Kass Morgan wrote a book in 2013 about 100 juvenile delinquents who are forcibly sent to Earth to see if it is inhabitable for the rest of the colony living in orbit, near the planet. Then in 2014, the CW premiered a quasi-dystopia television show that explores how 100 troubled kids would handle ultimate freedom after surviving juvenile detention. The show reached an audience who were fascinated with the Lord of the Flies type survival sagas mixed in with teenage love stories. There was nothing else quite like this show because the bad guys could save the day, the good guys could make the wrong choices, and favorite characters could be killed off the show. Which version did I enjoy the most?
Drum roll please…. the TV Show.
In the book, there are love stories told from survivors on Earth and for those doomed to stay on the deteriorating outer space colony. In the television show, they never introduced the colony couple, Glass and Luke. Instead they ramped up the division of us versus them by sharing the stories of the newly released delinquents on the ground and the parents/adults in the colony, still trying to be in charge, while in space.
The core of the novel is the blossoming love between Clarke and Bellamy in a love triangle with Wells. In the show, Wells is Clarke’s former best friend and only survives a few episodes on the show, which was a huge sign to the book fans that the television show was going in their own direction. Plus, the writers still unsuccessfully tried to keep Clarke and Bellamy apart with the character creation of Finn, every girl’s dream good boyfriend. Finn was the type of guy you wanted to have around when the world was falling apart. His character had to take a devastating wrong turn to break them up and I still feel the void of his character many television seasons later. No matter how hard the writers tried, there is one main reason why people continue to watch this show and that’s to root for their favorite couple, Blake.
It’s hard to imagine that in the books, there isn’t Octavia and Lincoln’s love story, Jasper and Monty’s friendship, Murphy’s moral ambiguity or the short (but sweet) life of Finn. The CW was able to take the core idea and expand it into a show that will be going into its 5th season this year. But make no mistake, it can be a hard show to watch. The characters are faced with life and death scenarios on a daily basis. They don’t always make the right choices and for those who survive, they have to live with the consequences. Out of the original 100, I wonder how many are still alive?
No matter if their character is alive or dead, you can always count on The 100 actors to put together a great panel at the San Diego Comic Con. This year, the audience got a sneak preview of Season 5 and learned that there will be a new set of villains. What I love the most are the natural Austrian accents of Bob Marley (Bellamy) and Eliza Taylor (Clarke). They are adorably charming.
This concludes my series of blogs with special photos from the 2017 San Diego Comic Con. However, I am one of the lucky few who already have tickets for next year so I plan to keep this yearly tradition alive as long as they keep turning my favorite books into movies and television shows.
Columnist: Jessie lives in Oregon and writes to avoid the rain. She only feels compelled to kill her characters when she starts a new diet and if she hates the ending of a TV episode she’ll rewrite it to give everyone a happily ever after. Currently Jessie is an unpublished author but she works tirelessly to removed two letters – un – from that word.
Column book and movie tape drawn by Evangeline Owen
