The Gen-X-Ray A critical examination of the world through Gen X eyes

TV Review – Sons of Anarchy

I've been watching this show since it debuted last year. It is currently a good way into its second season.

Sons of Anarchy tells the story of the motorcycle club that bears the name. The club, often referred to as SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original), is based in the small town of Charming at a motor mechanic business which is the legitimate front to the clubs other activities. The club has the local police chief and one of the officers in its pocket and makes the cops look good by keeping drugs and crime off the town's streets.

The show mostly deals with the three main characters. Clarence 'Clay' Morrow (Ron Perlman), the club leader, his wife Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal) and her son Jackson 'Jax' Teller (Charlie Hunnam), the clubs Vice President. Jax's father John Teller is the former leader of the club and there is a sort of untold digesis relating to his death and the rise of Clay as the new leader. There is a simmering rivalry between Jax and his father in law which forms the basis of much of the storyline, along with the clubs gun running and extortion activities which provide the clubs 'real' income. There is also a back-story revolving around the matriarch Gemma and the women who surround the club.

The cast is actually pretty good. There are a few well recognisable faces such as Kim Coates, who plays Clay's loyal retainer Tig, Mark Boone Junior, who plays Bobby, the club's 'good guy' and part time Elvis impersonator (I shit you not),  Tommy Flanagan, who plays Chibs, and Dayton Callie, the police chief.

The most noticeable aspect of this drama is the almost complete absence of swearing and nudity. These must be the only bikers in the world who don't swear a blue streak. Murder, shootings, stabbings, bombings and other assorted violence are all shown rather graphically, but the word fuck or a flash of a breast or arse seem to be well out of bounds. I think this really says something about mainstream American TV and its audience. I find it an incredibly incongruous dynamic.

Fortunately this prudishness doesn't affect the drama too much, although I feel dialogue is pretty lacklustre and could use a bit of spice. The story itself is nothing special, but there is enough action and introspection to keep it bubbling along nicely. The plot threads are handled with skill and it successfully avoids the cheesiness that plagues much of American crime drama.

The thing that really drains a lot colour from this show is that these bikers feel just a bit too idealised. There is little coarseness or texture. Sure they have the tattoos, drink hard and like to fight but they are just too...normal. Nothing like the Hells Angels of Hunter S. Thompson's anthropological essay (a great read btw).

Its difficult to say just what appeals to me about this middle-class biker voyeurism. I guess I'm just a sucker for crime drama, and the motorcycle club setting adds slightly off beat dimension.

RECOMMENDED