What better way to put up my 100th post of my blog than to write about the series with the above title? A bit cheesy I guess, but hey, I like cheesy staff anyway. LOL. If anybody asked whether I had thought I could make 100 post within 1 year from the time I first started my blog, I would not have thought so. Anyway, I have watched this series for a while now, but did not have the time to write it up and I wanted to update my blog with the more recent movies playing in theater. As usual, I read about this in the internet while I was looking for some new series to fill up my time (as if my time was not already filled with TV series at the moment). Well let's move on to the story itself.
Brief Story Line
After a nuclear war on earth, it had became inhabitable by humans which forced a confederation of people from 12 countries to create outer space stations which jointly formed a single station called The Ark where people could live to avoid extinction. 97 years later, Clarke (Eliza Taylor - The November Man) who was in prison for something she did earlier, was instructed to leave The Ark. Clarke's mother, Dr. Abigail (Paige Turco - the 1991 & 1993 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles etc) informed Clarke that she was part of a team that was assigned to go to earth and see if it would be habitable for humans, together with 99 other juveniles who were in prison, forming the 100 (referring to 100 prisoners who were instructed to go to earth).
It was agreed that this would be the best solution as apparently The Ark was on the verge of breaking down. This information was only known by a few member of the councils, including the Ark chancellor Thelonius Jaha (Isaiah Washington - Exit Wound, Wild Things 2 etc), Dr. Abby and vice chancellor as well as security leader Marcus Kane (Henry Ian Cusick - Hitman 2007 version, Lost TV series etc).
When the 100 was put on the drop ship, Clarke noticed there was also Wells Jaha (Eli Goree), the son of the chancellor. In addition, there were few other people among them, such as Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley) who used to be a janitor and also part of the security team, Octavia Blake (Marie Avgeropoulos - Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief) Bellamy's younger sister, Finn Collins (Thomas McDonnel - The Devil's Hand) who had a crush on Clarke, Monty (Christopher Larkin) and his best friend Jasper (Devon Bostick - Diary of A Wimpy Kid).
Unfortunately, the drop ship went out of course and they did not reach their supposed location. Some of the 100, led by the charismatic Bellamy were enjoying lives on earth since they were free from the law and did not want to follow what was instructed for them. However Clarke, assisted by Finn, Wells, Monty and Jasper plus Octavia were still trying to go to the mountain and update their conditions to people at the Ark. This was where they soon realized that the earth was not as it seemed and they were not the only survivors on earth.
Things were also complicated on The Ark where there was a power struggle between Marcus and Thelonius about how to handle the short span of life in the Ark. Not to mention the little knowledge Dr. Abby was having whether the earth was habitable since all communications could not work on the drop ship. Feeling frustrated, Dr. Abby tried to seek the help from a very smart technician named Raven (Lindsey Morgan) to create a pod where she could go to earth together with Raven who was also looking for her boyfriend.
So could the 100 survived the unknown terrain and whatever challenges lie ahead on earth? Could Dr. Abby and Raven go to earth and find their loved ones? What was the reason for Clarke's fight with Wells and the reasons for most of the 100 to became imprisoned? All the answers could be found after completing this first season.
End of Brief Story Line
This series was quite interesting. The story of 100 teenagers trying to survive on earth by themselves were quite intriguing, plus the main characters here were quite variable. In each episode, we will know a bit more about them and understand why they did what they did. In addition, the story at The Ark give different dimension, rather than only a linear story on earth. The mysteries surrounding the new earth was also something that was interesting.
The special effects were pretty decent for a TV series and as the usual CW network series (who were well known for their teenagers/young adult TV series such as 90210, Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries and also some science fiction series such as Supernatural) the story combined the science fiction and teenagers relationship with their friends & parents. The series only consisted 13 episodes per season, so it would not be too long for people who enjoyed shorter series. Currently it had completed the 3rd season and the 4th one would be airing in 2017.
This series was loosely based on the novel with same title written by Kass Morgan. The novel itself already had 3 sequels after the original. Looking at the quite success of the series, I got to say that the producer made a very good decision in adapting the novel into TV series, rather than a movie. I believed that not every novel could be adapted into a movie that could be a success, but they could be a success when making them into TV series. Look at Divergent series as the best example. The first movie was a success commercially, but they declined rapidly until now it is unclear whether they are going to make the 5th installment into a movie after all, and they even considered making into a TV series (which would be a shame as the original cast such as Shailene Woodley or Theo James may not want to do it and they have to re-cast all of them).
Anyway, if you are looking for a post apocalyptic TV series that dealt with survival on earth, combined with power struggle and with decent special effects and occasional twists or surprises, then this series is definitely for you. However, if you do not like to see teenagers/young adults as the main characters and you are not a fan of science fiction, then this series would not be suitable for you. The choice is yours.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment