Sons of Anarchy Review...sort of

Bikes, broads, booze, and bedlam.

Hubby and I just finished watching the series Sons of Anarchy. Every night for weeks we were riveted to the TV. Caught up in the street wars of a highly dysfunctional family and their followers. Lies. Lies. And more lies. Secrets too. Lots of them. That’s the entire premise of the show. 

By the time we got to the sixth season of the seven-season series, I was turned off by the senseless, tortuous killings. Blood and guts. It was over the top. They carried it a. bit. too. far. My opinion. It was a relief when the series finished. We were addicted to it! Now we have our lives back—at least our evenings. Even so, I wasn’t ready to let go. I went back to the Special Features of some episodes to hear the interviews and learn the how’s and why’s from directors and writers. Interesting stuff.

The writing was superb. Creator Kurt Sutter worked on The Shield series , which up to this point, was the most compelling edge of my seat what will they do next show we’d watched. It reigned over Breaking Bad, which was another well-written show. All twists and turns. Both series, The Shield and Breaking Bad, were totally unpredictable. Just like SOA. 
Many of the actors on SOA had starred in The Shield. Even our favourite crooked cop Vic Mackey played a small but important role in SOA. Way to go Michael Chiklas. C C H Pounder was also in there doing what she does best. Walter Goggins (Shane from The Shield) did an incredible performance as a transgender named Venus. You’d have to see it to believe it. Brilliant performance!

The lead characters of SOA were bang on credible and at the same time, incredible. Gemma, the matriarch, was a repulsive And compulsive liar and manipulator. If Gemma had disappeared from the scene, the series would have ended after the second season. So I guess that’s why she stayed on. That, and the fact she’s Kurt Sutter’s wife in real life. I hated her character. A middle-aged biker mama mincing around in tight jeans and stiletto boots intimidating everyone in her path, beating up cops, and killing… Oops. Yep, she did a great job with this role. Katey Sagal’s come a long way from Peggy Bundy and there ain’t no going back for her. 

Charlie Hunnam was spectacular as Jax Teller. Except for his English accent. He managed to hide it for the better part of the first four or five seasons. After that, it was painful to hear him speak his lines. Weird pronunciation you wouldn’t hear from a California biker or a Brit. It was distracting. Often annoying.

Some of the characters were lovable but all were misfits of society. Outlaws we loved and hated. Often within the same episode. No regard for life. Made emphatically clear when Jax ran over that poor bird leaving nothing but feathers across the pavement. Don’t freak out. It was a mechanical exploding bird. That was just one dead bird but as for their business associates, it was impossible to keep a body count for each episode. 

Even Jax’s oldest kid was a little twisted but the porn king and reformed junkie…wait… Some of you may want to watch the series, if you haven’t already. I could say SPOILER ALERT and tell you not to read the rest, but if you’re at all like me, you wouldn’t be able to resist. And it would ruin the entire show if I told you that the…
So...I guess...that’s it.