced, with our main characters' political and survival struggles also becoming less straight-to-the-point.
One of the key aspects of the show is whether humanity needs to survive or live. It's a philosophical question that is extremely pertinent today while we fight the pandemic -- do we ignore those who are at the bottom of the ladder?
Within each season, groups of humans expand to include others as their enemy becomes the same -- first, the delinquents and one faction of the Grounders (those who were on Earth already as the delinquents landed) became one, then all of the Grounders and finally when the fight takes to space, which happened in Season 6, we hope to see this group integrate the humans who had colonized another planet.
Because along with survival, 'The 100' is also at its core about the connections people make, it's about what really matters -- and often, it's about what you are willing to give up for the ones you love. This is best demonstrated in the relationships between siblings Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) Blake. But it also comes through in Clarke's relationship with her mother Abby (Paige Turco) and of Abby's with Marcus Kane (Henry Ian Cusick).
However, by no means is 'The 100' anything like its counterparts on The CW -- this show is also dark and full of loss. Through Jasper Jordan (Devon Bostick) we even learn how that loss manifests in our personal struggles.
But even through all the loss and hardships, 'The 100' is worth it for the excellent performances across the board, and for some of the best writing on television you will ever see. More importantly, however, it is worth it because it will leave you wanting more as you self-reflect on whether we are all the bad guys after all.
Follow MEA WorldWide's countdown to the final season of 'The 100' for more. The final season will premiere on May 20 on The CW at 8/7c. The first six seasons can be streamed on Netflix.
