(Obviously this post contains spoilers. Don't read if you ever plan to watch the show)
I'm going to do this post a little different than my typical season reviews. This is the first show where I review a show's second season (all mine up to this point have been season one reviews). Sons of Anarchy is a show that has a ton of characters, most of them the writers pay their due diligence by the finale of the second season. So I'm going to devote at least a paragraph to each of the characters starting with Jackson Teller, the protagonist of the show.
Jax spent the first season reading his father's prose and wondering if the club is heading the wrong direction. In the finale, he decides he wants to deviate from Clay Morrow and eventually head the club in a direction other than selling guns. Unfortunately, he typically lets his hate and disgust for Clay get in the way of doing things for the good of the club and only manages to nearly destroy the club (with help from Clay as well)
I thought the show perfectly displayed the growing tensions between Clay and Jax. It slowly escalated until it seemed one of the two would have to kill the other. I like however that the show essentially shelved their conflict for next season by having them focus on a common goal. It allows this storyline to go into next season.
Opie's storyline was more of a backburner storyline, but it was ready to burst on the surface. As he is depressed by his wife's death, he becomes a suicidal maniac unable to connect with his kids and slowly going closer and closer to Clay. His development into his former self begins with his relationship with Lyla giving him a closer relationship with his kids and more of his sanity. Then, he finds out Clay and Tig are responsible for Donna's death, causing him to become friends with Jax and go back to his normal self.
His dad, Piney, sort of disappeared and reappeared, but that was kind of true to his character anyway and he seems extremely unstable. He is clearly hurting knowing Clay and Tig killed Donna and killing not telling Opie about it. Then when he finds out Opie was told about Donna's death, he tried to kill Clay thinking Opie would do that. I fear Piney is not much longer for this world as he is just the sort of fringe character that the audience cares about enough to warrant killing off.
In the first season, Tig, Chibs, and Juice all were essentially comedic relief with not much character development. Kim Coates did his thing and made Tig deeply interesting, but he wasn't really given a whole lot. Half-Sack suffered this same fate in the first season, and they didn't really do anything with him this season either. Not a huge surprise he decided he wanted off the show, so they resolved that somewhat abruptly and suddenly.
Anyway, Tig suffers through the guilt of having killed an innocent person - not only an innocent person, but the wife of a club member. (I sort of suspect he's killed an innocent person before.) His development is consistent and his spiral downward culminates when he's on shrooms crying to a doll (?).
Chibs comes out of nowhere, becoming an important and deep character organically through the story. In the last half of season two, he gets blown up, momentarily becomes a rat, and is clearly destroyed by his actions. It's pretty impressive what Kurt Sutter and the writers do with Chibs and Tommy Flanagan for his acting ability.
Juice is stabbed in prison, and is still mostly comedic relief, but his speech to Jax in the hospital after Jax told him he was going nomad was powerful and added a dimension to his character. It made him human.
As far as the female characters go, Gemma's storyline was clearly the most season-long of arcs. She gets gang-raped in the first episode, spends time dealing with that rape for most of the episode, realizes she needs to tell Jax and Clay about it, and then at the end finds God and gets her swagger back. It's pretty amazing how she thinks God wants Gemma to kill Ethan Zobelle's daughter.
Tara gets a nice arc as well as throughout the season she gradually starts accepting the violence and becomes a sort of protege for Gemma. In the last episode, it appears that all that "progress" towards violence will dissipate as she will see the effects of violence on her. She'll probably regress from violence in season three and I'm guessing break up with Jax.
Dayton Callie was excellent as the Chief as his connection to the Sons appears to be completely rooted in her interest in Gemma. He was there for her the whole season and it gives a corrupt cop a much more interesting character. It was satisfying to see him smile driving away at the end of the season with Gemma.
My favorite scenes were probably the two voting scenes - they created as much tension as any possible death could. The first - you could see the dynamics of the group changing from Clay to Jax and how much it killed Clay to see it. The second - the one to vote out Jax was terrifying because the whole time I wondered if they would go through with it. (Another great moment when Clay told Jax he wanted him gone)
The third season ends with the show very much in flux. Gemma is a fugitive on the run without a knowledge of where to go. Jax's baby is stolen by the Irishman. I bet Tara is deeply conflicted about her involvement with the club after that incident. The club needs to re-adjust to the events of the finale (especially Half-Sack's death).
This season was well done. I applaud its quality. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn close. I'm honestly afraid the show will drop in quality. In fact, I think it'd be hard not to have a least a little of a drop. This show is fantastic - well-written, great actors, and compelling characters.
I'd put this show up there with the best of them after two seasons. It remains to be seen if he can keep it up, but so far it's been excellent.
Playlist (Sons of Anarchy Edition)
1. "This Life" - Curtis Stigers (Theme Song)
2. "Hard Row" - The Black Keys
3. "John the Revelator" - Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers
4. "Forever Young" - Audra Mae & The Forest Rangers
5. "Later this Year" - Straylight Run
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