Sons of Anarchy: Season 1
From an executive producer of The Shield, comes a gripping drama that takes you into the ruthless underworld of outlaw bikers. The Sons of Anarchy live, ride and die for brotherhood. But as the club's leader (Ron Perlman) and his wife (Katey Sagal) steer them in an increasingly lawless direction, her son Jax (Charlie Hunnam) is torn between loyalty and the legacy in this adrenaline-charged first season.
Member Reviews
Definite winner - Treyab73
I really enjoyed season 1 of sons of anarchy. In fact I got sick of waiting for zip to send it so bought it for $18 at wal-mart :-)
Anyway, I love the way the characters are all feeding off each other. Lots of suspicion and lies even among the "brotherhood." These are definitely watered down versions of outlaw bikers but I appreciate that the character stories take front and centre over the potential swearing, violence, and nudity that could be written in here. Excellent and well done. Acting is fantastic, story is top notch.
AND, of course they want to keep guns out of Charming that's the way biker gangs operate, keep the crime (police) off their front porch."At least it's an ethos" - luminol
The Upside? The gallows humour. I liked that the Crown rests lightly on the Prez, he's forever gauging everyone's loyalty. There's the faintest suggestion of Hamlet playing out between the three main characters, (although he's not visited by a ghost, but by a manuscript). This would have been interesting had it been more fully explored.
Any movie succeeds when you accept it's own unique and special laws where the story unfolds and doesn't contradict what came before it. I had problems of believability---which several times. would literally take me out of an episode. The hypocrisy of the biker Prez who moves Heaven and Earth to keep the small town of Charming, free of automatic weapons and drugs, but has no problems turning other communities into living cesspools. The dim witted law enforcement; making them corrupt hayseeds kind of reduced the scale of the drama. It also weakened the stature of the bikers since they always go to battle with cartoon characters. Most criminals have a sense of self-preservation, therefore they try wear their criminal windbreakers only special occasions, you know, the ones that advertise in big block letters in yellow across the back: Moral reprobate. The filthy few, on the other hand, proudly fly their colours and proclaim their outlaw status. So all the scenes of them being great parents and upstanding citizens is a little hard to stomach. And lastly, the idea these crackers are the last standard bearers of motto: live free or die, is again a little hard to take, since most of them would be happy with a single "get of jail free" card.
So, am I going to continue onto season two? Is Jax going to make the "Sons of Anarchy" biker club a kinder, gentler incarnation? Probably not and who cares. It's a little like trying to give the Nazi's a make-over; you can clean up their game; soften the language; gentle the brand; but in the end, you can't take them anywhere. They're fricking Nazis, DudeGREAT First Season - sinic
This series absolutely fascinates me. The series starts hard and hits the ground running. I thought the show was going to be a disaster after the first episode because I couldn’t imagine caring about any of the characters in any meaningful way. Most of them are extremely unlikeable and you can’t pull for anyone .
Something changes before you are aware why and you find yourself pulling for one or two of the characters. If my household is any indication, the characters you like will be different based on who you are. My wife really likes Jax and Opie and I find that I really like Clay and Tig. I think the storyline is supposed to lead you towards hating these two characters and my wife and I actually argued over this. I took the position that this was a hardcore biker gang and this is the way things are suppose to be done. I thought Jax and Opie were too soft for the lifestyle (though they prove quite often that they are complete sociopaths) and were incapable of redemption and completely unable to reform (though they believe otherwise).
Anyway, the show is well written and really takes off by episode 4. It is worth sticking with, but if you don’t enjoy violence or raw, gritty dialogue (ie The Shield or The Wire), this isn’t for you.
Member Reviews
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Definite winner - Treyab73
I really enjoyed season 1 of sons of anarchy. In fact I got sick of waiting for zip to send it so bought it for $18 at wal-mart :-)
Anyway, I love the way the characters are all feeding off each other. Lots of suspicion and lies even among the "brotherhood." ..."At least it's an ethos" - luminol
The Upside? The gallows humour. I liked that the Crown rests lightly on the Prez, he's forever gauging everyone's loyalty. There's the faintest suggestion of Hamlet playing out between the three main characters, (although he's not visited by a ghost, but ...GREAT First Season - sinic
This series absolutely fascinates me. The series starts hard and hits the ground running. I thought the show was going to be a disaster after the first episode because I couldn’t imagine caring about any of the characters in any meaningful way. Most of ...