‘Battlestar Galactica’ Meets ‘Hunger Games’ in 100-Episode Action Thriller That’s Free on Streaming

Battlestar Galactica and The Hunger Games thrive on an identical form of stress. Each lure remnants of human civilization inside unforgiving programs with brutally excessive stakes the place one slip-up means sure dying. Throw determined younger individuals into the combo and power compromised leaders to make inconceivable choices about who will get to outlive, and also you’ve acquired an actual stress cooker going. These sci-fi worlds could also be fantastical, however their most intense conflicts emerge when private loyalties conflict towards the practicality of survival.

That very same risky mixture powers The 100, The CW’s post-apocalyptic motion series that premiered in 2014 and ran for precisely 100 episodes. All 100 of these episodes are presently free to stream on Pluto TV.

Set 97 years after a nuclear disaster rendered Earth uninhabitable, the sequence follows the descendants of humanity’s survivors aboard the Ark, an orbital area station with a quickly failing life-support system. Their potential resolution is as absurd as it’s scrumptious: Ship 100 lovely, incarcerated youngsters to the ruins of Earth to see whether or not radiation burns them alive from the within out.

Why youngsters? Due to the Ark’s draconian legal guidelines, adults who commit any form of crime are instantly “floated” out into area as an affordable type of execution. In any case, they will’t spare the dwindling sources on tons of criminals. Lawbreaking minors are imprisoned till they arrive of age when they’re retried — and certain nonetheless executed. So there is a bunch of incarcerated teenagers already accessible who will in all probability die both means. This bleak premise comes from Kass Morgan’s 2013 young-adult novel of the identical identify, although the e book and tv adaptation have been developed virtually concurrently. Showrunner Jason Rothenberg’s model rapidly charts its personal course, retaining the central setup whereas considerably altering the characters, mythology, and story. It additionally offers The CW the right excuse to forged a bunch of handsome youngsters in a soapy ensemble drama with a gritty sci-fi backdrop.

The titular 100 are a motley assortment of petty criminals, violent offenders, and Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor), a political prisoner locked up after discovering that the Ark is working out of oxygen. There’s additionally Octavia Blake (Marie Avgeropoulos), who was imprisoned for the unforgivable offense of being born (individuals can’t have multiple little one). As soon as the 100 attain the bottom, nonetheless, they uncover a contemporary begin in an attractive, harmful world the place no one is coming to implement the foundations — and humanity is probably not fairly as extinct as they have been advised.

The primary few episodes lean closely into essentially the most stereotypically CW model of that premise. Everyone seems to be enticing, romantic issues start earlier than anyone has time to get hungry, and radioactive monsters randomly seem as if to remind the characters to cease flirting and begin surviving. When the newly liberated youngsters chant “Regardless of the hell we wish!” in episode 1, The 100 momentarily seems like spring break.

In a short time, nonetheless, Rothenberg dismantles this fantasy of full freedom. The 100 want meals, shelter, drugs, and safety from all types of threats which can be already watching. Clarke acknowledges the urgency of their scenario and emerges as a pure chief, whereas Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley) fears that restoring contact with the Ark may jeopardize their newfound freedom. Their competing visions create a political wrestle over what this fledgling society ought to grow to be and make them rivals. The chemistry between Carke and Bellamy can be positively electrical, sparking a “Bellarke” delivery fandom. (Actors Eliza Taylor and Bob Marley even acquired married in actual life!)

In the meantime, the adults aboard the Ark are confronting their very own disaster. Chancellor Thelonious Jaha (Isaiah Washington), council member Marcus Kane (Henry Ian Cusick), and Clarke’s mom, Dr. Abigail Griffin (Paige Turco), all know that hundreds of individuals will suffocate except they discover a resolution. Because the Ark begins to fail, these leaders need to grapple with the load of committing extra atrocities simply so a fewer variety of individuals can survive just a bit bit longer.

Battlestar Galactica meets Starvation Video games

That construction is the place The 100 begins to resemble Battlestar Galactica. Each sequence revolve round dwindling populations ruled by fragile establishments, and each perceive that sustaining human civilization could be brutal. Typically, making the precise resolution to guard what’s left of humanity remains to be a tricky name that makes you lose sleep at night time.

The youngsters on the bottom additionally evoke The Starvation Video games, and in addition Lost with teenagers. (Misplaced followers will enjoyment of seeing Cusick, who performed Desmond Hume, together with Alessandro Juliani who performed Lieutenant Felix Gaeta in 2004’s Battlestar Galactica sequence — and a handful of different recognizable style actors.) These children have primarily been sacrificed by an authoritarian society. They’re additionally given the dangerous alternative to construct a brand new civilization in a lush, inexperienced forest. Survival regularly turns Clarke and her fellow survivors into political symbols, troopers, and reluctant leaders. Their biggest impediment isn’t defeating a single villain. True to many apocalyptic tales, the main problem comes from determining the way to cease each frightened neighborhood from treating each different neighborhood as expendable.

The present’s first season steadily expands what initially seems to be an easy survival story. Within the wilderness, they uncover rival societies of “Grounders” that survived the nuclear apocalypse, ruins of the previous, and proof that the Ark’s model of historical past is just not completely correct. Most characters fall into acquainted teen-drama archetypes, but then they reveal an intense capability for violence. Alliances shift rapidly. Victories all the time come at an amazing value. And The 100 isn’t afraid to kill off a serious character in a stunning spectacle if it serves the story.

By season 2, the world of The 100 grows bigger because the conflicts grow to be extra sophisticated. Even heroes like Clarke typically do horrible issues, and other people you as soon as thought of villains evolve into one thing extra three-dimensional. The ensuing story is quicker and pulpier than Battlestar Galactica, however each exhibits discover the ethical compromises individuals make when extinction is at stake.

The 100 is peak CW drama

The 100 additionally stays unmistakably a CW sequence. The romances are messy, the betrayals are frequent, and almost each main character appears suspiciously camera-ready after spending days within the wilderness. That mixture is a part of the attraction. Rothenberg delivers a grim political sci-fi story inside an accessible young-adult journey, giving it the momentum of an addictive cleaning soap opera. There’s all the time one other main revelation, huge smooch, or looming disaster ready on the finish of an episode. It’s, at occasions, deeply unserious regardless of all of the inherent drama. When one of many 100 begins a relationship with a Grounder, a random unnamed character spits out the insult, “Grounder-pounder!” It nonetheless makes me giggle years later.

Throughout seven seasons, The 100 repeatedly reinvents itself and pushes its characters into more and more unusual new areas of science fiction. Particularly when you get previous season 2, it barely seems like the identical present — in a great way. Later seasons can’t all the time match the arrogance of the early terrestrial plotlines and intimate scope, however Rothenberg’s willingness to make huge swings is extra admirable than recycling the identical sorts of conflicts and drama time and again.

What stays constant all through is that central query: What does humanity need to grow to be after surviving the tip of the world? A number of generations faraway from ancestors that destroyed the Earth, these varied survivors (Grounders or not) need to reckon with the sins of their forebears. They’re pressured into a lifetime of violence simply to outlive — and need to grapple with all that trauma that comes with it… but it surely’s an excellent factor that trauma bonding is a fruitful foundation for sloppy romance.

All seven seasons of The 100 at the moment are accessible to look at free on Pluto TV. The entire sequence would take you about 70 hours to look at in its entirety, however the gripping first two seasons alone make a compelling case for taking the journey again to Earth. Simply give these lovely juvenile delinquents an opportunity.