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Sparkle (1)
I love Sons of Anarchy. Even Season 3. And I will be watching the finale tonight.
I got hooked last year when I checked out Season 2 because Henry Rollins joined the cast. Though I had heard murmurers of good things about the show, I wasn't prepared for how quickly I would get sucked into the lives of the violent, criminal bikers of SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original).
SOA had several things going for it beyond Henry Rollins to get me hooked. It is a creation from the fertile creative mind of Kurt Sutter, former writer for The Shield. And it's based on Hamlet. Plus, I often love TV shows that work like a TV version of reading a novel (cf., The Wire). It had a great combination of elements to make it one of my new favorite shows.
And then there are the old ladies. Gemma Teller Morrow, the matriarch, as played by Sutter's wife, Katey Sagal, blows away any preconceptions you might have if you only know her as Peg Bundy. When she became a victim of a gang rape early in S2, I wasn't sure if I trusted where the show was going -- if she was going to be just a throw-away sacrifice to biker life misogyny. But no. Gemma's strength in handling the aftermath and her concern for protecting her family helped make her, for my money, one of the best characters on television alongside Walter White of Breaking Bad. Gemma's son, Jax Teller, might be the star of the show, the conflicted prince in waiting, but Gemma is the heart and backbone of the SAMCRO family. And Maggie Siff who plays Jax's old lady and princess in training, Dr. Tara Knowles, ably assists Queen Gemma with surprising toughness.
At it's core, SOA is a family drama and a character study of a man trying to figure out where true north is on his moral compass. And Jax's quest to wrestle with those demons has been the focus of Sutter's ambitious and uneven S3.
Sutter set out to not rest on his laurels and refused to take the easy route of duplicating S2, which was equally beloved by both critics and fans. S3 has maddened at turns both audiences. Midway through the season, Sutter lamented on Twitter that women grokked S3 in a way men did not, writing, "fascinating critical reaction to S3. in a nutshell, the women understand what we are doing (non-linear thinkers), the men (linear) do not." The dichotomy Sutter saw could be characterized by the differing (but not completely opposing) perspectives of critics Maureen Ryan and Alan Sepinwall.
However, many fans of both genders found frustrating the long wait to get to Belfast where Jax's son, Abel, was taken after his abduction at the end of S2. Once there, we were introduced to a slew of new characters with multiple brogues to tune our ears to and twisty ties to the SAMCRO family tree to untangle. Tara seemed more of a victim and less like a medical doctor purposefully choosing life as an old lady. Putting a baby in extended danger and the icky near-incest between Jax and his half sister he didn't know he had until had until his pants were around his ankles didn't help keep fans -- who love the strong women and mothers -- happy. That the cartoonish Salazar lasted as long as he did, no matter the forces he set into motion, was puzzling. Not to mention the new probies brought on to hold down the fort in Charming while the members took their travel cuts to Ireland. Those three hold no candle to the late Half Sack.
But ultimately, it's the bedrock of character development, Sutter's vision (even if it's not always transparent) and the brilliant acting that keeps me locked and loaded in front of the screen every Tuesday night.
Though Sutter has perhaps given Katy Sagal a bit too much room to show her range, her fierce, protective mama keeps her from blowing up the set with overacting. Maggie Siff and McNally
