Sons of Anarchy

[Kevin D]

It's back this Tuesday.

 

I stopped watching this in season 5 mainly because I couldn't be arsed watching it on the laptop, but I have to admit I found it a bit tiresome in the sense that its only recourse when it wants to amp up the drama seems to be to just shock. It's just endless strife and conflict and very little humour anymore. Even looking at the preview images where the characters have all got their hands around each other's throats etc just makes you think it's only really got one gear now.

 

Sutter's obsession with his Mrs Katy Segal is also tiresome. I think the character is pretty despicable but she's the centre of the show now, plus she sings all the fucking backing songs and everytime she doesn't get an emmy Sutter goes apeshit on Twitter.

 

I know how to how bring you back in: CCH Pounder has been brought in as a guest star.

[El Rojo]

I stopped watching this in season 5 mainly because I couldn't be arsed watching it on the laptop, but I have to admit I found it a bit tiresome in the sense that its only recourse when it wants to amp up the drama seems to be to just shock. It's just endless strife and conflict and very little humour anymore. Even looking at the preview images where the characters have all got their hands around each other's throats etc just makes you think it's only really got one gear now.

 

 

I'd agree with that. I thought the first two series were excellent but the scriptwriters seem to have relied on a template since of the core characters surviving an increasingly ridiculous bombardment of disasters, with a supporting character killed off every six episodes for a semblance of emotional punch.

 

Even in a show like this, there's a fine line between as a viewer between being asked to suspend disbelief and having your intelligence insulted and I think they crossed the line a long time ago.

[Iantn]

[YOUTUBE]K6szSwFS4PI[/YOUTUBE]

[Jim MM]

Meh. I've watched half of the first season over the last week or two and I'm packing this shit in. One dimensional characters straight out of the bargain bin of stock US TV stereotypes, they are really starting to annoy me and judging by the GF that's not going to improve.

[Elite]

Its a quality show.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Meh. I've watched half of the first season over the last week or two and I'm packing this shit in. One dimensional characters straight out of the bargain bin of stock US TV stereotypes, they are really starting to annoy me and judging by the GF that's not going to improve.

 

I jacked it in after the first season (almost season). For some reason I went back to it and got hooked.

[Pony Princess]

Meh. I've watched half of the first season over the last week or two and I'm packing this shit in. One dimensional characters straight out of the bargain bin of stock US TV stereotypes, they are really starting to annoy me and judging by the GF that's not going to improve.

 

I was underwhelmed by the first season because a guy in work had been going on about it for ages and when I got to it, it was 7/10.

 

Stick with it though, really does improve.

[Reacher]

It's back this Tuesday.

 

I know how to how bring you back in: CCH Pounder has been brought in as a guest star.

 

Oh yes, police character?

[Kevin D]

If only. Solicitor is what I've read.

[Jim MM]

I was underwhelmed by the first season because a guy in work had been going on about it for ages and when I got to it, it was 7/10.

 

Stick with it though, really does improve.

 

Kiss of death right there.

[Iantn]

Really interested in how they develop what went on in the new season opener.

[RedKnight]

I personally don't think a show like Sons of Anarchy has any right to use that situation in their show. For all the violence and situations that occur on the show, I've never viewed it as a serious drama like The Wire where something like that wouldn't be out of context in the wider world of the show. Sons of Anarchy has men drowned in baths of piss, blarney Irish accents and whore houses that are more palatial than most nightclubs, plus men biting their own tongues off and getting raped just because some tattooed ex-Marshal calls in 'favours'. In a word the drama is batshit crazy, it keeps heaping problem upon problem for the protagonists without any real let up. One problems leads to another and exacerbated by the character's reactions, there's no rest from it and it's the TV equivalent of adding 1+1 to make 2 then 2+2 to make 4 and so on.

 

I thought that scenario was a real mis-step for Sons of Anarchy.

