The 100: The Complete Fifth Season - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

The 100: The Complete Fifth Season

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
The 100 is a strange sci-fi show for me. I initially hated the first season beyond belief (I hadn’t run into a series that was so intent on making you hate each and every character as much as I did that year), but have come to really enjoy the show as it has adapted and changed over the years. Season 2 was a steep increase in quality and enjoyment (it probably has the most cohesive and intricate story line out of all the seasons), but I’ve become to enjoy and appreciate the characters more and more each and every subsequent season.

Season 5 of the show comes out the gate with both guns blazing, and is a much leaner and tighter season than previously seen. The one thing that I appreciate about the show is it’s willingness to burn old bridges and create something new out the ashes, and the show creators seem to have realized that with season 4 they were getting into a rut. Humanity was now in the bunker (with some on the ARC up in space), but the series jumps ahead 6 years in the future (as seen by the last few minutes of season 4 with Clarke and her daughter Madi watching a landing ship). The first two episodes act as the link between the 6 years, getting us caught up with all of what has happened to Bellamy and the rest of the human kind in the bunker, as well as Clarke and Madi trying to survive after the nuclear meltdown that pretty much obliterated much of Earth. Like usual, there’s going to be blood and guts strewn everywhere, as each warring faction left fights for the one thing that they all desire most, survival.

Season 4 was a huge culling of plot points and people alike, trimming down the cast once more to the bare essentials. To put it mildly, it pulled the rug out from under us and created a new footing to regain and a new equilibrium to balance. The world is in complete chaos after the rest of the world’s nuclear reactor’s went critical, and this new dynamic makes for some good watching. Clarke is much more mercenary and colder than she’s ever been, while Bellamy and his sister Octavia serve as the new leaders of their factions. Bellamy has grown and adapted over the years, turning into a much wiser and more compassionate leader than before, while Octavia’s ruling style is the polar opposite. Her Wonkru clan is lead by blood and blade, leaving no one safe as she’s willing to do whatever it takes to survive.

I won’t give away too much of the alliances, betrayals and backstabbings that make up the complete fifth season, but needless to say it’s got some nasty twists and turns along the way. The one thing that really stood out to be me is the ending. The 100 has a way of nailing the endings (even though the middle of their seasons can sometimes be a bit jumbled and disjointed) and the 2 part Damocles finale is no different. In fact, it’s one of the biggest game changers since the 1st season’s shockers as they finally say what we’ve all known for the last 2 seasons. Earth isn’t coming back and it’s time to move on. I know it may seem a bit cliched and cynical, but we’ve all known that Earth was a losing battle for everyone involved. The nuclear waste and holocaust has leveled the planet down to being basically uninhabitable, and for generations to come will likely never be that way again. The change up at the end of the season opens up the show for a myriad of different angles, and we literally have “the sky’s the limit” for next season’s narratives.

The ability for reinvention in the series also brings with it as set of problems as well. I do appreciate that The 100 has a way of sticking the landing with FANTASTIC season finales, but it does do something that slightly irritates me. The middle of the season tends to be disjointed and jumbled, fumbling around with characters and their arcs, only to blow everything up at the end and start from scratch. It’s happened pretty much 4 out of the 5 seasons, and this works as a crutch for the show creators to just wipe the slate clean and start anew, which limits how character arcs really work, and gets into a rut of its own. However, the new game changer for season 6 opens up SOOOOOOO many more possibilities for the future, and makes it even more intriguing as we wait to see just what’s going to happen with the Damocles and Monty’s discovery.




Rating:

Rated TV-14




Video:

As with many of these long running TV shows, The 100: The Complete Fifth Season is eerily similar to the season sets that have come before it in terms of visual clarity. Near immaculate, the digitally shot show is incredibly luscious on DVD. The colors are mixed a bit on the dimmer side, with long stretches of the show where deep greens and forest blacks are intermingled with the sterile blue/gray of the more sterile look of the grounders command centers. The blues and grays and more clean look of technology has slowly been replaced with more earth tones, and deep forest colors, but there is still a glimpse of that technological aspect that makes them unique bleeding through. Facial details and intimate clothing details are abundant and richly done, with little stitches and folds on clothing contrasting with the smudged and grimy faces that show just about every bit of dirt. There's some softness is the forest backdrops, and the limitations of the DVD format show some smearing, but other than that, the DVD set is more than capable of giving a very pleasing look with all 13 episodes spread across 3 DVD-9s.






Audio:

like the video, there's a comfortable sense of stability with the audio mixes on each season of The 100. The series is very repetitious in it's settings and locales, so the 5.1 Dolby Digital track sounds incredibly familiar if you've kept up the show. The DVD's audio mix is robust and excitable, giving us plenty of action and battles to really get the sound stage to open up. The surrounds get a hefty amount of effort throughout the fix, and the sound of gunshots, roaring rockets, and thundering horses hooves ring out with authority, both in dynamic range and with the power of the LFE channel behind it as well. Dialog is almost boringly reliable, with good clarity and no sounds of distortion or imbalance in mixing with the rest of the track. During the quieter sections of the episodes the mix can get decidedly front heavy, but more than willing to go full on immersive when the action heats up. A solid mix for sure, my only real complaint is missing the more robust and richer sound of the lossless mix that the Warner Archive Blu-rays receive.






Extras:

• The 100: 2018 WonderCon Panel
• Season 5 Mythology
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel

Final Score: ​

I've begrudgingly had to admit that The 100 has grown on me. I've never met a show that I loathed so intensely the first season, only to watch as the series has gotten better and better year after year. Even at a full 5 seasons I'm not sure the series has peaked yet, and while it's not going to be a show that I rave and give a million accolades to, it has gotten quite good over the years. Characters have swapped back and forth on my hate/love meter, the series has no problem killing beloved characters off, and the sci-fi/post apocalyptic setting makes for some fun adventures. There will always be SOME level of angst in the series due to it being a CW show (The CW is infamous for their angsty interpersonal relationships), but it's got a fairly solid take on heavier character weights and the depth which some of the characters go is quite impressive for a show of its nature. The DVD specs are on par with how the series has been released the last several years (meaning quite good), although I did notice the extras seem a bit diminished than previous years. Still a very solid watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Eliza Taylor, Bob Morley, Marie Avgeropoulos
Created by: Jason Rothenberg
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG 2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 585 Minutes
DVD Release Date: October 9th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Solid Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I stop watching it after season 1.. I guess I have to revisit it now..

 

[Michael Scott]

Thanks for the review. I stop watching it after season 1.. I guess I have to revisit it now..

season one is by FAR the weakest season of the bunch. Give season 2 a chance before writing it off. I hate d the first season with a passion

 

[Sonnie]

Yep.... I struggled getting thru season one myself. I watched a little bit of season two and stopped. Later I went back and picked it up and haven't quit watching it since. This last season was really good... perhaps the best one yet.

 

[tripplej]

I will take a look. Typically, shows get worse as the seasons go so kind of gave up on it after season 1.