After drifting out of print over the last decade, the first season of this sci-fi series is once again available on U.S. Blu-ray. If you never got around to watching the show (like me), or you missed out on affordable Blu-rays for your collection the first time around, now is the time to grab this set before it disappears again. Sure, it would be even better if a full series Blu-ray set was issued, but for whatever silly studio reason, only single seasons are available.
Buy The 100: The Complete First Season Blu-rayThe series is set in a post-apocalyptic era where Earth’s surviving citizens escaped to space nearly 100 years ago, fleeing their irradiated home planet and living out their days in orbit on their cobbled-together collection of space stations called the Ark. When a group of 100 young scamps are exiled for their petty crimes, they serve as unwilling guinea pigs to test the survivability of life on Earth. Of course, leaving unsupervised delinquents on their own leads to trouble, so the title of the series becomes increasingly inaccurate as casualties mount.
The young actors seem to have been largely cast for their looks, not their talent, leading to soap-opera-level line readings that make for some unintentionally hilarious scenes. The older actors left in space aren’t much better, but at least bring some sense of maturity to what would otherwise be an MTV-level scripted series. Things never quite seem to gel for the cast in the first season, with everyone failing to mask the sense that they’re just there for the paycheck, putting in their hours without conviction.
I somehow completely avoided this series during its CW broadcast run and its ongoing Netflix afterlife, so approached my viewing with virtually no background, aside from randomly wandering by a cast signing at Comic-Con years ago and noting their photogenic appeal. The story plays out much as expected, with the kids eventually discovering that of course they’re not alone on Earth, leading to interactions with feuding groups of savage mutants and hunky tribal warriors. One of those interactions is an exile lass falling under the washboard-ab spell of a warrior with a heart of gold, but other than that the natives are there for the scares as the space kids try to become Earthlings for the first time in their lives.
While it was pretty much a hate watch for me (and my wife) in the drowsy early episodes, the introduction of the natives and the increasingly terminal prognosis for the Ark generated rising levels of suspense as the season progressed, resulting in a fairly engaging back half of the 13-episode season. It all culminates in another dramatic shift in power structure to close the season, a not-so-surprising discovery but one that offers fresh story ideas and settings for the next season.
The Blu-ray set appears to be identical to the original 2014 release, right down to the unchanged cover artwork. Special features include four “Creating the World of The 100” featurettes, the cast’s 2013 Comic-Con panel, audio commentary and unaired scenes on the season finale. It’s encouraging that Warner Bros reissued this set in the midst of our current physical media post-apocalypse, but the real path to the hearts of the show’s fans continues to be the still-nonexistent complete series box set.
