The Executive Producer of The CW’s ‘The 100’ reflected on the show’s third season and teased what’s next for season four.
Following the controversial and quickly-panned season three, Jason Rothenberg was interviewed at San Diego Comic-Con about the outlook on season four and the mixed reactions surrounding the last season. Here you can see what we gathered from the press round-table and what Rothenberg has in store for season four.
So how exactly does ‘The 100’ move on from season three?
If one apocalypse wasn’t enough, Rothenberg states that the threat in season four would be the world ending “again”. This follows Clarke’s (Eliza Taylor) decision to Pull The Lever in the City of Light. He stated that season four would follow a completely different direction and theme to the previous seasons. To us, that’s somewhat difficult to understand considering it is a serialized program. Simply put, Rothenberg said:
Crazy shit will start happening pretty quickly.
Critics, including us, have been unsure of the frantic pacing. It affected the story-lines massively, for example Bellamy’s (Bob Morley) rapid three-sixty from mass-murderer to redemption bloke and Lexa’s (Alycia Debnam-Carey) death. Both topics were skimmed over in Rothenberg’s interview.
RELATED l SEASON THREE VERDICT: ‘THE 100’
He noted that he would always try to put characters in “impossible situations”. And as for the show, “always try to be a little more challenging”. Judging by the promotion team behind ‘The 100’ and their ‘groundbreaking’ claims, we’ll have to see if season four lives up to that. After all, that was the exact hype for season three.
Acknowledging the dark themes of season three, Rothenberg explained that this was because Jasper (Devon Bostick) and Monty (Christopher Larkin), usually used for “comic relief”, were given “depressing” story-lines this year. Which made the entire show gloomy. Moreover, when one of the interviewers asked how many levers would be pulled in season four, Rothenberg claimed this was “obviously a deliberate thing”:
The lever in season three was all a construct of [Clarke’s] mind. Things were happening, and the flame was in her head, and so Becca was manifesting things that meant something to her. And the lever obviously means something to her as a symbol, and that’s why we did that.
Some wayward notes of confusion in relation to the series as a whole.
Perhaps it’s because Rothenberg creates each season as its own a-la ‘American Horror Story’, but some things didn’t add up. Most notably was the talk of the Sky People, and how “they have to work on how to survive”. Ever since landing from space in season one, we’d have thought that’s exactly what the Sky People had been attempting to do. Furthermore, there was this:
When we say something’s going to happen, it usually happens. There’s no, like, eleventh hour save.
Perhaps Rothenberg meant for season four, for we recall eleventh hour saves in every single finale of each season. The lever that caused the ring of fire; the lever that killed the Mountain Men; the…lever that killed ALIE. However many levers Clarke may pull, though, it still results in the same response: that “the legend of Wanheda grows”, and that some people will be “pissed off” at Clarke when they find out the truth of what occurred in the City of Light. If we had noted some inconsistencies in the series as a whole, there is one consistency. And that is Clarke seems to save everyone’s life and have to apologize for it or face her peers’ wrath. It would be a refreshing change if that weren’t the case for once.
Rothenberg addressed the “mixed reactions” from the audience…somewhat.
Frustratingly, the massive elephants in the room were completely glossed over. Potentially the biggest story-lines or controversies had been Commander Lexa’s death; Bellamy’s sudden genocidal turn; and Lincoln’s (Ricky Whittle) point-blank execution. Rothenberg recognized that there “weren’t enough wins in season three” but did not elaborate on any of those three points in any more detail whatsoever, other than naming them. As the show-runner, Rothenberg explained he had to “trust his instinct as a story-teller” and also said that “we’re not trying to do fan service”.
It isn’t an unfair point. If the show were to be consistently trod over by fandom urges, the show would delve even deeper into the mosh pit. However, in the light of big critics talking of different ways writers’ rooms worked, and the big difference between listening and succumbing to fan pressure especially in the light of such controversies, Rothenberg left us with this:
I’m literally the only person that I hope to please.
Hopefully, in season four, his audience would be satisfied with choosing to watch, too.
Does this showrunner realize network tv shows are supposed to grow the largest audience possible? To attract large numbers of fans to help the show’s advertisers sell products?
Jason Rothenberg is the television showrunner equivilent of a caged monkey that throws its feces at gawking zoo tourists because it’s bored and isn’t smart enough to do anything else.