The fact that I am even writing this blog entry about Sons of Anarchy is in and of itself a miracle of its own. Before watching this series I had seen the commercials, I had read a few tidbits about the show online. It didn't look or sound like anything I would be interested in in a million years. I'm a geek. I like video games, fantasy, and science fiction. You would think a show about a bunch of manly men and their motorcycles would be something I would have no interest in.
I don't know what prompted me to watch it. Perhaps the good reviews started to get to me. I was also beginning to take an interest in more "mature" shows. Series like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Dexter, and Game of Thrones were starting to change the way I viewed TV. Normally I had looked more towards movies and video games for my daily fix of violence. Television was for reality programs, sports, sitcoms, and an endless litany of cop/doctor/lawyer shows. There was nothing there to satisfy my dark craving. Despite being a pretty mild mannered guy (most of the time), I like blood, death, and destruction.
I gave this show a shot. Although I did not know much about it other than the biker gang premise, I figured if I didn't like it I could always stop watching. I am very glad I did start it up. I was actually a late bloomer to the show, as I didn't start watching until season 4 had already aired on television. I watched seasons 1 through 3 on Netflix, and by the time I had finished with season 3, season 4 was available for streaming.
I ate all these episodes up, and by the time I had finished up with season 4, I had nothing to do but wait almost an entire year for the next season to come up on Netflix. Season 5 had been currently on TV, but it had started a few weeks prior to season 4 coming up on Netflix, and I had already missed half the season. So I just said screw it and waited for the season to end and then downloaded the whole thing and watched it at once rather than wait a whole year. I did this for each successive season after 5 as well.
Which takes me to the present day. I am now done with the show. And what a show it was.
Before I get too far here, let me just tell you that I am not planning to shy away from spoilers, so if you aren't up to date on the show, read at your own risk.
This is a very hardcore series. This you must know before you start watching. If you are easily offended by sexism and violence, Sons of Anarchy is not going to be for you. Your church going granny is probably not going to like this either. Some people may decry the language, the show's attitude towards women, the casual drug usage, the violence and wanton brutality, etc. But none of that bothers me. Obviously, this is fiction - but you have to figure some of it is based on the actions of real motorcycle gangs. If the Sons were real, this would be exactly how their way of life would be. Trying to water down or censor this would have been a mistake and a dishonor to the spirit of the show. Why bother doing the show if you weren't going to portray their lifestyle as honestly and as accurately as possible?
Not that I am saying this is necessarily a realistic show. But we'll get to that soon.
Let's talk about the basics of the series. If you haven't seen it yet, you will know from my words so far only a few basic things. It's about a motorcycle gang. Check. It's violent. Check. There is sex and drugs. Check.
But what is the show really about? Keep in mind that I haven't rewatched anything or read any recaps on the older seasons, so my memory may be a little hazy about things.
Season 1 throws you into the mix with little to no introduction. The Sons are referred to as SAMCRO, which is an acronym for Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original. It took me a little while to figure out what exactly they were talking about at first, but basically SAMCRO is the club. There are other chapters of the club in different parts of the country that have different acronyms, but SAMCRO refers to this chapter specifically. Pretty easy, huh? Knowing this before you start the show will probably save you a little bit of confusion.
The club operates out of a small California city (is it even big enough to be considered a city?) called Charming. I was able to pick up that this gang has been around for a long time, and that it has a complex history of violence and gun running. You are introduced to the colorful cast as the show progresses. You've got Clay, who is the President of the club. His VP Jax, who is the son of the club's deceased founding father. Clay's wife Gemma, who is also Jax's mother. Chibs, the scarred Irish member of the club who I instantly recognized from his small role in Braveheart. Bobby, the big bearded off again on again Elvis impersonator. Opie, Jax's best friend from childhood. Juice, the one with the tattooed head. Tig, who is the wild and brash member of the club. There are more, but these are the main ones.
