The 100: Season 03, Episode 16, “Perverse Instantiation – Part Two”
Cold open to Abby, with rope burns on her neck, jolting upright in Clarke’s arms in a classic example of Waking Up To Realize You Did A Horrible Thing. The acting nails it, though. Some of these stories don’t deserve the acting they’re getting, but the actors are giving their all. That cold open is … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 15, “Perverse Instantiation – Part One”
Clarke – driven by Lexa’s death, a sense of guilt, being blamed by everyone, a desire to rescue her people, and general Clarke-ish-ness – is bound and determined to get to Ontari and give her the chip. Three problems. Problem One: They’re winging it here, in every aspect. Bellamy wings it by shooting Roan. (To … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 14, “Red Sky at Morning”
Well that was . . . confusing. Every aspect of this episode, from technical to narrative, is all over the map. We’ve got unclear or contradictory framing and explicit exposition about an AI’s consciousness. We have wonderful lighting but production design which makes a pacifist sanctuary on an oil rig look basically exactly like any … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 13, “Join or Die”
This episode is a mess. It attempts to rectify and/or lampshade all the problems the show had in Seasons 1 and 3A. [Season 2 doesn’t really come into play in this episode, which is fitting.] It has some interesting ideas about how about this rectifying business, but it flubs the execution badly. No pun intended. Screaming. Gray … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 12: Demons
This episode serves three main purposes: expositing what has gone before, killing time finding a quick answer to unlocking the chip (we all knew when they stood around in a circle, they were going to talk out loud until they stumbled on the magic phrase, that’s just how these scenes work), and setting up what’s coming … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 11, Nevermore
The methodology of this episode – take several of your original 100, put them in close quarters with a problem to solve, throw in a manipulative omniscient asshole, make everyone hash out their guilt and reasons for having it – is superb. Sure, it’s made a little weaker by many of the ‘reasons for said guilt’ having … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 10, Fallen
It takes a lot of time and effort to write reviews, not to mention my own projects on various burners. I can’t continually bring myself to dedicate oodles of unpaid time to something which not only has spent this season throwing away good stories with both hands, but has a showrunner who has mistreated cast and … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 09, Stealing Fire
I’m always curious what sorts of changes are made while shooting, versus in the editing room, and even what may be tweaked after picture lock whether because the network insists or something big happens between finished product and airing. For example, last week’s The Walking Dead featured a line right as the episode cut to … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 08, “Terms and Conditions”
A lot of things come full circle this episode. Food and water are running low in Arcadia, just as oxygen was on the Ark. The Chancellor is making awful decisions and being undermined, only here it’s Kane doing the undermining. The Grounders are insisting someone be brought to justice for his crimes or they will … Continue reading
The 100: Season 03, Episode 07, Thirteen
We open where we ended, with Murphy being tortured. When you think about it, it’s hard to have sympathy for Murphy – an often snide, sociopathic, murderous thief – but the point with torture is the subject doesn’t need to be sympathetic, in fact often it’s better if they aren’t; the moral quandary and audience … Continue reading
Mel Killingsworth - Film and TV blog 