Text Review “The 100”

In the show “The 100”  created by Jason Rothenburg it follows a science-fiction-based human society. This society of futuristic humans has abandoned earth for hundreds of years and has decided to send down 100 teenage criminals to test out the planet. When the 100 humans get to earth they discover an entire primal, Native American-like human society. At first, communication is hard and they start a small war. This results in large casualties but afterward, peace is formed between the surviving humans and “grounders.” They later unite their forces to fight against other outside factors throughout the show including AI, weather, humanoids, and aliens.

The show’s main plot revolves around how two human cultures, who were once hostile to each other, grow and adapt into their own that incorporates everyone’s best interest. The “Grounders” valued honor, tribe leadership, and a one for all mentality. They believed in the survival of the grounder population and that only. The futuristic humans have a society based on individuality, strict punishments, and irrational thinking. They are in my opinion more anarchical and unstructured than the “Grounders” society is. After working together throughout the seasons, one even was finally being able to merge them into one society. Both the “Grounders” and the 100 are locked into a bunker for 6 years and forced to turn to cannibalism to survive. This was the turning point, instead of fighting and eating each other based on different cultures, they chose to do it based on crimes against the newly found “WonKru.” After leaving the bunker both cultures were fully immersed within each other. Unfortunately, it took great tragedy and adversity to do so. 

This show draws many parallels to when the Europeans made their first contact with the Native Americans. Unfortunately, real-life didn’t end as the TV show did. The Native Americans were wiped out and controlled. If Europeans decided to integrate with them like in the show “The 100” the outcome for humanity could have had a much more positive light. A more rich culture that wasn’t built on blood. Based on how human nature is though, I believe something catastrophic would have happened to unite both, similar to the bunker in “The 100.”