I wasn't aware of this when I started Sons of Anarchy, but the creator Kurt Sutter also was a big influence on The Shield, which is on the list of shows that changed television. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised by how great Season 1 was. The first couple episodes showed enough promise to draw people into next week's episode, but the pace was slow and the setting uncomfortable to immediately accept.
But each episode was better than the previous episode and by the Season 1 finale, I think I'm watching another great show. I don't know if they can keep this up (I am aware they have four more seasons, I'm speaking in terms of quality), because they kind of wrote themselves into a corner here (More on that later).
Since FX seems pretty poor on promoting their TV shows (I've seen some SOA ads, but they don't reveal anything about the show whatsoever and Terriers was cancelled despite being excellent), I'll explain the show to newcomers. Jackson Teller (Jax) is the second-in-command in the motorcycle club Sons of Anarchy. It's a criminal organization as they sell illegal guns and kill whoever gets in their way.
Early on, Jax finds his father's book or diary or something that reveals that his father didn't like where SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club - Redwood Original) was headed in the years leading up to his death. He was wanting SAMCRO to be more legitimate. Clay Morrow, the president of SAMCRO, and his wife, Gemma Teller Morrow, don't want Jax to go the direction that his father went. Gemma is also Jax's mother and was previously married to Jax's father.
The standout of the show is Katey Sagal, who plays Gemma. She is mesmerizing as a conniving, ruthless woman who appears to be the real string-puller of SAMCRO. Ron Pearlman is of course great as Clay. Ryan Hurst plays a character altogether different than the one he had in Remember the Titans (Garry Bertier), and he seems to be two different guys. Maybe it's the beard, but you never see Gary when you see him play Opie (If you've seen Remember the Titans as many times as I have, you'd understand why that could be a concern)
Opie just got out of jail after being in the pen for five years. His allegiances are torn between SAMCRO and his family, and that is the most captivating storyline in the show in the early goings. The rest of the gang is played by good actors which is a list too large to list all of them, but the most interesting one is Tig, played extremely creepy by Kim Coates.
That about sums up the season. The script is mostly true to the characters. They've set themselves up for a drop in quality in my mind since they will somehow probably back off what should happen. We'll see, but I kind of doubt what I think would happen in a hypothetical real world situation and what the show will do will be the same. Benefit of the doubt of course since season 1 was so damn good.
Watch it. Watch it immediately. Season 1 would get an A grade for the entire season's worth and the show gets better and more captivating with each passing episode.
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