Review: Sons of Anarchy - Seasons 1 thru 5
5+++ Stars
Review Date: May 24th 2013
I have been MIA on my blog and I wanted to let you guys know why so I decided to do a "review" for Sons of Anarchy (SOA). This is because I just did a five day binge of this TV show on Netflix and I LOVED it!!!! I did absolutely no reading - and that is saying something...
I am unfamiliar with doing reviews for TV shows so bear with me. Here it goes...
I have heard about SOA before and how great it is but I am not a "TV" person, obviously I'm more of a bookworm, so it took a while to check it out. I had just finished reading Unbeautifully by Madeline Sheehan and I LOVED it - like I LOVED Undeniable (and liked Reapers Property too). So I decided that I might like a TV show about the MC (motorcycle club) life too. And I did. Hence, the five day binge.
SOA is about an MC named "SAMCRO" which stands for Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original. It is the "original" -> first SOA chapter, and is located in Charming a small town in northern California, but there are currently chapters throughout the US, and one in Belfast, Ireland (there may be more, IDK).
The main characters are Charlie Hunnam, Katy Segal (formerly Peg in Married with Children), Ron Perlman, Maggie Siff, Kim Coates, Mark Boone, Tommy Flanagan, Ryan Hurst, Theo Rossi, and Dayton Callie.
Charlie Hunnan plays Jackson "Jax" Teller, the lead actor and Vice President of SOA and the son of the founder and former president. He is in his early thirties and is basically finding himself as a person and a member of SOA. In the first episode he finds a manuscript his father wrote before he died (in 1992) basically stating that he thought things were going in the wrong direction for the club, and that he envisioned more of a brotherhood and less criminal activity when he founded SOA. Jax appears to feel the same way and this has him conflicted to say the least.
Jax is a complex individual, extremely smart, sexy, charming, and has a big heart. But he is also a biker. This means he is also rough, smokes, drinks a lot, uses women, and lives as an outlaw with his own set of codes and beliefs. He has never taken a life at the beginning of season one but that changes drastically as the show evolves.
Jax's mother Gemma Teller-Morrow played by Katy Segal, is also a complex individual but has little in the way of a conscience or morals. She is willing to do anything to further her own agenda, including playing with the very lives of the other characters. Sometimes I like her, but at others I can't stand her--like I said she is complex.
Each character has their own multifaceted persona's. I became invested in each one of them, sometimes I hated them but mostly I loved them. I understood why they had to do many of the horrible things they did--meaning when a person lives outside the law they are no longer protected from it. They have to take the law into their own hands, I get it. This is not just a small time MC, it's a hard-core biker gang dealing with big players including the heads of the IRA (Irish Republican Army), Mexican drug cartels, and of course other gangs.
Now onto my take of it. Yes I said I loved it but why? Because I became extremely emotionally invested in the characters and the storyline. I cried hard and often. But I also laughed my ass off too many times to count. There is a darkly comedic undertone to SOA. This is what made the show brilliant--the ability to bring out the full spectrum of emotions. I could literally be sobbing one second then cracking up the next. I cannot remember ever being so emotionally invested and so thoroughly entertained by a show before...
If you cannot handle violence DO NOT watch this show. It is extremely graphic. And it is not a romance. It does have enough romance to keep me interested but not a lot. Jax's love life is one of the primary themes but it does not overpower the show at all. It was obviously made this way for men to like it as much if not more than woman, but Jax is way too hot for women not to have been considered when casting.
I highly recommend you at least watch the pilot to see if this show may be for you. The first four seasons are on Netflix and the fifth season I pain twenty bucks for on Amazon. It was worth it. The sixth season starts next fall. It ends on a cliffhanger so be prepared. But a few of the other seasons ended that way so I was not all that surprised.
~StacyHgg
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February 22, 2010 "Please retry" | — | 4 | $13.99 | $5.05 |
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Reviews with images
Wild Ride!
I didn't watch the show when it first came out, so I really didn't know what it entailed. It captured me immediately. Although a little more violent than I prefer, I truly got caught up in the biker world and found it intriguing. Jackson was a great character--utterly captivating. However, without the other strong characters behind him, it would have lacked substance. If one watches the first episode--the rest will follow. It's addicting.
Top reviews from other countries
Shepherdess Extraordinaire
Addicting Series!
Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2010
