Posted in: CW, TV | Tagged: Bob Morley, Christopher Larkin, cw, dean white, eliza taylor, HRL, jason rothenberg, Lindsey Morgan, Marie Avgeropoulos, Richard Harmon, sdcc, taysa teles, the 100

The 100 Comic-Con Panel Report: A Grand Exercise In Vapidity

I went to the The 100 panel (the the, great band) today for Bleeding Cool, and I'm relatively sad to say that it was a little bit vapid.

Actually, it turned out that the 100 was a panel that was the first of two exercises in collective naval gazing and collective celebrity back patting that, whilst funny, really doesn't actually amount to a whole hill of beans. Still, anything so that the hoards can squeal because you mentioned something that they know.

Incidentally, and importantly, the second of those two panels we weren't covering (Brave New Warriors) showed me that Ricky Whittle is not only a savagely attractive human, but he's funny and fun, too. How is life that unfair to the rest of us?

Anyway, yes, the panel got a decent cast attendance with Eliza Taylor, Bob Morley, Marie Avgeropoulos, Christopher Larkin, Lindsey Morgan, Richard Harmon, and Tasya Teles. They were also joined by creator Jason Rothenberg and regular series director Dean White. The panel description read:

"More than six years have passed since Praimfaya ravaged the planet and killed most of the human race. As Clarke waits to hear from the group on the Ark or in the bunker, a new mystery drops from the sky. Who is in the arriving ship, and are they friends or enemies? One thing is certain: Clarke is now the Grounder! Be among the first to find out what's in store for season 5. Join in for a special video presentation followed by a Q&A with series stars and producers."

So it's a six-year jump and Clarke has a kid (it's in the trailer, I'm sure) somehow (probably via the conventional methods that we're all used to). Either way, it's a thing. And unfortunately, this was just about all that I took from this panel.

It seemed to just be an exercise in back patting and general bonhomie that was pretty nice and all, but essentially meant sweet eff all. This left me with a really basic list of "stuff that was said", so, y'know, enjoy this:

• Director Dean generically pimps creator Jason.
• Lots of talk about spitting in to faces, think this revolves around a spit in season one or two from Tasya's character, Echo.
• More pimping, this time cast members falling over themselves to promote each others' full and amazing talents.
• Dean White mentions how one episode was really emotional, and the cast really (wait for it) *were amazing* in it, really pulling out all the actoring stops.
• I missed a couple of things because inconsiderate neighbours, and of course someone brings a wailing baby to a comic-con.
• My (mostly profane) notes on this panel indicate that someone said something quite, quite, inane. Just imagine that this particular note is stated a lot.
• Apparently in S4 Murphy tries to kill someone for coughing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• They have a five to ten minute discussion about which bloody characters should become friends with other bloody characters. Seriously. This was before audience questions.
• Luckily the next question was much more cerebral, namely whether anyone is after a different look for season 5.
• They one upped that with the next direction, each actor's favourite character attribute … luckily the actors somewhat saved that one.
• Eliza, Marie, Lindsey, Richard, and Tasya were vanilla with (respectively); resilience, flawed (and brave), will, relentlessness and strength (& loyalty).
• Bob quite genuinely liked how Bellamy holds on to his guilt, because it's actually a decent thing to play with as an actor.
• Finally Christopher pointed out that, whilst not necessarily a *character* trait, Monty can make alcohol … from scratch.

Audience questions descended quite quickly, but there were a few gems. They started out listing how each of the actors wanted their characters to "go out" (die). Richard stated that Bellamy needed to kill him, I believe that a "single tear" was required from Bellamy in the scene. Bob just said that Bellamy should take a stupid misstep off a cliff…which might be my favourite answer of this slow march to death that is celebrities talking.

Marie thought that Octavia would probably fall off a horse in battle and get trampled, which actually sounds pretty tragic. Eliza and Tasya felt like slightly rote answers with self-sacrifice and simply "space", respectively. Luckily, again, Christopher saved things by having Monty go out in a sleeper hold that goes wrong. Nice save, Chris.

Next question (please, please, kill me) was "What's Clarke's parenting style?" I eyerolled so hard that my eye hit my brain and actually knocked me out for a second, so unfortunately I can't reveal the full truth behind the amazing resources that Clarke brings to the nappy change arena.

They were asked an actually half decent question: what myths resonate with you? But there were so few intelligible answers that I've got nothing for you, I'm afraid. Someone did say "Humpty Dumpty", though…

It was pointed out that the bunker (Mount Weather?) actually had a lot of art stored, and the panelists were asked what art they would save if they could keep it away from apocalyptic destruction. Some person, it might have been the creator, said Thomas the TRAIN Engine, furthering that fine vein of comedy that began with Humpty Dumpty not long before. No one…in a room full of obsessively literal thinkers…not one person corrected that. Other (actually real things) were Starry Night, Shakespeare, Dogs Playing Cards (which is apparently in the show), and finally (again) Christopher saves it with Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. We like Christopher.

Next I need to give a quick shout out to Joss Whedon: screw you, man. Everything has to have a musical episode now, you've ruined popular culture, dammit. So they were asked what their 'theme' would be if there was a musical episode, it didn't get a wide response, but Richard went for the Sanford & Son theme tune (Streetbeater), a solid choice, Richard, although you could've gone full hipster with that answer and gone for the Steptoe and Son one. Marie (because she's truly hilarious, no really, seriously, no, really she is) went for Born To Be Wild, and Eliza went for Alone Again.

We then got one of those questions that you hear on TV and you think "how do they live with themselves?" This time it was "do you have any advice for season one you?"

• Someone said: "Don't eat the egg sandwiches."
• Eliza went with acting better on the green screen.
• Bob said that he should've fought back harder against the slick back hair.
• Marie sarcastically/ironically said "I'm still learning", it was hard to tell which with the accent.
• Lindsey echoed (or repeated) the egg sandwich advice.
• Richard and Chris said some things.
• Finally Tasya mentioned that she should learn to spit better.

Oh how the room fell about.

We got a prime slice of American entitlement next when a chocolate worker asked "who loves chocolate the most?" …I believe I answer for the whole world when I say FFS.

Jason Rothenberg was asked whether or not there'd be any parallels with season one now that the grounders are skycru, he answered at a little length, but the answer essentially amounted to: yes.

A baby got involved, because the family asking the question are adorable or something.

They were asked what hobbies the new space peeps will have, Bob wanted Bellamy to resume janitorial duties, only now that he has a stache he would be Freddie Mercury. Lindsey wanted Raven to learn to fight, to which Rothenberg said: "You will."

A half-decent question about process actually got some insight about the fight scenes, namely how often do they practice them. This was Marie's wheelhouse, and the description was that it was a lot like dancing. Marie would name all the moves, then run them through in the living room at home … "I'm really good at a useless life skill." Otherwise, Rothenberg just pointed out that they practice in their downtime.

That was actually the conclusion of this ridiculous thing, and I felt like some of more usual methods of killing brain cells have been one-upped. I may have to try harder elsewhere.

Anyway, here's the trailer:

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!