Easily one of the best new US Shows of the past few years is post apocolyptic teen drama The 100. Sort of a weird mash-up of Battlestar Galactica, Lost and The Hunger Games, not only is The 100 flying the flag for original Sci-Fi shows, but it also stars a handful of former Soap alumni…
Lead actor Eliza Taylor who plays Clarke Griffin formerly appeared in Neighbours as Janae Timmins between 2005-2008. I’ll admit it took me about four episodes before putting two and two together and realising that Taylor had been in Neighbours, despite having recognised her from “somewhere” since episode one, but I was pleasantly surprised when it finally clicked as I had already spotted some other Soap stars among the cast.
Bob Morley who plays the male lead, Bellamy Blake, has previously starred in both Home and Away as Drew Curtis between 2006-2008 and in Neighbours as Aidan Foster from 2011-2013. Ricky Whittle plays Lincoln and Hollyoaks fans will recognise him as former Dee Valley Police Officer Calvin Valentine, after five years on the Chester based soap from 2006-2011, but he’ll also be familiar to Dream Team fans having played Harchester United footballer Ryan Naysmith in the former SkyOne soap from 2002-2007. Rounding off the Soap alum is Dichen Lachman who plays leader of the Grounders, Anya, and is also a previous Neighbours star who played Katya Kinski in the Aussie Soap from 2005-2007.
Soap ties aside The 100 becomes a great little show once it firmly finds it’s footing about a third of the way into the first season, and stand out from other US network TV shows by maintaining a decent pace throughout and introducing enough mystery and intrigue each episode, to leave viewers anticipating the following week’s outing.
Showrunner Jason Rothenberg has taken Kass Morgan’s novel and made it his own by moving off in a different direction from the book early on, meaning The 100 becomes one of those rare pieces where the on-screen adaptation greatly outshines the original work, in this case the novel, and opens the series up to a whole new audience.
One can only hope that such a refreshing and creatively driven show can survive in the competitive ratings driven industry that is US network television and we can continue to enjoy the action packed world of The 100 for several years to come, as it would be a crying shame for such a critically-acclaimed series to fall to the wayside and disappear from the telly box.
The second season has just started off in the US on The CW, so no better time to binge-watch season one and jump on The 100 bandwagon…
The Soap Pundit 