The 100

The CW's The 100, created by Jason Rothenberg, aired from March 2014 to September 2020, spanning seven seasons and exactly 100 episodes. Based on a book series by Kass Morgan, this sci-fi drama blends post-apocalyptic survival, political intrigue, and moral ambiguity. The show follows 100 juvenile delinquents sent from a failing space station to a supposedly uninhabitable Earth, only to find a harsh world full of new threats and old secrets. Eliza Taylor leads as Clarke Griffin, a natural leader, with Bob Morley as Bellamy Blake, Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia Blake, and Lindsey Morgan as Raven Reyes. The series earned a loyal fanbase and a 7.88/10 rating on IMDb, praised for its willingness to kill off major characters and tackle dark themes. It's a gritty, fast-paced adventure that constantly questions who the real monsters are.[edit]

Ninety-seven years after a nuclear apocalypse annihilated civilization, the remnants of humanity live on the Ark, a cluster of twelve linked space stations orbiting Earth. With life support systems failing, the Ark's council makes a desperate decision: send one hundred juvenile delinquents to the ground to test whether the planet is survivable. The teenagers crash-land in a forest, expecting a dead world, but they quickly discover that Earth is very much alive, and hostile.

Clarke Griffin, a doctor's daughter with a gift for strategy, and Bellamy Blake, a fierce protector of his younger sister Octavia, emerge as the group's de facto leaders. They face immediate challenges: a poisonous atmosphere that clears only near the ground, a lack of supplies, and internal power struggles. Worse, they are not alone. The Grounders, descendants of survivors who adapted to the radioactive Earth, watch from the trees. Their tribal societies speak a distinct language and follow a brutal code of honor. The 100 must learn to navigate alliances and enmities with groups like the Tree Clan and the Ice Nation, all while contending with the Reapers, cannibalistic mutants twisted by radiation.

As the Ark's remaining population descends to Earth in a desperate landing, the fragile human colony fractures. Season 2 plunges the survivors into the bowels of Mount Weather, a pre-war bunker where the descendants of the US government have preserved their own society through morally questionable means. The season forces Clarke and Bellamy to make devastating choices that haunt them for years. Season 3 introduces ALIE, an artificial intelligence created before the apocalypse that offers a painless virtual existence, the City of Light, at the cost of free will. This threat splits the Grounder alliance and tests the characters' loyalties.

Season 4 raises the stakes with Praimfaya, a second wave of nuclear reactor meltdowns that will render Earth uninhabitable again. The race to find shelter leads to a brutal competition for spots in a bunker, forcing impossible decisions about who deserves to survive. Season 5 jumps forward six years, finding the survivors who remained on Earth hardened by solitude. Their fragile peace shatters with the arrival of Eligius IV, a prison ship from the pre-apocalypse era carrying cryo-frozen convicts. The battle for the last habitable valley on Earth becomes a war over resources and redemption.

Season 6 takes the story to a new planet, Sanctum, discovered after a 125-year cryosleep journey. The survivors hope for a fresh start, but they find a seemingly perfect society built on dark secrets: a ruling class of Primes who achieve immortality by transferring their consciousness into new bodies. The season explores themes of identity, faith, and the cost of utopia. Season 7 expands the universe further with the discovery of an ancient stone portal network connecting multiple planets. The final season traces the origins of human civilization, the nature of transcendence, and the ultimate test of humanity's worthiness to exist. Throughout all seven seasons, the show's central question remains: who are we when civilization falls away, and what are we willing to become in order to survive?[edit]