OK, non-TV-watching guy that I am, I watched the first two episodes of Sons of Anarchy, this motorcycle gang series on FX. Not that that makes me some all-knowing and wise person in regard to the show, but I wanted to give my impressions. If you’ve seen the show I’d love to hear what you have to say about it, too.

First off, it’s pretty violent. Especially the first episode; the second episode not so much. Still not something my wife would want to see.

Secondly, it’s pretty cynical. Paid off cops and other officials are just par for the course.

Third–and this is interesting–it’s all about family. Since I don’t normally watch television I haven’t seen all the Sopranos shows but I suspect it’s like that in a way. They’re all family, and family is what matters. It’s just that in this case, it’s a family of thugs and murder, extortion, and gun-running are family values. It kind of shows up the misnomer of the religious right and how they say they stand for family values. What they really mean is that they are in favor of enforcing their own family values, never mind if you have different values in your family.

That comparison to the Sopranos strikes me as especially relevant here. This is a show about a biker gang, but at least in the first two episodes, the only thing that makes them a biker gang is that they ride motorcycles. Otherwise they might as well be the Sopranos. Yes, it’s a little early but so far motorcycles really haven’t played any sort of role in the show. They could have filmed the same show with all the characters getting around in Honda Accords. It has nothing to do with bikes.

Anyway, the story line is starting to develop and from a detached point of view it’s interesting to see how they’re setting up the characters so you’ll hate them or love them or connect with them in one way or another–whatever it takes to get you to tune in next week. I’m not on the verge of getting caught up in this show but I will watch a few more episodes just to get a good feel for the thing. And if there’s anything worth discussing I’ll come back to this topic. Time will tell.

Biker Quote for Today

Live to Ride, Hope to Live.

I’m probably way behind you on this. The simple fact is that my wife and I don’t watch television. Really. We don’t. I know it’s hard to believe. But for that reason, until today I had never heard of this new motorcycle gang show on this season, Sons of Anarchy. And the word is that the series is based loosely on “Hamlet” (you know, that king of the Danes thing by Shakespeare).

So is it any good? Is it worth watching? Is it worth doing something I’m not accustomed to doing, i.e., turning on the TV? I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. And the really amusing thing in this internet age is that I’ll do so without turning on my television. If you go to the official site, the one in that link above, you can watch any episodes you want on your computer. I really like that because otherwise I would have to catch whatever episode was on and come in in the middle of the story. On the web I can start with the pilot episode and catch up at my own speed.

I’m really curious whether this thing is going to be–or already is–seen as creating another negative stereotype against bikers. Of course, this being American television, you can’t have protagonists who are unadulterated bad guys. So the Sons of Anarchy do bad stuff, like selling smuggled guns to gangs in East LA, but in their own home of Charming, CA, these good bad guys keep the bad bad guys from selling meth on their turf. How do I know all this if I haven’t seen the show? I read it on Wikipedia.

Now, certainly I’ll have something further to say on this once I watch a few of the shows, but if you’re way ahead of me and have been watching it since it premiered, maybe you could give me a feel for it from your perspective. I suspect this is already a much talked about subject among bikers, although my buddies haven’t mentioned it. Could I possibly be ahead of them?

What a concept: me watching television. What’s the world coming to?

Biker Quote for Today

Faster, Faster, Faster, Till the thrill of speed overcomes fear of Death.