What TV show did you last watch a season of on DVD/Blu-ray?
Nov 8, 2023 11:15:25 GMT
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Nov 8, 2023 11:15:25 GMT
Most recently finished the complete series boxset of Sons of Anarchy on DVD.
I’d never seen this show when it originally aired, but I’d heard of it. The DVD store I go to for all my DVDs/Blu-rays had a special deal going where if you bought one TV series boxset, you'd get a second boxset with 50% off, so I decided it was the best time to buy this show (the other one that I got the 50% off from was the complete series of The Last Kingdom, which I’ve got two more seasons left of to watch. I was simultaneously watching a season of both shows at a time, but eventually SoA took over and I binge-watched it pretty much from Season 2 onwards). I think I had a certain idea in my head from bits and pieces I’d heard/read about this show of what the series was going to be like (I’d even imagined how I thought certain character deaths would play out that I’d been spoiled for), so it came as somewhat of a surprise for me that, really, only the first two seasons of the show ended up being like what I thought the series would be and then from Season 3 onwards, things kind of veered off-course and the show turned into something quite different to what I’d imagined. Because I’m reviewing all seven seasons from memory (and a shoddy memory it is), I’m bound to forget things, but I figure the best approach is to just tackle my thoughts one character at a time (at least to start with, anyway...but by the end I'll inevitably be too lazy to bother with that and will end up grouping characters together ).
I’d never seen this show when it originally aired, but I’d heard of it. The DVD store I go to for all my DVDs/Blu-rays had a special deal going where if you bought one TV series boxset, you'd get a second boxset with 50% off, so I decided it was the best time to buy this show (the other one that I got the 50% off from was the complete series of The Last Kingdom, which I’ve got two more seasons left of to watch. I was simultaneously watching a season of both shows at a time, but eventually SoA took over and I binge-watched it pretty much from Season 2 onwards). I think I had a certain idea in my head from bits and pieces I’d heard/read about this show of what the series was going to be like (I’d even imagined how I thought certain character deaths would play out that I’d been spoiled for), so it came as somewhat of a surprise for me that, really, only the first two seasons of the show ended up being like what I thought the series would be and then from Season 3 onwards, things kind of veered off-course and the show turned into something quite different to what I’d imagined. Because I’m reviewing all seven seasons from memory (and a shoddy memory it is), I’m bound to forget things, but I figure the best approach is to just tackle my thoughts one character at a time (at least to start with, anyway...but by the end I'll inevitably be too lazy to bother with that and will end up grouping characters together ).
Jax - I’d only ever heard of Charlie Hunnam for the longest time and hadn’t really seen him in anything until I eventually watched a couple of lackluster films he happened to be in. When I started watching this show, my immediate thought was regarding his walk - he has a very distinct stride as Jax Teller. Also, if I hadn’t read about his signature white sneakers before watching the show, I wonder how long it would’ve taken me to really notice them (they’re BRIGHT white, so probably not that long). I read somewhere that someone (a biker) he talked to had such shoes, so it wasn’t as crazy an idea as it might’ve seemed that his ‘tough’ biker character in the show had shiny white sneakers that kinda clashed with the rest of his look (something about being able to afford many pairs of such shoes to replace each previous pair when they inevitably got dirty was a sign of ‘prestige’...or something). I did more or less like Jax in the beginning (I think), as he at least seemed to have a conscience back then (when killing unnecessarily hadn't become a hobby of his). There were times throughout the middle few seasons where he did stuff that I didn’t approve of, but it wasn’t until the final couple of seasons that he seemed to really cross that line into trigger-happy killer guy territory where he barely seemed to need a reason to kill anyone and was racking up bodies by the truckload.