In season one, you find out that the club has a symbiotic relationship with Charming. The law basically leaves SAMCRO alone, and SAMCRO returns the favor by keeping the town clean from pedophiles, murderers, drug dealers, and other would be gun runners. Better the enemy the cops know than the ones they don't, right? Of course, being a gang, SAMCRO has rivalries with other motorcycle clubs that pop up off and on throughout the course of the show.
As the series progresses, many intricate plot lines begin to form. The show's creators based Sons loosely off of Hamlet, so expect some backstabbing, Machiavellian plots, and tragic deaths to take place. For example, in season one, SAMCRO president Clay believes that club member Opie has been ratting the club out to the police. So he arranges for a hit on Opie, and his hired hand ends up killing the wrong person by accident, which causes manly tears to flow.
One thing I must say about this show is that it hits hard emotionally. I generally don't cry much during TV shows, but Sons had me going every few episodes or so. Yeah, these guys are big tough gangsters, but they have family and people they love too. It almost hits harder seeing guys who you wouldn't expect to show emotion crying and laying it all out on the line. That's one of the things that really drew me in as I watched. I really started to feel an emotional connection to these guys and had to keep watching to see what was going to happen to them next. Who would survive and who wouldn't. I mentioned Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead earlier in this blog entry. As in those 2 shows, expect a lot of characters to be killed off. No one is safe. And even when you see it coming, it still feels like a punch in the gut each and every time.
Each season that passed contained a different main story line. Season 2 featured the gang battling it out with a group of skinheads that had taken up residence in Charming. Season 3 had the gang going to Ireland to rescue Jax's son who had been kidnapped from the club. So on and so forth. I won't detail each specific season, but each one has its own unique feel to it.
Also, many subplots carry over from season to season. The gang has a lot of secrets, and these darn secrets just don't seem to want to stay buried. An example of this is when Jax discovers and old journal written by his late father. In the journal, his dad writes that Clay (who was not President yet at the time the journal was written) was jealous of his power, and disagreed with the direction he was taking the club. Also, he suspected something was going on between Clay and his wife (which there was). If anything happened to him, it would be because Clay had arranged to have him killed to take over leadership of the club. Jax's father died shortly after writing these words. When Jax reads the journal, he knows the truth, and makes it his mission to take Clay down. Clay, in order to protect his secret, threatens and takes out people who do know about the journal, not knowing that Jax has already read it. Lots of bloodshed and mayhem results from this little secret which everyone thought had been buried years ago.
And this is just a small example of the action. The subplots and small backstabbing moments never seem to end. The club just never seems to be able to find peace, whether it is with other gangs, fellow drug runners, or one another. No matter what happens, someone always has to die.
Let's get my niggling complaints out of the way before we go any further. There were a few slow spots in the show that I didn't like much. The whole season 3 where the gang goes to Ireland was a bit dull to me, and didn't seem like the same Sons of Anarchy I had fallen in love with in seasons 1 and 2. Also, I think season 6 started to drag a little in the middle as well. The gang comes up with so many complex and convoluted schemes that after a while I started to lose track of what was actually going on. You need a venn diagram to keep up with all this shit. If I had really really paid attention I probably would have been able to work it out, but my attention span is not that high. Listening to some of these plots was like listening to someone try to explain advanced calculus to me. I would completely zone out and lose track of what was going on, figuring that it would all sort itself out later. Which it would.
The show is very morally ambiguous. None of these guys are "good" guys. But they aren't really bad either. The world of Sons is about as grey as they come. They kill without remorse, they do drugs and they treat women like crap. But at the same time, they love their families. They love one another. They try to do the right thing... most of the time. But do the ends necessarily always justify the means? That's all up to you, the viewer. And that is part of what makes this such a fascinating show to watch.
There are some truly bad characters that do pop up along the way though. August Marks, Lee Toric, and June Stahl are all equally horrible people that will go to any means to take down the Sons. Throughout the course of the show, some of the club members are shot, beaten with iron bars, dismembered, decapitated, tortured, and manipulated by corrupt law officials. Even family members are not safe. Tig's daughter being burned alive represents perhaps the most sickening death in the whole show. You just wanted to reach through the TV screen and kill the fucker who did it.
