Spoilers for Wednesday night's "Sons of Anarchy" coming up just as soon as I pick up my menopause prescription... Okay, greater cinematic skateboard theft: Marty McFly or Gemma? While the obvious temptation is to give it to Marty, what with the stuntwork and the manure truck and all, he didn't so much steal a skateboard as invent one, so I may have to give this one to Gemma. Or maybe I'm just afraid she'd break my nose with one if I don't.
"Sons of Anarchy" continues to get stronger as it goes along. This episode held up a welcome magnifying glass to Gemma and Clay's relationship (giving Katey Sagal and Ron Perlman a deserved showcase), as well as to more details about MC culture. (The sin wasn't so much that Clay cheated on Gemma, but that the girl then showed her face in Charming. Noted.)
After not a lot of movement on the Agent Kohn thing since he arrived in town, the ATF (both the actual agents(*) and guys on "vacation" like Kohn) got deep into SAMCRO's(**) business, and the death of the cop created some interesting moments between Jax and their cop contact Trammel.
(*) Ally Walker is married to FX president John Landgraf, and some FX producers seem to take special delight in casting her in extreme roles on their shows, first as a hooker on "The Shield," here as a sexually aggressive fed. As anyone who read my "Tell Me You Love Me" reviews knows, I would watch Walker read the phone book, and so this peculiar brand of nepotism/cronyism is more than welcome. I assume Kohn is going to crash and burn eventually, and I'd love to see Walker stick around as a thorn in the club's side.
(**) Which spelling do you prefer: SAMCRO or Sam Crow? I've seen it both ways, both on the show and in the press materials. I guess all-caps hurts my eyes, so I'll probably go with Sam Crow in the future.
I'm still waiting to feel attached to Jax in some way, but beyond that, "Sons of Anarchy" is showing the kind of quality progression I like to see from shows that started off with a promising but uneven pilot episode. More, please.
What did everybody else think?
I prefer SAMCRO.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really liked Taryn Manning's performance as Cherry, and that's the first time I've liked Taryn Manning in anything.
I'm realling loving this show; the way it explores the culture and relationships has been consistently entertaining.
Not a big fan of Ally Walker as you are, but they used her better than she was used on Boston Legal a few weeks ago.
Second the "keeps getting better" idea, and I am now officially hooked. I probably already was, but now I feel safer admitting it because FX has given them a second season.
ReplyDeleteJax still doesn't completely have me yet either, but it was good to see him take charge with Piney, and then to have a casually menacing talk with Glenn Plummer's cop.
I loved Gemma's impulsive assault, but while she is ostensibly acting well, I still don't completely buy her. It's not her fault I've seen every episode of "Married...With Children" a couple times, but it's hard to shake Peg Bundy.
But while I complain about two of the three main characters from a show I claim to like, let me just say that I love everybody else in the gang: Bobby, Tig, Half-Sack, Juice, Piney, Chibs, and of course Opie. It's kind of disappointing that they'll give one of them a lot to do before omitting them completely the next episode, but at least they're all getting some individual time to shine.
I can't wait for the Agent Kohn stuff to bubble over (and like Alan says, it's gonna have to soon; Jax's room must be avenged!) and what that'll show us about Jax and Tara. The suspense is terrible, I hope it'll last!
(Oops, that should have been in the reference post a couple days ago)
I prefer Sam Crow, in part b/c orig title of the show was "Forever Sam Crow." SAMCRO is like a weird military acronym, Sam Crow is more of an emblem of a name.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Dan is right. Taryn is great in this and she's been known to bug.
ReplyDeleteI'm puzzled by the picture Kohn kept from Jax's room.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder why Tara hasn't come clean with Jax about Kohn, she could have given him a heads up, but would rather keep hiding something, or acting like she doesn't know Kohn. She has to know that he's not going to simply go away.
the picture intrigued me too. after watching the scene a couple of times, i think we can only guess.
ReplyDeletehere goes (and this was the first episode i saw, although i have read alan's blogs to get some sense of what i missed) since jax dated tara and kohn is stalking her, i assume it's a photo of tara.
Bart
I cannot believe Ally Walker is pushing 50. And Katey Seagal has pushed it!
ReplyDeleteNot only do I buy Seagal as Gemma, but I can't see how the show would work without her. She's kind of like a white trash Lady Macbeth. With a conscience. The skateboard thing was amazing enough, but then the look on her face right after she realized what she'd done... Seagal is great.
They haven't explained why it's called SAMCRO/Sam Crow within the show, right? I had to Google it to find out it's Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original. It's kind of cool that they make you work for it a little.
I'm puzzled by the picture Kohn kept from Jax's room.
He's a control-freak stalker. It's a trophy.
ally walker is 50?????
ReplyDeletewtf??
I started out watching only cuz I'm a Perlman fan. Otherwise it didn't really grab me. I didn't connect emotionally with the characters and thot it was one- dimensionally uber-violent. But I kept watching cuz my friends were watching.
ReplyDeleteBut by this episode, AK-51, I am bought sold and delivered. I've replayed this epi over and over! I now cannot wait to see what happens next. Yup. Now I have to admit I'm a fan of this story.
There was just a lot more believable humanness in this episode. Maybe becuz it was delivered by two outstanding actors (Katey and Ron). But there was a lot of good performances. And mystery. I think the humanness and mystery are elements that were much needed.
As is a strong lead that we can connect to. But that is still tenuous for me. I think Jax is still just so-so. I get no sense of his connection to his son. Or his family. He just doesn't do it for me. I also think Opie's much more interesting. Even Half-Sack is more interesting to me. I really enjoyed his scene with Sweetbutt in the hospital room.
I also loved Ally's scenes. Maybe because there seems to be so much misogyny in the show (which wears on me sometimes). It was fun to see the MEN be sexually harrased a bit for once. I noticed everyone seemed a bit embarressed by that except for Agent Kohn, who seem to like it. Hmmm.
I just hope Jax can take us and keep us there. Either that or Clay will have to kill him and put Opie in charge!
Ally Walker is 47. Katey Sagal is 54. And they're hotter than a lot of women half their age. Not to mention better actresses.
ReplyDeleteAnybody else half-hoping that Half-Sack would get some revenge nookie? Of course, then he'd have to die.
I agree that the show is slowly getting better. I'm not hooked quite yet, I want to be able to care about some of the characters. But it definitely has potential, and after FX renewed it I also feel it might become better soon.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like more Jax. Enough of him just reading on the roof - we want some actual progression of some sort.
Pearlman's character is hateful and it was only in this ep that they rounded him out to the point where he was actually more than one-dimensional.
ReplyDeleteI'm into the whole story but right now it's mostly from the male side of things: sex, violence, comraderie and living on the fringe.
I do have hopes that it will fully form and even in it's current state it's better than all the procedural dramas which dominate the drama landscape.
And I vote YES on Ally Walker!:)
I just got Season 1 on DVD and I was watching the episode that Kohn trashes Jax room. I paused it several times on picture than Kohn decides to keep and you can see a Brunette sitting behind a blonde on a motorcycle. I figure it is a picture of Tara and Jax when they were in High School. This also makes sense considering Kohn is stalking Tara so it's the only picture that would really "matter" to him.
ReplyDelete