Review by Deleted
BlockedParentSpoilers2015-03-13T04:53:31Z

You did it "The 100", you did it.

You left us last week with a bait-and-switch bisexuality storyline that possibly and probably hinted towards actual dynamical characterization, only to have those hopes dashed and smashed and scattered to the winds, and then you pulled an almost complete 180 to make everything meaningful and interesting again.

How many times will I continue to fall for this?

Infinitely, if not 100, at least, I'd pre-suppose.

So, last week was basically the worst possible episode imaginable. Everything that was built-up and worked towards was all but obliterated with random acts of blindness as each and every character seemed to forget all notions of sanity and reason, leaving everything at face value.

We even learn that allllllll the bone marrow transplant army mountain dudes, except the crazy Son King under the Mountain and his right-hand generic brutish white-dude-stooge were killed in Clarke's Gambit... which honestly just made it more incoherent as to why Lexa surrendered.

Personally, I'm starting to question the saliency of the feminism in this racistly-depicted matriarchal warrior society, and perhaps Lexa's appointment is a post-apocalyptical role of blame funneling.

In a society of warriors, you can have a small, fancy lady queen, so long as we can all blame her for all our problems.

Point-in-fact, the PCP super-heroin drugging that generates the "Reapers". It's a persistence of the "Mountain Men" society of war-ready American (or, AMERICAN) descendents objectifying the external, the others in society, to be their blood property, while also building a subset of warrior-warring people-pets who maintain the "order" and delineation.

Perhaps -- as is most explicable and rational in the face of the irrationality of events -- Lexa's surrender was an ingrained notion of inferiority to the "Mountain Men", which Clarke entirely failed to recognize.

This, I could understand. It'd be deeply horrifying, but it'd be far more understandable.

And as this episode showed in a near-completely brutalistic manner, Clarke jumps to action out of worry, even without rationale or reason. Not only did she save (some of) her people, but she ended-up doing exactly what she wanted to prevent ... she painfully and horrifically obliterated the "Mountain Men", women, and children. She even all-but-line-of-sight-directly killed Jasper's girlfriend, who spent the last 12 episodes consistently saving and supporting every single one of Clarke's people ... even sacrificing her own friends and family for the righteousness of the cause of anti-blood-slavery.

Yet, what is just soooooo infuriating, but weirdly so exemplified, is this persistent delusion of exclusion that Clarke has for her nearest and dearest.

Finn objectively went entirely insane. He had a Nazi-ish massacre of a couple dozen of people under his belt, all based on noticing Clarke's dad's watch. A flimsier rationale could not be designed. Especially not for everything that happened, with Finn's twelve dozen "oops! my finger slipped" insane and persistent reactions as he kept gunning-down person after person, for absolutely and entirely no reason. And then it took three episodes for Clarke to finally mercy-kill him to spare him from a public flaying (a.k.a., a fully conscious separation of his body from his skin).

The frustration is consistently in the pacing and tone. There is absolutely no distinction between the rampaging idiotic murder of dozens of "Grounders", and the absolutely, entirely boring courtship of emotional reticence between Raven and Engineer McGentleman Scruff, Esq..

Clarke will kill a dad to revenge against -- not even coerce, just fully and irrationally and irreconcilably pre-revenge -- a son, then subject dozens of ostensibly innocent men, women, and children to excruciating and inescapable radiation poisoning, and then apparently reconnect with the mother who sent her to prison and orchestrated her own husband's murder for political maintenance, in the span of all but 20 seconds.

I mean ... hormones and the moon are real things, but like, come on, you guys. Seriously, I mean, come on. Is anyone really this entirely cynical and callous and unstable?!

I mean, even I am entirely subservient to blessed Selenic Sovereign ... but come on ... take a beat. Have a thought. Think about what you're doing, for like, I dunno, 3 seconds, instead of 1. Let's start there at least and see how it feels.

You are literally living in a post-nuclear society ... let's not consistently revert to the nuclear option ... no matter how much we miss our mum.

I, too, would enjoy a hug now and then, particularly in the most trying of times ... but you get a pillow or two, you squeeze 'em and put one between your legs, and you go to sleep and see how you feel in the morning.

Doesn't that sound far more manageable and tolerable than the latest mass-murder of the moment?

Cra'y cra'y, for days.

Anyways, of course Jaha then like tosses dudes to the "Tremors"/"Dune" lake leeches so he and Murphy can follow the drone to the island of lost dreams, where it turns out that there is a playboy bachelor billionaire lighthouse ... fuck you, "The 100", for exploiting my weakness!!!