Mainly, though, Sons of Anarchy is all about Jax and his journey for redemption. He went from respected club member, to President of the club, to the President who made all the wrong decisions, to the President who gave his life to redeem the club in the end.
All Jax wanted was to get the club out of the gun running business. He had a wife, he had kids, and he had seen how every time the club got into trouble with someone or other, it was the families that suffered as a result. He wanted to protect his wife and his children. And mainly, he didn't want his boys to follow in his footsteps, as he had followed in his own father's.
I feel like I have only just barely scraped the surface of the show. There are so many plots, so many different things going on with all the characters. I have barely even touched on Gemma - Jax's mother who was constantly plotting and scheming, attempting to manipulate the gang's members and their actions to suit her own needs. In perhaps the most shocking moment of the series, Gemma kills Jax's wife Tara with a meat fork in a fit of rage, after she learns that Tara was attempting to secretly divorce Jax and spirit their kids off to safety.
Again, so many plots. So many characters, so many things going on all at once. It would be hopeless to attempt to mention them all here. You just have to watch it for yourself.
Sons of Anarchy was one of the best shows I have ever seen. Sure it had a few lulls and some slow episodes, as I mentioned earlier. But the intricacy of the plot was something to behold. The show had a great cast, and the shocks just never stopped coming. So many great moments. So many tragic deaths. And for a guy like me who doesn't get emotional over a whole lot, there were so many moments in this series that had me in tears, which is something I would have never expected from a series about a motorcycle gang.
The musical score of the show is terrific, and really sets the table for so many of these emotional moments. Most of the songs from this show are cover versions of classic rock hits. But the way they are done is completely tactful. There is so much soul and extra dimension added to these songs that they eerily nail the mood of the show to perfection. Props to whoever was responsible for the music in this show, because rarely was there a song that this show wasn't able to make me love. Katey Sagal, who plays Gemma, even has a few songs of her own on the show's soundtrack. I never knew she could sing until I recognized her voice on one of my favorite songs on the show. She is a very talented lady. But yes, this show has a great sound to it. Even the opening theme song, which I didn't love at first, really hits on the mood of the show perfectly.
If you haven't seen Sons of Anarchy and are hesitant about watching it because you may not know if you will like it or not, give it a shot. The show starts out a little slowly, but once it gets rolling you won't be able to look back. You really start to feel like you know the members of SAMCRO and quickly become caught up in all of the plotting, backstabbing, lies, and murder of the series. Who knew being a motorcycle gang member was such complex business? If you have seen the show, you probably like it as much as I have and foster some of the same opinions that I do. Or maybe you are one of the few who don't like it. In which case, you probably let the too sensationally unrealistic parts get to you. Or maybe you found all the slow parts too much to overcome. Which I can understand. This show isn't for everyone. And admittedly the show is a little dull in some parts. Which I guess can be attributed to the over plotting of some of the gang members, as well as the extreme length of some of the episodes in the later seasons. The club can't be all about action and heart breaking moments all the time.
One thing I can't complain about is the finale. No cliffhangers, no ambiguous ending that leaves you screaming at your TV for answers. This one had it all. As perfect as the finale for the show was, I want more. That is the mark of a truly great series. When it is over, you feel like you are saying goodbye to a close friend or family member. Despite being a complete opposite of the people portrayed in this show, Sons had a large impact on my life and I can not say enough about how great this show was. The makers of this show did a wonderful job taking subject material that I didn't initially care for, and turning it into something I became truly invested in. Top to bottom, everything is just so well done. Sons of Anarchy took a group of thugs that most people wouldn't think twice about and turned them into some of the most human characters I have seen on television.
People say all the time that their favorite show "is more than just a show", and I can say that now I know what they mean by that. The point of television shows is to keep you entertained, and Sons of Anarchy went far above and beyond the call of duty.
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