(Warning: This post contains some spoilers)
Ok, I've been expecting a drop-off for Sons of Anarchy since I basically started the show and Season 3 finally gives it to me. Not that it was bad, but it was unquestionably on a different level than the first two seasons.
In the third season, a little too much happens in too little time. I think 13 episodes of plot was used in like a week of time on the show. That's insane. I get taking your time with story lines, but it took like four episodes to get through a day. I'm only slightly exaggerating.
I'll give creator Kurt Sutter credit for one thing and that's ambition. This season falls flat a little, but it definitely tried to be something greater. I can respect a show that does that. It's taking chances, and if some don't work, at least they took the chance.
This season was highly entertaining though. A lot of stuff happens, and in my opinion too much plot-based stuff happens. There was a decent share of awesome moments of course. If this is the downside of Sons of Anarchy - and I'm pretty sure it is - then it's a pretty good downside. If the rest of the series is like this - and I'm pretty sure it isn't - then I'd watch it to the end.
At the end of the second season, the show dropped two cliffhangers on us. Gemma murdered someone and Jax had his baby stolen. I'm not positive, but I think the writers of SOA are the "make the characters go into a seemingly impossible situation to resolve and worry about the consequences later" type of writers. It's when writers write themselves into a corner to where there's very little that can happen to make sense of what we just saw.
Gemma's a main character so unless they kill her off, we knew she wasn't going anywhere. So I guess the question was how do they either 1) get her free of the murder or 2) not reduce her character's role when she serves jail time? There's pretty much no way to do #1 without sounding absolutely implausible and ridiculous.
Naturally, the result was implausible and ridiculous. So Agent Stahl makes up this ridiculous story where somehow another agent was there even though the ATF surely knew already that Agent Stahl was the only one at the scene. Ok. Agent Stahl turns full caricature by murdering her lover and partner? Ok.
Just in case the show was worried Opie possibly killed someone who didn't deserve it, they did everything possible to make sure we had no doubts Opie did the right thing. If Opie killed maybe a good person, who is obviously dedicated to her job (like she was in Season 1), it would have been much more interesting. But they wrote themselves in a corner and needed a way to get Gemma free and if you only slightly pay attention to your TV shows, you were probably satisfied enough. And hey, if it's Gemma in jail with a realistic story line or Gemma free with a ridiculous story line, I think Gemma free is the right answer.
Then the baby getting stolen took up a large portion of the season as well. This didn't create a lot of tension for me because they aren't going to kill a baby so it was just a matter of time of when they found the baby. And that took ELEVEN episodes. For such a foregone conclusion, they really took their time with that.
However, any complaints I have about the season were washed away with the season finale. Oh my God, that was awesome. It was so awesome it removes any ability to write coherent, logical thoughts or any type of critical analysis. I just don't give a shit. Unfortunately, the pivotal death in this episode was spoiled for me (Agent Stahl), but that didn't ruin the moment. It was way better than I could have ever expected.
Also, the baby story line did have a good payoff. Jackson ultimately decided to give up the baby, because he knew he would have a better life. The writers clearly wanted to have their cake and eat it too so they made sure he didn't actually lose the baby. Unfortunately, the payoff wasn't quite worth the set-up - 10 episodes long is always too long of a set-up.
I was going to give this season a grade, but I realized I didn't give a grade for either of the first two seasons, so I'll just give my grade for all the seasons here, because I feel the seasons now have a reference point. This is compared to regular television by the way so while I do think this season isn't great for SOA, it's great for television.
Season 1: A- (Took season a few episodes to find it's ground)
Season 2: A (Represents the full potential of the show IMO)
Season 3: B (Too many implausible moments to overlook)
Playlist
1. "This Charming Life" - Joan Armatrading (from this season)
2. "Let Nas Down" - J. Cole
3. "Made Nas Proud" - Nas
4. "Someday" - Suger Ray
5. "My Body is a Cage" - Arcade Fire
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