It annoyed me how at first he gave his g/f, Tara Knowles, grief for ditching him (which had taken place prior to when the show started), then eventually he worked out the best thing for her and their kids (the first of which he had with his junkie ex-wife, Wendy, who Tara basically adopted/raised as her own, while the second he actually had with Tara) was to get the hell out of the town of Charming (ironically-named, considering all the decidedly non-charming things that went on there), only for him to change his mind after he’d promised to leave with her, and by then she’d fallen so head over heels for him that she stuck around, he kept telling her to go, but it was too late and his mother killed Tara. He also had the nasty habit of treating women like shit at times (like bashing the face of a porn star named Ima Tite - which sounds like a Bond girl's name - into a mirror, threatening her and calling her 'whore' after he'd cheated on Tara with her...which was pretty much the pot calling the kettle black, since Jax was the biggest whore in the show. Poor Ima - whenever she appeared, she seemed to be getting her face bashed in and probably kept having to go get nose jobs from a plastic surgeon who wondered WTF was going on with her. Though even worse than his treatment of Ima was when Jax was shooting Wendy up with drugs after she was starting to get clean) while other times he could actually be quite kind/sensitive towards the ladies (it just depended on how he was feeling at any given time).
While Charlie Hunnam’s American accent did wander/his English accent came through at times (I think it was more noticeable in the later seasons, but I may be misremembering), I will give him credit for really selling the deeply emotional moments his character went through at various points in the series - like the loss of his ‘best friend’, Opie, who sacrificed himself in Season 5 or when he learned of his mother being Tara’s murderer in the final season (and all the innocent people who’d died as a result of the lie she'd used to cover it up, as Jax sought revenge for his wife’s murder and thus many people died - both innocent and guilty). However, the moment that really lived up to all the hype I’d seen regarding Hunnam as an actor on this show was the end of the Season 6 final when he discovered Tara’s body - that was some pretty impressive acting from him, as it felt very 'real' to me (while some actors tend to overact when it comes to conveying grief).
Although he was at his worst in the final season of the show, at least he acknowledged all the shit he’d done/caused and took responsibility for it, even being okay with the club voting for him to ‘meet Mr. Mayhem’ (ie. meet his maker). Of course, then he didn’t actually hang around to *pay* for his sins/suffer the consequences of his actions, but instead attracted the attention of as many cops as he could who pursued him (on his father's motorcycle he'd restored) in a scene reminiscent of The Blues Brothers, then decided his last dickish act would be to have some random trucker played by Michael Chiklis (who'd shared a scene with Jax's mother in the previous episode - making it rather coincidental that Jax just so happened to cross paths with him as well. The scene with Gemma was pretty pointless, so I think they should've just left the Chiklis cameo for the last episode) be responsible for his death by riding straight in front of the poor guy's oncoming semi (which is how his father had apparently died - though throughout the show we were first led to believe it was an accident, then that Jax’s mum and her husband, Clay, were responsible - with him sabotaging the bike and her giving it the ‘OK’, and in the final season someone else told Jax his dad had purposely killed himself).
While I certainly didn’t get all weepy as Jax committed suicide via semi, I actually liked the final scene (and wasn’t even bothered by the ‘bad CGI’ others complained about. I had more of a problem with the ‘murder’ of crows constantly flying by one at a time, as it was on the nose/far too literal). What I think made the final moments of Jax’s life 'work' was the song used, as it seemed fitting/felt 'right' (I'd always imagined that some slow moody version of 'Don't Fear the Reaper' would be used...but this song choice was better). My favourite part of Hunnam's performance as Jax being at peace with dying was two blink-and-you’d-miss-them subtle facial expression moments - one was this look of almost happiness as he got the idea of how he was going to end his life, and the other was this slight grin he had as he put his plan into motion right before he took his hands off the handlebars and went all Jesus pose. I thought it was effective how the music/sound cut out for a second and then we heard the crash without actually seeing any of it, as the final shot of the show instead focused on two crows feeding on some bread (which I didn’t even realise was bread and had to look up what it was supposed to be) by the side of the road before blood seeped towards them (apparently this shot was mirroring the opening of the very first episode - not that I remembered it, due to my shoddy memory). While Jax certainly ended up not being a very good person by the end of the series, at least the show didn’t try to convince us otherwise (as is often the case with characters in shows/movies who are actually horrible, but we’re meant to think of them as ‘good’/’heroes’). I didn’t actually hate Jax at the end...but he really had nowhere else to go. It was the perfect ending for him (how much would it have sucked for him if his poetic suicide had failed, the trucker had avoided him, his bike had slid and he'd gotten caught by the cops then spent the rest of his life in jail?).
