Sunday, June 15, 2014

Why The CW's The 100 is a must watch

Why anyone who liked Battlestar Galactica, anyone who enjoys The Walking Dead and/or Game of Thrones MUST WATCH the CW's The 100... 
And let me add that you should not feel turned off of The 100 simply because it IS on the CW. The 100 really is it's own entity. It's a heart-wrenching, mind bending storyline for adults of all ages. This is NOT a kids show. The premise (loosely) is that after the earth is devastated by nuclear war, surviving citizens who have taken to space stations either for work purposes or to escape the earth have banded together to form a conglomeration of space stations which they call The Ark. The backstory here and all of the electronic,  mechanical and scientific explanations as to how and why this all happens is plausible, well laid out and anything but heavy handed. The citizens of a The Ark live under a rather fascist regime, although there are no "bad guys" or villains. Even the chancellor himself played by a wonderfully human, caring and vulnerable Isaiah Washington and his second in command played by Henry Ian Cusick are just people living in a brutal world where they must make brutal and heart wrenching decisions. After ninety-seven years and three generations of living in the ark, the main characters, Clarke and Abby, mother and daughter have spread the word that the ark is in fact failing and that in a matter of weeks if not days, oxygen levels on the ark will become unsustainable. 
 As I mentioned before, the citizens of the ark are living under a fascist regime. Anyone who breaks any law of any kind is immediately sentenced to life in prison, where conveniently for the leaders of the regime, oxygen levels are much lower than that of the rest of the ark. With oxygen levels declining by the minute, Chancellor Jaha (Washington) must make his first of many heart wrenching decisions. The chancellor therefore decides that in order to spare the rest of the citizenry, he must cull the population somehow. He is hesitant to kill his own citizens for many reasons and so he and his cabinet, referred to simply as the council, decide to send one hundred of it's youngest and strongest prisoners down to earth in a rickety old drop ship. Clarke, played by Aussie actor Eliza Taylor, one of the main characters of this talented ensemble cast is among them, and their (The 100's) journey starts as soon as they hit the ground, where they find that there are many enemies both without and within their small camp of survivors. The 100 is a brutal yet rewarding, addictive drama that truly does creep up on you. In order to give this wonderful show a chance, you absolutely MUST watch the whole first season, which you can find one The CW app which can be found free of charge from your smartphone's App Store. It's free to watch and there is limited commercial interruption. I would highly suggest watching this show. It morphs from a back-story laden if entertaining drama (in the first couple of episodes) to a heart wrenching human drama and intelligently written, well-acted, meticulously crafted sci-fi/post-apocalyptic survivor drama. This powerhouse of a show almost doesn't fit into any category at all. And beware Hunger Games fans (and haters)! Although it might seem like the two stories have a lot of similarities, they simply don't. The 100 is a must see drama that with the right backing and attention could turn into one of the best dramas on tv!

First Question [podcast] Belle Gunness short show notes

​ Listen to THIS episode of First Question here! Born as Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth Belle Gunness, nee Paulsen was born in Christiania, ...