[Iantn]

Yeah, I'm slightly confused by it all, to be honest. I mean, I know how they are going to link it into the storyline from what they've done previously and although I don't see it as something they did to shock or was simply just raising the bar in being graphic, I'm unsure it fully works.

 

If they do it well, it really can be a boss arc creator though.

[Kevin D]

I personally don't think a show like Sons of Anarchy has any right to use that situation in their show. For all the violence and situations that occur on the show, I've never viewed it as a serious drama like The Wire where something like that wouldn't be out of context in the wider world of the show. Sons of Anarchy has men drowned in baths of piss, blarney Irish accents and whore houses that are more palatial than most nightclubs, plus men biting their own tongues off and getting raped just because some tattooed ex-Marshal calls in 'favours'. In a word the drama is batshit crazy, it keeps heaping problem upon problem for the protagonists without any real let up. One problems leads to another and exacerbated by the character's reactions, there's no rest from it and it's the TV equivalent of adding 1+1 to make 2 then 2+2 to make 4 and so on.

 

I thought that scenario was a real mis-step for Sons of Anarchy.

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I don't agree.

 

I think arguing that it's cheap and unnecessarily manipulative is fair, though. Sutter said that it had nothing to do with Connecticut and he had been trying to work it in for three years, I have no reason to doubt it. As you well know, Sutter learned his craft on The Shield, where every consequence flowed from that initial decision in the first episode; to that end, I think Jax trying to legitimatise the club and being hamstrung by the decisions they made before he was the leader - selling guns, without regard to where they may end up - has a lot of resonance and dramatic merit. 

 

I like that it puts them back on the justice department watchlist and turns Jax introspection up a notch, with regard to his boys.. The more problems, the better.

[RedKnight]

I understand your point but I fundamentally disagree that the show should use that type of incident. I have no reason to doubt Sutter's word about wanting to use the storyline for a while, I just feel that it isn't the type of storyline that should be in Sons of Anarchy. 

 

On the Shield, I watched that show from the very beginning when it first aired on a Saturday night in July on Channel 5, I felt it was good show but I've never held it in as high regard as others do on here. It's strongest point was that it wrapped its run in a well written, satisfying conclusion but it also suffered with piling problem upon problem until I started feeling that things weren't so much spiralling out of control (like Breaking Bad) but were being constructed just to throw road blocks in front of the strike team for the sake of it. Good performances didn't necessarily equal into good story lines.

 

If Sons of Anarchy can use the new storyline in the correct way then I think it'll be a worthy piece of TV and a story worth telling. I have a feeling that it'll be used as another roadblock like Tom Arnold having a porn business that caused an issue or Oirish fellas stealing Jax's baby; and a storyline like they're using shouldn't be used as a roadblock for me, it's far too emotive.

[Unrighteous]

Yeah, Sons of Anarchy is literally one of those that I watch because I have nothing else to watch...

I think it started really strong, but it reeks of what Jules is talking about...   It just seems like every week or two they get a new problem that just appears like some sorta genie conjured it up.

 

This season, I really was kinda bored and didn't feel like watching the first episode.  I can't really say that I care what happens to any of the characters at this point.

[Anny Road]

SOA has always been a fun watch but in terms of realism and believable characters it is bollocks. Enjoy it like but Jax has got to be the most unscary looking biker ever.

[Unrighteous]

SOA has always been a fun watch but in terms of realism and believable characters it is bollocks. Enjoy it like but Jax has got to be the most unscary looking biker ever.

 

Seriously... he was the lead from Green Street Hooligans.  It's like his career is built on being 'the least scary' something.

[Anny Road]

Seriously... he was the lead from Green Street Hooligans.  It's like his career is built on being 'the least scary' something.

He was quite scary getting bummed off in queer as folk mind you. Erm not that I watched it,  a friend told me about it.

[Section_31]

I understand your point but I fundamentally disagree that the show should use that type of incident. I have no reason to doubt Sutter's word about wanting to use the storyline for a while, I just feel that it isn't the type of storyline that should be in Sons of Anarchy. 

