Sons of Anarchy
9pm Wednesdays, FX
The Premise: Because it wasn’t totally apparent (and you wouldn’t believe me if I told you), we’ll use this from FX’s website …”Sons of Anarchy is an adrenalized drama with darkly comedic undertones about a notorious outlaw motorcycle club intent on protecting their small town against encroaching drug dealers, corporate developers, and overzealous law officers, and to protect their own thriving arms business.”
The Personnel: Charlie Hunnam (Cold Mountain …barely) stars as Jackson “Jax” Teller, a man whose love for the brotherhood is tested by his growing apprehension of its lawlessness. Katey Sagal (Married with Children) stars as Gemma Teller Morrow, Jax’s force-of-nature mother, who along with Ron Perlman (Hellboy…geesh, his face is really that big) as Clarence “Clay” Morrow, Jax’s stepfather and motorcycle club (MC) president, have their own darker vision for the club.
The Poop: Apparently I wasn’t paying attention in the All-Pilot Project class and didn’t realize these were only going to be recaps of “network” shows. So, sue me. With the high quality shows getting spit out on the cable nets (ie Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Greek, etc), it seemed appropriate to give some attention to a show on the network that brought the world The Shield, Rescue Me, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Fellow spunkybeaner, EJ, has tried to tell me that most shows, good or bad, are the result of someone’s hard work and good intentions, so to systematically pan something is just plain mean. And in reading Kurt Sutter’s bio, I don’t want to be cruel. You can bet his friends and family are proud of him, and this is Kurt’s big, big break. I’m guessing he wants nothing more than for Sons of Anarchy to find an audience, critical acclaim, and a second season. Kurt probably had this idea for a show running around in his head for the past decade. “Someday,” he said, “I’m going to finish this script about a biker gang and get it onto television and shock the world.” Let’s hope FX forced him to make a bunch of changes and, actually, he’s still a genius that “the networks don’t understand.”
This was a show about a brotherhood of bandit motorcycle riders. Except that the “brotherhood” is not very strong. They do what the police can’t do in protecting their small town, and in typical television magic, this “small town” manages to be a focal point for rival drug gangs, for arms dealers, illegal cage fighting, and corrupt cops. Southern California …tough country, that place.
Sons of Anarchy is really just a dressed-up, modernized Dukes of Hazzard. The Duke boy (singular) is on a motorcycle, instead …kinda.
Jax is the son and heir apparent of the Sons of Anarchy founder. Despite being raised in the brotherhood, somewhere along the line he found goodness, despite the fact his mother and stepfather have a sinister plan for the motorcycle gang. A big, sinister plan. Jax, while digging through an old storage shed of his father’s stuff, finds a book manuscript which lays out his father’s vision for the gang, which I guess we’re going to find out is far different that what Clay and his mother have in mind. Jax’s Dad wanted the motorcycle gang to focus on real estate instead of illegal stuff. Yes, really.
As if that’s not enough for young Jax to handle …he also has an ex-wife who’s addicted to heroine, and is so abusive of the drug that she has their baby 10-weeks early, and we mix in hospital drama and Jax’s new role as a father. Jax acts dismissive of his son and assumes his “crack baby” will die, anyway. Right. This show has layers. Oh, hey, its Mad Men‘s Rachel Menken (played by Maggie Siff) as the helpful nurse in a very grungy neo-natal ward. What’s she doing here? Does this mean she won’t be on Mad Men, anymore? Sadness.
Let’s digest this and break it down. The show opened with another gang stealing a shipment of guns, then burning down the warehouse. This makes the Sons of Anarchy mad. They needed to sell those guns to keep the drug dealers out of their small town. They bully the drug dealers for a few extra days to come up with some money. The Sons of Anarchy meet with some other drug dealers. Jax beats the crap out of the dealer who gave drugs to his pregnant wife. There’s a baby. A wife. A dishonest mother – who is also caring. There are meetings and pretty shoddy dialog that’s supposed to be “guy humor.” It isn’t. The bar where they meet has everyone’s mug shots hanging on the wall, a show of manhood. Some dude pulls his pants down and shows his sole testical and laughs about having the other one blown off in Iraq. This is supposed to establish the hardened lifestyle our characters all accept as their reality. Its gratuitous.
But what most drew my attention is that the writers seemed hell bent on using the words “shit” and “God damned” because Sons of Anarchy ended up on cable. It was so intrusive and unnecessary, it actually kept me from enjoying the show. When I went back to make an official count of the “shit” word, my Tivo died at the 44-minute mark.
Can we have a moment of silence for my Tivo? Thank you. We’ve been together for 7 years and, well, now I have to switch to a far inferior DVR until DirecTV renews their relationship with Tivo next year and I can get Tivo back.
In 44-minutes, the characters said “shit”, or some form of “shit”, 34 times. Many times, it didn’t fit. People don’t say, “Get those shittin’ bodies out of there and burn ’em.” Also, in this 44-minutes, I heard “God damn” 9 times. It reminded me of the South Park episode where they gratuitously said “shit” as many times as they could.
Prognosis: I’ll watch it once more, next week, to see if a muddled up pilot episode might settle down and they can build some characters. My guess, however, is that I’ll hear the word “shit” many more times and they’ll still be dealing with the preemie baby, the infighting among the Sons of Anarchy, and some threat to the small town organized motorcycle crime syndicate. Bottom line: they should have set this action-adventure-drama is space or some post-apocolyptic future. How come nobody ever asks me? Many reviews I’ve scoured are calling this the “must see” show of the fall – I heartily disagree. Prove me wrong, Sons. Prove me wrong.
