Television!!: Sons of Anarchy

More than a little ink has been spilled on the splintering of American pop culture due to the skyrocketing number of cable channels in the mid-late '90's and early '00's. The addition of the internet has only exacerbated the fears of these stolid, Baby Boomer journalists who wax poetically about that mystical era when there were only 4 stations and everybody was able to talk about the same programming around that sacred grove of social interaction: the water cooler. I call bullshit on this. In a world where your options are so numerous, it puts you into a state of epileptic paralysis, the onus is on the content providers to do just as their job title indicates:provide good content. Television was shit when there were only three channels. The networks were able to throw whatever they wanted at us because Hey! We sure as hell didn't have any other options. Other than shutting the damn box off, but who are we kidding here. I believe more is better, because as competition for our time intensifies, there are only two ways for the content providers to go: the cheap (in terms of production cost and content quality) voyeurism of reality television or high quality content that will enrapture the audience. Of course this is a very simplistic and binary way of looking at a complex market, but I feel comfortable with it do let's get rolling.

For the past 6-8 years or so, FX has branded itself as the channel for dark and gritty dramas, and have created some stunning shows to back up that claim. The Shield was made of dirt, spit and the sound of skulls thumping against pavement as Michael Chiklis curb stomped The Comish from our collective memories. Nip/Tuck was sleek, slippery, and skeezy. It thrust our faces into the gore of surgery while showing us that the hallowed priests of beauty and lust were more fucked up then we could imagine. After having brutally deconstructed the Lawman and the Plastic Surgeon, FX decided to take on another of semi-mythologized and excessively glorified part of Americas gestalt totality: The Outlaw. Thus I present to you: The Sons of Anarchy.

The Sons are a motorcycle club (MC) that have chapters all over the United States (and even internationally). They run guns for local gangs for the most part (one of their clients are the 9ers, meaning that the show is likely set in the same universe as The Shield Can haz Michael Chiklis cameo??). They are a hard drinking,groupie banging posse with an affinity for brutality that would fit right in in Deadwood circa 1878. The series follows the founding chapter of the club which is conveniently located in the fictional city of Charming, California. If the name strikes you as curious then wonder no further. A central motif of the series is the strange juxtaposition and symbiotic relationship between the outlaw MC and the law abiding citizens of Charming. The club members have homes, families and deep ties to the community, and will go to considerable lengths to keep their home safe and drug free. In return, most of the town turns a blind eye towards the clubs various business dealings. Of course, not everyone is happy about this covenant.

This, however, is just intriguing canvas upon which the story is painted. The real story happens inside the club, between the members of the MC. You see, SoA is loosely based on Hamlet; club president Clay (Claudius - Ron fuck-mothering Peralman!) is married to Gemma (Gertrude - Katey Sagal), mother of Jax (Hamlet - Charlie Hunnam) who is VP of the club, son of the deceased founder and a recent father. Rather than rapacious joy, fatherhood has plunged the heir apparent into a prolonged bout of Weltschmerz something neither Clay nor Gemma are all to pleased about. Their alarm become even more acute when Jax discovers an old manifesto of his fathers, written shortly before the latter's death. In it, the former king expresses serious misgivings about the violent direction the club has taken and muses if there might not be some better way. Thus we have established the core conflict of the series. Rest assured, there is much more to series than a gouche Shakespere pastiche. As so often happens with good television, the stories that keep drawing us back have more to do with the clubs brigand activities and its likely unsound of mind, but highly entertaining members.

It would take too long to list all the members and their various shenanigans here, it would also steal all the fun out of discovering their various idiosyncrasies. The show just started it's 3rd season two weeks ago and so far, it has been exceeding the caliber of past episodes. The Sons are modern cowboys, riding steel horses, brawling, drinking and racketeering during the day and coming home to read their kids nighttime stories and spend some quality time with their wives. There is actually something Sopranos-esque about the way the Sons struggle to balance their responsibilities to their club and their families at home, and how sometimes those conflicting loyalties can have fatal consequences. At roughly 13 episodes a season, the series manages to hit that perfect median of visual storytelling, neither too short nor overstaying its welcome. From what I know, the series is available on Hulu in the States. For those of us located on the other 85% of the planet, we will just have to turn to alternative methods. I don't care how you do it, just watch the show. It will reward you for every moment you invest in it.