The 100 is a new CW television network series set in a post-apocalyptic(as if there was any other kind) future.

Set 97 years after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization, when a spaceship housing humanity’s lone survivors sends 100 juvenile delinquents back to Earth in hopes of possibly re-populating the planet. (imdb)

Human apparently survived the nuclear fallout by combining all their space stations into one large one. Because of limited resources extreme population control is enforced. Any crime, no matter how small, results in the criminal being ejected into the vacuum of space. If you commit a crime before you are eighteen, you aren’t killed, but are locked up until you come of age. But even in this totalitarian society, resources are becoming scarce, and the station only has a few viable months left.

Faced with the destruction of the human race, the leaders decide to send 100 juvenile convicts to Earth on a song and a prayer that they will find 97+ year old resources that will save them all. Fortunately a few of the convicts are the children of the leaders, and so appear to have inherited both leadership skills and education. Unfortunately, the other 95 odd teenagers sent down have only read Lord of the Flies and believe that society is a model of success. Up above in the space station, the adults try to monitor the kids’ progress and fight their own political battles.

A few things I noticed about the space station.

It has rotating sections for producing artificial gravity.

It apparently has the resources to produce new clothing (including leather jackets).

It has the resources to build a landing ship capable of holding 100 passengers and with fuel and parachutes to land.

It has enough fuel to stay in orbit.

Granted only the pilot episode has aired, but for a station that is running out of resources, it sure seems to have a lot.

No one seems to know much about Earth. I don’t know if this means all the weather and down-looking satellites are gone, or were scrapped for the space station, or what, but they are really going in blind. The primary kid leader takes a small team to look for resources, and makes a comment about there being no animals. Two seconds later they come upon a large buck, only to then see that all isn’t quite right on this nuclear Earth. When night falls some of the foliage glows, which would be a warning sign for any child of the atomic age (or probably a society after a massive nuclear war) but these kids don’t seem to care. In the evening it also starts to rain. The adults monitoring on the station are awestruck at this news. That seems odd to me, since there are orbiting the Earth. Try looking down now and then, people.

Unfortunately I feel like this show is really just a version of LOST set in the future. I became frustrated with the show LOST after 5-6 episodes because the characters weren’t intelligent enough to realize that working together was going to be a lot better than not. This appears to be how things are going to be starting for The 100. Already in the pilot episode we see the 100 breaking into cliques, and the Lord of the Flies taking over. I’m not going to put a nail in the coffin on a single episode, but already I’m leery about what course this series might be taking.