Sons of Anarchy, Now That I’ve Watched a Couple
Thursday, November 27th, 2008OK, 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.
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.