My students know my attitude toward TV (this includes the boring repetitiveness of the countless cable channels) and every once in awhile they clue me into something they believe I might like to watch (or they write about it in my 101/102 courses). This semester a student named David insisted that I should check out the Sons of Anarchy ... I guess because he heard me mentioning anarchism.
At first it seemed like it might be a Sopranos on motorcycles, but I was intrigued by Jacks' dead father's buried anarchist-collective vision for the club and wanted to see where he might take it. The show, after the first couple of episodes seemed to want to bury that radical aspect of the plot, signified by Jacks throwing his father John's book-size dream into a fire (only to be rescued by Jacks from the flames and then to later be destroyed by his machiavellian mother played perfectly by Katey Segall).
It got cheesy at times (bad writing--I imagine it must be difficult stretching your ideas out over a season and then looking for filler), but there were flashes of brilliance and the cast is superb top-to-bottom (i'm serious--this is a really good cast)... just watched the last episode and I like where they are going with it, I just wonder if they have the guts to follow through with it in the second season.
This is one show that was worth breaking my ban on TV (even if I watched it on Internet Movie Database--for the advertisers... one advertisement per break means I don't get up and leave while your ad plays...). It is great to see Ron Perlman chewing up scenes ...
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