Gemma - I’d never watched Married…With Children really, but knew she was in it and that her role in this show was the COMPLETE opposite of that one (I mostly knew her as the voice of Leela in Futurama). I’d also heard about how ‘impressive’ she was in this role of Jax’s mother who was NOT to be messed with and that she was going to have an antagonistic relationship with Tara after she’d left Jax and ‘broke his heart’. For the first season, Gemma and Tara were definitely at odds, but by Season 2 they bonded over shooting the car of one porn star Jax cheated on Tara with and then I was surprised to see them...not exactly become ‘friends’, but become friendlier towards each other, eventually reaching the point where Tara was helping Gemma get through a vicious rape she suffered in the Season 3 premiere, and Gemma actually seemed somewhat ‘nice’ towards Tara. I knew this wouldn't last, but wondered how exactly they got to the point where Gemma would viciously murder Tara (which I'd been spoiled for). Everything started going to hell with the whole Irish storyline (WTF was that about?), as in the season final Tara found letters regarding Gemma and Clay’s apparent involvement in Jax’s dad’s death (which were meant for Jax, sent home inside a bag by a woman who’d been with his dad and given Jax a half-sister as a result...who he almost BONED, though thankfully they didn’t go full Lannister and only snogged before learning they were related. While some people apparently hated this development, I personally found it morbidly amusing). If it wasn’t for those damned letters Tara accidentally happened upon when doing laundry, things might’ve turned out very differently for everyone (like, she’d still be ALIVE...as would probably many others). I blame Jax’s hellspawn that he had with Wendy (Abel), who pulled out one of the letters Tara had hidden in a bag to draw on with crayon which Gemma found and this kickstarted the whole Clay-ordering-a-hit-on-Tara thing, as he didn’t want the truth revealed about his involvement in the death of Jax’s dad.
Gemma seemed the sort who could be a fierce friend if you stayed on her 'good side', but if you got on her bad side she became your worst enemy. Back in the first season, despite her being at odds with Tara, I didn’t mind her as a character (even when she randomly beat up one chick with a skateboard - it was still the kind of crazy behavior that you could shrug off). Where Gemma started becoming really unlikeable was when she’d react without getting all the necessary information first. She’d go crazy, beating people up (or killing them), only to discover later she was mistaken - which was the case with her murder of Tara, having been led to believe Tara had ratted on the club and consequently Jax was going to get sent to jail (when in fact he’d given himself up so Tara and the kids could leave Charming). Gemma was far too possessive of her grandkids (it was weird how she referred to them as 'my boys' and acted like they were her sons. Same with how she eventually started referring to Tara as 'my daughter', after she and Jax got hitched, instead of 'my daughter-in-law') and wasn’t going to let Tara leave with them, being particularly vicious towards her in the Season 5 final, which is why Tara took such drastic actions (faking a pregnancy, then setting Gemma up as having caused the ‘death’ of the unborn child). Things really got out of hand in the Season 6 final when Gemma lost it, beating Tara up with an iron, attempting to drown her in a sink of dirty water, then stabbing her in the back of the head repeatedly with a carving fork. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she then set up some innocent Chinese dude who Jax tortured and eventually ended the life of with a fork of his own to the guy’s cranium in retribution. Gemma really was the overarching ‘villain’ of the entire series, since so much of the shit that went down was because of her.