Ugh, ok, I guess now I have to tolerate this story, though of course I can help but be bored with the stupidity that is a semi-sentient fancy-lady-hologram AI who speaks in abstract illuminati riddles and wants to continue to build this story as a pre-cursor to "The Matrix".

I mean ... sure, technically there's nothing else like this on TV, but also, novelty is not intellect nor entertainment, inherently.

I do like to contend though that Jaha suffered massive oxygen deprivation in his last few hours on the space station, and that explains why he's behaving like he is, because he is quite literally -- and non-mockingly -- brain-damaged. That would just be so wonderful, and would really clear a lot of things up, in terms of characterization.

And that's the thing, "The 100", you got me, I'll watch you next season, I will, and I would even, with much trepidation, recommend you to others to watch. You are definitely no "Hawaii Five-0", but you are assuredly some kind of deformed subversion.

Your pacing is horrific, your tone is consistently insane, and your narrative is like "What if only cynical, idiotic assholes survived the nuclear annihilation of humanity ... what would they do if we stick them all in the same room?".

Not to smash a tofu (vegan for "beat a dead horse"), but It's the nuclear fallout and only 2/3rds of the characters in your show are familiar with CPR and basic First Aid. Reflect on "Donnie Darko" for a hot second and revel in the insanity of "The Knick", antiseptics revolutionized modern society. The 1899 may have well been the middle ages, if not Ancient Egypt (-2999) compared to 1999, because of the societal and technological and medical advances. Never have we ever experienced such revolution to the fabric of our basic cultural and societal reality besides the notions of portable food storage (anti-spoilage) and persistent anti-bacterials.

Focus on that you sexy teen adults. I mean, come on. Have a conversation ... once. Just once. Please.

I love that the dude from "Lost"/"Scandal" is the very first person in the very last possible moment to suggest bone marrow donations. Like, you just went through some insane wars and murders and crazy power struggles, and no one ever thought to just have a fucking blood drive, instead of some kind of ghettoized Reganomic CIA insane doping regimen of creating cannabilistic soldier pets to harvest and dispose of these sanguine people-shaped sacks clambering all around the place.

Insane.

But I'll keeping watching.

So insane.

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Reply by Deleted
BlockedSpoilers2015-08-22T18:29:14Z

Jaha tossing the dude to the sea leeches makes me want to rewatch the whole series. I'm curious if he has always just been a selfish, sociopathic bastard, or if he was different before. Sure, Jaha saved the baby who was left on the space station, except the baby didn't exist, and it was only an expression of his will to survive. With his talk in the badlands about leading everyone to their salvation/destiny, he certainly seems to be a Baltar (Battlestar Galactica) type of character, a sort of false prophet with an overblown ego.

The bi-sex girl-on-girl action that turned into a backstab this episode also makes me want to rewatch previous episodes. I wasn't really buying it when the kiss happened. There should have been some flirting beforehand to set it up... unless it was a cold, calculated, manipulative move by Lexa, which suddenly seems like a possibility.

Basically, I'm hoping that the things that seem like flaws will turn out to be plot twists that were set up long ago. However, Battlestar Galactica taught me that most things that seem like plot holes really are plot holes, induced by massive amounts of alcohol in the writers' bloodstreams.

I don't so much mind Clarke's backstabbing of the Mountain Men innocents, including Jasper's girlfriend. It was only a result of being backstabbed by Lexa. And it's a constant theme of the show that they do immoral things to save their own skins.

So there are only two mountain men left? I missed that. I was thinking they'd still be a force to be reckoned with.

The show was already having Lost vibes, with the Mountain Men playing the role of the Others. Now with the playboy mansion lighthouse, it's really gone into Lost territory. The similarity to Lost doesn't bode well for things ever really making any sense.

The AI, gosh, that's such a heavily worn path for recent sci-fi, but maybe it will be done with a creative twist. Certainly, Jaha is the perfect victim for the AI.

The 100 is starting to have a Ringworld (Larry Niven novel) feel to it, and I see why. Ringworld was a vast ring around a star, so it had countless environments and cultures. In the 100, the Earth has become something like that, because there are no countries. The world is fragmented in the 100. So, there are countless environments and cultures. Therefore, there is plenty of room for playboy mansion lighthouses and anything else you want to dream up.

I really wish there were a Ringworld movie or series. Wikipedia says SyFy is working on a Ringworld miniseries (started 2013.)

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