I claim to do no
justice for Sons of Anarchy and I have doubtlessly missed out key storylines,
this is by no means meant to fill you in on every detail of the past 4 seasons
and is only to be read as a summary.
**spoiler alert**
After 5 seasons the writers of Sons of Anarchy still
maintain the ability to shock their audience. It was this season of Sons that
inspired me to write this blog, as it showed me that television is far from
predictable. The episode in question was called Laying the Pipe, and it had me utterly
breathless from beginning to end. The shock of the events that unfolded within
this episode are something which I will discuss later; for now however I will
state that it is this episode that reminded me that Sons is one of the best
shows currently on our televisions. This article will look back over the past 5
seasons of Sons of Anarchy focussing on its highs and lows, in order to show
you why I believe it is one of the finest programmes that we will see on our
television in 2012.
For those of you who have never heard of or seen Sons of
Anarchy it focuses on the lives of a motorcycle club in a small town called
Charming. The club protect the town from crime, and in return the town and the
police allow the club to have free reign. This is the basic premise of the series;
of course it’s not as black and white as it may seem, what with internal problems
in the club and various gang wars with other clubs the sons often find
themselves running into trouble. They are presented as a family, perhaps the
most dysfunctional family on television but a family none the less, and at the
heart of this club is an actual family. The family running the club consists of
Clay Morrow (President), Jax Teller (Vice President), and Gemma Teller-Morrow
(Clay’s ‘old lady’ and Jax’s mum). Each character from this family plays a
vital role throughout the entire series, be that through Gemma’s manipulation,
Clay’s control and need for power, or Jax’s search for the truth. It is these three characters which
control and dictate the lives of everyone else in the series.
Season 1 begins with a bang, the audience are thrown right
into the action as we discover that this isn’t an ordinary motorcycle club, and
in fact the gang deals guns. Naturally this is not the only story line seen in
this episode, as I mentioned before the show is about a dysfunctional family,
and the opening is no exception; Jax’s drugged up ex-wife has to have an
emergency C-section, which threatens the life of their child. As you can see
even from the first episode the lives of these characters are fast paced and
chaotic, and even now show no signs of slowing down or conforming to being
orderly. As the series develops we see that the gang is involved with the IRA
as well as other gangs, and their life style is threatened by these people. There
is also disarray within the personal lives of these characters, inner turmoil
with the club, threats from members turning and reporting to the police, as
well as romantic interests all makes the audience very invested in the
characters. On top of all these problems the club is being followed by the ATF
and various other policing bodies. The series begins with murder, crime, tragedy,
romance, action and at times flairs of comedy. From its very beginning the show
outlines the lives of these characters and it immediately draws in the
audience, we are emotionally involved in the lives of these people.
Season 2 sees a new threat to the club and focuses on racist
groups supporting the idea of white power; these groups seek to remove the sons
from Charming. They attempt to get rid of the club in any way possible,
starting with a personal attack on the club, they kidnap Gemma and gang rape
her. This effectively grabs your attention and again puts you on edge for the
rest of the season. For me this was one of the most disturbing episodes of the
series to date, I watched it late at night alone, it was such a moving episode
that it made me uncomfortable; I came away from watching and felt as though I
had been personally violated. This highlights the power that the scriptwriters
have over the audience, even though the character of Gemma is a bitch it was
still horrifying to watch and I still sympathised with her. I was even shocked
that something so brutal could be shown on television- this brutality is shown
throughout the seasons of the programme and is still shocking to me now. Also in
this season the club moves into the porn industry and this causes tensions
between Clay and Jax as well as romantic issues for a lot of the characters. The
club are still under watch of the ATF and members are frequently in and out of
prison. Tensions build between the IRA, the ATF and the club, and I am unable
to do this particular storyline justice, however I can state that the series
ends with Jax’s son being kidnapped.
Season 3 follows with the trail of Abel Jax’s son, they
trace him to Belfast
and the club reach out to another crew based there. This season for me got a little
ridiculous as the club move over to Ireland , with an aim to fix things
with the IRA and to find Abel. Although I didn’t particularly enjoy this season
of Sons, as personally I found it all a little far fetched (more so than usual),
I have to say the soundtrack for this season was brilliant. What it lacked in
believability it made up for in music. Another crucial part of this season came
from the introduction of the character Maureen Ashby, who had an affair with
Jax’s father; this storyline creates another complication for the club. As the
series continues more and more secrets are revealed about the Sons and Jax
discovers things about his father and family. Maureen knows that John Teller
was murdered and aims to tell Jax by sneaking letters into his bag. Once the
crew leave Ireland
the series improves again and sadly once more I can do the season no justice,
many essential storylines have been left out, but I am hoping that this will
encourage people to view Sons of Anarchy for themselves. Although season 3 is
my least favourite of all of the seasons, there is a lot to be said for the
story line, I felt as though the trip to Ireland
seemed a bit off the mark, however the secrets revealed in Ireland are essential to the
following seasons and were of great interest.
Season 4 opens on the club leaving prison, and to the
realisation that Charming has changed a lot whilst they were locked up. Tara
and Jax get engaged and Tara finds the letters
from Maureen, Jax is yet to see them. Gemma learns that Tara
has this information and tries to get rid of her. Meanwhile the club get
involved in mulling cocaine for the cartel as well as running guns, as you can
imagine things don’t run as smoothly as the club had planned. Pinney discovers
that Gemma and Clay killed John Teller and threatens to tell the club, Clay
kills him but blames the Niners, another gang in Charming, stating that it was
black retaliation. Without revealing too much of the series I would state that
this is the best season so far, a lot of major things happen to effect the club
with the series culminating in Jax taking the gavel. The set up for the 5th
season left all of us in shock, anticipation and excitement, but surely season
5 cannot be as good as we all expect?
Season
5 and finally Jax is in charge, it’s only been 4 episodes so far and yet the
series has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Now I come full circle, back to
the episode that made me want to start blogging, the episode that has shocked
all Sons of Anarchy fans episode 3 of season 5 Laying the Pipe. Prior to this episode
we have seen Pope burn alive Tig’s daughter and as if that wasn’t traumatic
enough to watch we see Tig’s reaction as he is forced to watch. We know that
Pope has many men of importance on his payroll; judges, politicians and police.
We know he is above the law, so surely when the club are imprisoned Pope can
still get to them. Initially it appears not as the boys are protected through
their links with the cartel, however when Jax is summoned by Pope we know that
nothing good can follow. Pope demands that Tig’s rots in jail and a Son dies, Jax
is to face the decision. Jax confides in Opie and the two search for a decision
that will not result in death, I had every confidence that the two would find a
solution. The guards gather and ask who is chosen, as Jax begins to speak Opie
steps in and head-buts one of the guards. Opie is dragged away into a room with
the rest of the sons looking through a window, he is beaten to death. Brutally
murdered whilst the audience, and the sons look on helplessly. As I mentioned a
the start of this piece I was breathless the entire episode, at times I was
angry and found myself shouting at the TV I felt as though I was there in
prison watching. The idea of watching and being watched appears to be a reoccurring
theme in this season of Sons and I dread to think what else the writer have in
store for us. The episode that followed was of Opies funeral, and although not
much happened of substance I was emotional throughout. It is clear to see that
the shit is about to hit the fan and I for one cannot wait to see what else
season 5 has in store for us!
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