Frustratingly, we didn’t even get to enjoy Gemma's eventual demise in the second-last episode of the series, as she actually got to dictate to Jax (after he’d learned the truth) the 'when and where' of how she died, getting to be amongst the garden of her old home and at peace (there was a whole storyline involving her father who had Alzheimer's which was well done, but that didn't excuse her actions...it just made me feel for her poor dad, since I have family with that disease myself). When Jax hesitated to shoot the MURDERER OF HIS WIFE, I was like, “Oh, COME ON!!” and Gemma actually had to give him her blessing/the go ahead to do it before he finally shot her through the back of the head (which was far too quick a death for her. She got off easy, when she should’ve suffered like she made Tara suffer, damn it!). I guess one of the ‘perks’ of being wife to the show’s creator/showrunner was that the show really did become all about *her* in the end (to the detriment of not only the other actors/characters, but the show as a whole). While I won’t deny that Katey Sagal certainly impressed in the role, her character just became TOO MUCH as the series went on. Everything was about her (even stuff that should’ve been about other characters), and it kinda ruined things.
Tara - I knew Maggie Siff previously from Mad Men and she was one of the main reasons I wanted to check this show out. I liked that she played someone who was primarily a *good* person (a doctor), but who would help out the club whenever they needed her (seriously, SO many of them would’ve been royally screwed without her since she patched up numerous club members whenever they received injuries as a result of the shit they got up to). However, over the course of the show, she gradually started compromising her principles, whether it was indulging her anger (the shooting of a car, as previously mentioned, or beating up of her boss at work who tried to fire her but later became her closest friend/confidant, which I wasn’t expecting. A shame we never got to see her reaction to Tara’s death. She was played by a relative of Katey Sagal, interestingly enough). Slowly the ‘good person’ Tara had been kinda morphed into a younger Gemma who would do whatever she needed to protect her kids/get them away from the dangers of the club (even if it meant doing highly questionable things). Unlike apparently a lot of people who watched the show, I never hated Tara. I was more or less on her side throughout the show up to and including her violent death (which she DIDN’T deserve). Considering at one point Gemma had threatened her, taking glee in the thought of her being ‘fist-raped’ in prison (which, thankfully, didn't end up happening and instead Tara beat the snot out of some bitch who stole her blanket. Tara got sent to jail thanks to a member of the club named Otto - played by show creator/showrunner Kurt Sutter - who 'took one for the team' by being in prison and suffering horribly, losing an eye, getting raped, etc...but once he learned one of the other club members on the outside had boned his wife and that she got beaten to death by I forget who, he turned on the club and tricked Tara into bringing him a crucifix he used to kill a nurse and set Tara up as aiding/abetting in the murder which resulted in her arrest) I couldn’t really blame her for what she did in regards to setting Gemma up. Plus, there seemed to be this weird incest-y vibe going on with Gemma in regards to her son, where it felt like she was fighting Tara for 'possession' of Jax (this was none more obvious than in the the Season 4 final where Tara held her arm over him like she was saying to Gemma, "He's mine, bitch. Back off." which was a direct reference to a photograph of young Gemma doing the same arm move with Jax's dad. In the Season 5 final Gemma did it again with Jax as Tara got carted off to prison).