 

On the Shield, I watched that show from the very beginning when it first aired on a Saturday night in July on Channel 5, I felt it was good show but I've never held it in as high regard as others do on here. It's strongest point was that it wrapped its run in a well written, satisfying conclusion but it also suffered with piling problem upon problem until I started feeling that things weren't so much spiralling out of control (like Breaking Bad) but were being constructed just to throw road blocks in front of the strike team for the sake of it. Good performances didn't necessarily equal into good story lines.

 

If Sons of Anarchy can use the new storyline in the correct way then I think it'll be a worthy piece of TV and a story worth telling. I have a feeling that it'll be used as another roadblock like Tom Arnold having a porn business that caused an issue or Oirish fellas stealing Jax's baby; and a storyline like they're using shouldn't be used as a roadblock for me, it's far too emotive.

 

That's basically how I feel about SoA. I'm not rushing into watching the new season but I'll be buying season 5 on DVD and picking up where it left off, but it's beginning to feel more and more like a popcorn action flic.

 

I have to disagree on The Shield though, I know what you mean about them ramping up the action, but it never felt contrives to my mind, pretty much everything which went down seemed believable and logical, but SoA doesn't. So whereas the Shield might have something like some stolen money turning out to be marked, SoA will have Jax saying 'let's go check on our porn studio', and when they get there the Yakuza come through the wall in a Combine Harvester and shoot Bobby in the leg, but Bobby has no medical insurance so they have to call his wife for the money, but she's been kidnapped by a rival Elvis impersonator who'll only do business if they intimidate a doctor into giving him a sex change.

[RedKnight]

That's basically how I feel about SoA. I'm not rushing into watching the new season but I'll be buying season 5 on DVD and picking up where it left off, but it's beginning to feel more and more like a popcorn action flic.

 

I have to disagree on The Shield though, I know what you mean about them ramping up the action, but it never felt contrives to my mind, pretty much everything which went down seemed believable and logical, but SoA doesn't. So whereas the Shield might have something like some stolen money turning out to be marked, SoA will have Jax saying 'let's go check on our porn studio', and when they get there the Yakuza come through the wall in a Combine Harvester and shoot Bobby in the leg, but Bobby has no medical insurance so they have to call his wife for the money, but she's been kidnapped by a rival Elvis impersonator who'll only do business if they intimidate a doctor into giving him a sex change.

 

I agree with that, although I felt that some of the problems that the strike team encountered were a little contrived at times, they were nothing compared to what happens in SoA. SoA is the televisual equivalent of Sean Connery's "Chicago way" speech in the Untouchables; ramping up the stakes higher and higher until there's no oxygen at the top. 

 

I did always feel with the Shield that the performances outshone the stories though. 

[aws]

Is the new series on UK telly yet?

[Sweeney287]

Finished watching episode 3 of season 5 last night and that was pretty brutal, more so that the previous series.

 

Jax turning into Clay already being forced to make decisions like that.

[RedKnight]

So it turns out that Sons of Anarchy did use the events of the first episode of the new season as yet another roadblock for Samcro. Not appalled but not happy with the use of such imagery for a show that's just downright pulpy. Also I've never been to a high class Californian whore house but the one on this show is busier than LAX. 

[Pony Princess]

Seriously... he was the lead from Green Street Hooligans.  It's like his career is built on being 'the least scary' something.

 

I hear you bro.  

 

Tbh the redwood originals are the most unscary 1%'ers ever.  I have a love hate relationship with SoA.  It is only telly and all but the sons have to be the most pathetic biker gang of all time.  Most 1%er gangs are completely fucked off their heads on meth, shagging their way across the state and beating the living shit out of anyone who gets in their way.

 

Jax is just a whiny emo faggot most of the time. His fucking stoney-faced missus and Abel.. what is the point of even having them in the story?

 

If the story revolved around actual bad-asses like Happy, Tig and Opie it would have been something different.  Love the show but jeez, emotions, relationships with women, FEELINGS? ARGH.  Gayest biker-gang ever.