Sons of Anarchy Pilot
Original Air Date: September 3, 2008
Tom R - TwoCents Staff Writer
tom@thetwocents.com
The show opens the way you would expect any good biker show to open: A lonely road, a full moon, bluesy rock music and one lone rider. But the more the show progresses, the more you see the main character of Jax (short for Jackson) wrestling with the changes in his life. These quiet, introspective moments have great impact, but I hope that the viewers don’t start screaming for more action. I’m sure plenty of that will be on hand for the weeks to come, anyway.
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[photo: Prashant Gupta / FX]
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Sons of Anarchy
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Original Air Date: September 3, 2008
Tom R - TwoCents Staff Writer
tom@thetwocents.com
The show opens the way you would expect any good biker show to open: A lonely road, a full moon, bluesy rock music and one lone rider. But the more the show progresses, the more you see the main character of Jax (short for Jackson) wrestling with the changes in his life. These quiet, introspective moments have great impact, but I hope that the viewers don’t start screaming for more action. I’m sure plenty of that will be on hand for the weeks to come, anyway.
Continue Reading...
[photo: Prashant Gupta / FX]
As Jax rides into town, he finds (along with the rest of the Sons) that their stash of weapons has been destroyed. A Mexican gang known as the Mayans stole some guns that were to be sold in Oakland, and the storehouse was burned up, along with some illegal aliens that were inside. Clay, the leader of the Sons and Jax’s stepfather, travels to Oakland to buy some time from the prospective buyer.
Jax’s mother calls him, asking him to go through storage to look for things he might need for his impending son. As he does so, he finds writings from his father entitled “The Life and Death of Sam Crow.” (SAMCRO being an acronym for the Sons). After reading the manuscript, he begins to examine and question the activities they are involved in, as opposed to what his father originally intended.
As Clay plans the strategy to get the guns back, Jax’s mother finds his wife Wendy has overdosed on meth. She gets her to the hospital, where they perform an emergency C-section, finding that the baby has a hole in his heart and half a stomach. Jax leaves the hospital and attacks the dealer who sold Wendy the drugs. He later confesses to his mother that he has no hope for the baby’s condition, but she reassures him that he had the same condition.
The Sons begin their operation to retrieve their guns at the same time that the baby goes into surgery, and we see an interesting karmic turn as the show intercuts the two stories. Clay urges Jax to shoot one of the gang members. As Jax hesitates, the baby flatlines. Jax refuses to shoot, and the baby’s heartbeat returns. At the same moment, the rival gang member expires, making it unnecessary for Jax to shoot after all. As they leave, they recognize the shooter as working for a neo-Nazi named Darby, who is apparently driving a wedge between SAMCRO and the Mayans.
The episode comes to a close as Jax cleans himself up, and as he looks at his son for the first time, his leather jacket is gone, and his appearance is more civil.
Creator Kurt Sutter makes an interesting transition from his work on The Shield. The dialogue is similar, not stopping to explain who the characters are or how they know each other. And both shows share a feeling for the consequences of certain actions, not just the actions themselves. But while The Shield has a constant sense of menace, an unease, Sons of Anarchy spaces out the action scenes, blending in a sense of remorse and the possibility of redemption. I just hope that those scenes don’t work against it.
The gang, by the way, is referred to in the show as SAMCRO or Sam Crow, an acronym for Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original. The original title for the show was “Forever Sam Crow”. It’s an interesting question, which is a better fit? “Forever” brings to mind the question of what their intent should be, and that title brings John Teller’s words. But “Sons of Anarchy” keeps the theme of fathers and sons front and center.
Quotable:
“Remorse is a dangerous thing.”
Clay, convincing Jax to forget his father’s writing.
So that’s my two cents. What do you think?
I love Sons of Anarchy but had some questions because I missed the first season. Thank you posting the answers to my questions.
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