It’s just too bad that they eventually became enemies again after all they'd been through, as they were pretty cool together when they were getting along and helping each other. It’s a shame they didn’t have ghosts in this show (though they had a homeless woman 'Angel of Death' occasionally appear - who I didn't even twig to until I listened to the first of many commentaries on the DVDs with the show's cast, though eventually those started dwindling to the point where in the final season there were no commentaries whatsoever...which I imagine was because they weren't getting along by the sounds of the behind the scenes goings on - which was what many had theorised she was supposed to be, but there was never a clear answer given, though we did discover she looked like the woman who was killed in the crash that also claimed the life of Jax's dad, as a photo of her was shown at one point and Jax recognised the face after having seen her at various points...so it would seem she was some sort of entity who appeared to Jax, and eventually Gemma, when deaths of characters were imminent - including Jax and Gemma's own deaths. She got a line in the final episode when she told Jax "It's time.", before providing him with a handy blanket that he used to look like a reaper - the club's symbol - whilst posing as a homeless person himself, before blowing away a villain as part of his tying up loose ends), as it would’ve been neat/pretty funny to see Ghost Tara with a fork sticking out of her head, as I saw people suggesting in regards to the final season of the show when Gemma was seemingly talking to herself (but was apparently supposed to be talking to Tara, who wasn’t there - I guess either because they couldn’t get Maggie Siff back or because dead characters turning up as ghosts was too ‘out there’ for this show. Though, really, at least that would’ve provided some entertainment value, whereas Gemma just talking to herself with no one else visibly there just seemed like an excuse for the showrunner to give his wife monologues - because not enough screentime was spent on her already). Yes, Tara ‘used’ Jax to help her get rid of her creepy stalker in Season 1 (and it’d seem that having sex in the same room as dead people, or after having just made people be dead, was a consistent character trait with Jax, as he and Tara boned after he blew away her stalker in Season 1 and then he had sex with Wendy after having only just offed two people including his own mum hours earlier in the final season. I guess the thought of dead people got Jax going? Ew). While Tara may have been regarded as 'annoying' or 'boring' by some people, I sympathised with her character and understood where she was coming from with her, at times, highly questionable actions. Maggie Siff was consistently great throughout the six seasons she appeared in and was one of the best actors in the show, I thought (I felt she didn't get nearly enough of the credit she deserved, as other actors in the series played more 'showy' roles which got them more attention but she really brought raw, believable emotion to all her scenes).
Clay - I remember that I’d caught a tiny bit of one episode of this show when it was on TV here where I saw Ron Perlman’s character with breathing tubes stuck up his nose and had wondered how far into the series that was when I started watching the show on DVD. Turns out, it was by Season 5 (after he’d been shot by Opie, who was getting revenge against Clay because he’d shot his dad, Piney, in the chest with a shotgun all thanks to those damned letters). While Clay wasn’t exactly a likeable guy, Ron Perlman was endlessly watchable in the role (though, to me, he’ll always be Vincent from the Linda Hamilton Beauty and the Beast series I watched when I was young). Having been listening to a podcast with two of the actors from the show where they recap/review every episode...I’ve gathered from stuff they’ve said - as well as other actors they've had appear on the podcast - in regards to the showrunner, Kurt Sutter, that he was a major dick to Perlman (among others), and I wonder if Sutter resented him because of all the scenes with Ron getting it on with Katey Sagal since they played husband and wife - though that’d be a stupid reason to resent Perlman, since Sutter was the one who *wrote* all those sex scenes between them. Alternatively, maybe Katey Sagal wanted a ‘better-looking’ onscreen sex partner and that’s why Clay got the shaft in Season 6 (hardly appearing in the season, and when he did, it was confined to a jail setting until he finally got broken out...only to be shot by Jax and become a scapegoat), as she ‘upgraded’ to Jimmy Smits who played the character of Nero from Season 5 onwards. It’s a shame what was done to the Clay character (ie. making him unforgivably ‘villainous’) in the later seasons, as he wasn’t ‘all bad’ in the early seasons and actually had complexity about him. I enjoyed the few instances of one-on-one scenes we got between him and Tara...until that all went to shit (damn you, letters!), as he was usually pretty nice to her. I think the real character assassination of him came when he beat the shit out of Gemma, as he'd always seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't actually go that far. Sutter made him far too 'one-note' in the later seasons and it was a waste of not only what started out as a really good nuanced character, but also the excellent Ron Perlman who deserved a much better send-off/death in the show.
Chibs - I’d seen Tommy Flanagan in various movie roles, but not in a TV role (to my recollection). I spent a lot of the time struggling to understand half of what he was saying, I didn’t care for his estranged wife or kid when we met them (it was a joke when Gemma built up his wife as being the ‘only’ woman she was scared of, as the character didn’t live up to the promise of someone who’d scare Gemma and they had to make Gemma throw a lazy swing at her and have her punch Gemma in the gut to show she was a match for her, but it stank of trying too hard and she barely left an impression, imho), then in the final season Chibs got saddled with a lame romance involving the latest town Sheriff (played by Annabeth Gish, who always seems to get stuck playing these unlikeable characters. I still can’t tell if she’s a sucky actress or just has sucky roles written for her) which reached embarrassing lows during a scene where she demanded he prove his feelings for her and they screwed on the hood of a police car (all I could think of during it was the “You had SEX with Giles? You had SEX WITH GILES? On the hood of a police car?? TWICE?!” quote from Buffy to her mum in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3 episode ‘Earshot’). In the final episode, though, he seemed to have gotten what he wanted from her and threatened her, which wasn’t a real good look for the character (though, naturally, some people enjoyed that moment). Tommy Flanagan didn’t get a whole lot to do much of the time, but when he did he was quite good (especially in the emotional scenes his character had when members of the club were dying off, etc).
Tig - Kim Coates (one of the two actors who do the show podcast) was someone who I’d seen in various things but didn’t even know the name of until pretty late (whenever I saw his name come up in credits for shows/movies, I always assumed it was the name of an actress as I haven't seen too many guys named 'Kim'). His character here was the ‘weirdo’ of the club and I think was actually responsible for almost as much bad shit that happened as Jax and Gemma were. This started near the end of Season 1 when Clay was led to believe that Opie had ratted on the club and ordered Tig to off Opie in a drive-by, but Tig didn’t even bother to check to MAKE SURE it was Opie driving the car he rode up behind on his bike and consequently he offed Opie’s wife, Donna (who he’d switched cars with at the last minute), by mistake. This kicked off a whole thing with Opie, Clay and the one who’d set Opie up (an ATF agent by the name of June Stahl played by Abby Walker who I knew of from the 90’s TV series Profiler - not that I ever watched that show, but there was a crossover with it and a show I *did* watch called The Pretender, so I knew of her via that. I liked her in the role on this show, as she played a good 'villain' who was someone that *should've* been the 'good guy', but like a lot of 'good guys' on this show, ended up sinking to the level of the 'bad guys' in her pursuit of taking down the club. She was easily the best of all the law enforcement characters in the show. While some might've been annoyed by it, I personally found Ally Walker's way of speaking whilst in character to be interesting/compelling), and unlike most viewers...I actually felt a twinge of sympathy for her when she eventually met her end whereas pretty much everyone else was cheering her demise). Eventually, Tig came clean to Opie...but only received a moderate beating from him as payback (while Clay didn’t even get that much. Though I think Opie tried to shoot him, but was stopped...he would later succeed in shooting him, but not killing him, in a later season after he learned Clay offed his dad, Piney). When Opie eventually paid Stahl back by killing her in much the same way as Donna was killed - ie. shot in the back of the head with a load of bullets whilst inside a car - I thought it was somewhat unfair to put ALL of the blame for Donna’s death solely on her when, really, Clay and Tig were just as much to blame (Clay for ordering the hit and Tig for carrying it out without even being sure of who he was killing). Yes, Stahl started the whole thing off by setting Opie up to get what she needed, but the other two were the ones who made Donna's death actually happen. So, by all rights, when Opie was telling Stahl, “This is what she felt.” (in reference to Donna, before he blasted the back of Stahl’s head), he also should’ve done the same to Tig (and to a lesser extent, Clay) since it was at Tig’s hand that Donna’s life was ended.
It seemed to me that Tig earned a ‘pass’ throughout the show, no matter what shit he was responsible for, because he was well-liked by the audience. He really only had himself to blame for his daughter’s death, when he thought another club was responsible for Clay getting shot and once again, before getting all the facts, he took action by crazily driving towards a member of that other club whose g/f died as an unintended result (Tig was making a habit of unintentionally killing the wrong people by this point) and then her father (who was built up as the biggest, baddest mofo...but was actually pretty lame/boring, played by the "WAAAAALT!!!" actor from Lost. His righthand man was actually much more effective and thankfully took over once Tig killed the guy who killed his daughter) got revenge against Tig by burning one of his two daughters alive in a pit by a railroad (I’d totally imagined this scene playing out a bit differently when I’d heard about it prior to ever watching the show. I also thought Coates made a questionable acting choice moaning “Oh, baby...” over and over even when his daughter was SET ALIGHT. To my way of thinking, him screaming “NOOOOOO!!!!” should’ve happened at that point. Ah well, I was glad to see the actress who played Meg 2.0 in Supernatural bite the dust, as I never liked her much in that show and she was unlikeable in this show too). What I liked about Tig was his love of animals, especially dogs (one of which he rescued from a dog-fighting ring. I only wish when the bastard who ran the thing was locked in a car with one of the dogs, that they'd kept him locked in there for the dog to rip to pieces. Instead he just suffered some moderate injuries and was allowed to live - albeit in humiliation). Tig had numerous 'quirks' to him (like being afraid of dolls), though I was surprised people were so happy to see him get involved with a member of the LGBTQ+ community (before that group added more letters) named Venus, since it was basically suggesting that the ONLY person who could be interested in someone like Venus was a weirdo like Tig. Shouldn't that have offended people more than made them happy (the message seemingly being "Only weirdos would like someone like that!")? There's no denying that Walton Goggins did a good job in the role of Venus (making the character feel like a real person rather than a caricature as others might've played the part), but considering the club had a rule about no 'black guys' being members (which only got changed in the final episode as one of Jax's last acts as Club President), you'd think they'd also have rules about club members being with someone who was LGBTQ+...but other than some teasing towards Tig, they were actually pretty openminded in regards to it (even happily giving him the go-ahead to off other people who weren't so openminded).
Juice - It took me a while to even learn the names of most of the club members (though I'd read about Juice prior to watching the show, and all I could think was what a dumb name that was for a character. No, it wasn’t his actual birth name...but it was still a dumb nickname. Tig and Chibs weren’t much better. Really, ‘Jax’ was the only cool-sounding name of anyone in the club). Theo Rossi is the other person who does the show podcast with Kim Coates, and from having listened to six seasons' worth of him commenting on the show...he sounds like someone who resented how underutilised his character was in the early seasons - but, honestly, those were the only seasons where I didn't mind his character. When he actually got some *focus* in Season 4 and onwards, I found the storyline he was given was pretty 'meh' (he was threatened by the Sheriff at the time - not Annabeth Gish's character, as she came later - who wanted him to be a rat against the club, and if Juice refused, it'd be made known to the club that his father was *gasp* BLACK - which was a big no-no regarding being a member of the club, apparently. Which was a bizarre rule, considering Juice and another ironically-named club member called Happy - who was anything but happy the majority of the time - were both non-white members themselves. But I guess that was regarded differently to being black). This blackmail by the Sheriff (who himself was black) led to Juice ratting on the club, setting up another innocent club member for a crime Juice himself had committed and offing the poor dude which he claimed was 'self-defense'. His worst sin, however, was him shooting the Sheriff (but he didn't shoot the Deputy! Not that I can remember, anyway) in the Season 6 final to help cover up Gemma's murder of Tara (this was only after a brief talking with Gemma, which somehow was enough to make him loyal to her - because apparently EVERYONE just loved Gemma). Early in the series Juice seemed like an okay guy, but from Season 4 onwards he became someone I didn't like and by the final season I was well and truly ready for him to die. He, like Gemma, got to dictate when he died and he went out on more or less his own terms...but at least he didn't go as easily as she did (instead of receiving a quick bullet to the brain, he was stabbed repeatedly and died choking on his own blood). I've seen that Juice was a lot of people's favourite character from the show, but he became one of the WORST club members for me (the only worthwhile thing he did was tell Jax the truth about Gemma killing Tara and his helping her cover it up).
Opie, Piney, Bobby & Unser - I didn't actually know what to make of these characters for a good portion of the show. Bobby was probably the most 'decent' one, as he offered some sage advice to other characters (not that they often listened to him). Though he *was* responsible for Otto turning against the club, so he wasn't without his faults. In the final season he got captured, then tortured (losing an eye and fingers, as well as having his jaw broken) before finally getting shot dead in front of Jax. I mostly knew the guy who played Bobby from Batman Begins. Opie was someone who I couldn't really make my mind up about for the longest time, as he didn't really seem to 'emote' much (except when Donna died or he went after those responsible for her and his dad's deaths). He could be a cheating dick at times, which resulted in the SHORTEST MARRIAGE EVER on the show (after he wed one of the club's porn stars named Lyla - who had first been with Jax), and for a BFF of Jax...he didn't seem too BFF-like (more often siding with Clay against Jax...that was until he learned of Clay's involvement in Donna's death). Honestly, Opie's beard and long hair (which was covered up by his signature beanie most of the time in the early seasons) left more of an impression on me than Opie himself did, but at least he got to go out sacrificing himself for his BFF, Jax (as well as Tig & Chibs), which ended with him receiving a fatal blow to the back of the head with a lead pipe. Opie's dad, Piney, was even less of note to me than Opie was, as he didn't really seem to do a whole lot (I rolled my eyes at one line of his about the club being 'the good guys', considering a lot of the shit they did was most decidedly not 'good'). In the end he tried to protect Tara against Clay (DAMN YOU, LETTERS!) and met his end standing up to him. Unser was the Police Chief for the first three seasons who was on the club's payroll and looked the other way when they got up to questionable shit (which was most of the time), while also acting morally superior to the club, voicing his dissatisfaction with their actions but not really doing anything to stop it. He really sank to the club's level in the Season 3 final when he helped set up Stahl to be executed. After that, he retired but still somehow stayed involved in club business (though it felt like the show struggled to find a use for him. I was amused by his nickname of 'Uncle Touchy' when he wound up playing babysitter for the kids - which he pointed out to Gemma was a highly inappropriate nickname for him, but she said that's why she liked it). He'd always had a thing for Gemma, but it became clear how little she felt the same way about him in the episode where he died when he was trying to protect her from Jax, Jax shot him in the chest (doing what Unser's cancer couldn't/seemed to be taking its sweet time doing - ie. ending his life) and then both Jax and Gemma proceeded to act like Unser's corpse wasn't right there beside them as they reminisced about old family photos, before Gemma's death (so Unser really died for nothing in his effort to protect her). I didn't mind Unser in the beginning, but by the end he was another character who I wasn't sad to see go as he was kinda too dumb to live.
Other Characters - This show's attempts at 'humour' could at times fall flat, as was often the case with the character of Chuckie...who was a chronic masturbator. He was good as a one-off laugh in the first season, but then they made him a recurring character who had all but his index fingers removed by the Chinese, then was gifted wooden hands (by Gemma, I think), and it seemed the show struggled to find a purpose for him other than having some random new 'quirk' every episode (be it speaking French or playing a damn KAZOO) - most of which were more annoying than 'funny'. I could've lived without his character (his attempt at a 'catchphrase' - "I accept that." felt too try-hard, imho). The club had various 'Prospects' (ie. those whose joining the club was pending approval), most of whom I didn't even really know the names of nor care about. The only two who I did know the names of/sort of cared about were the first Prospect in the show, Half-Sack (who died protecting Tara and Jax's hellspawn in the Season 2 final against the Irish dude who stole it and sent them on that whole mission to Ireland - seriously WTF?? You could tell the show was getting off-track when they travelled to frickin' IRELAND. Yes, it did lead to stuff that impacted later seasons...but hardly seemed worth it, like they could've reached the same result without a journey to Ireland), and then in the last few seasons another Prospect called Ratboy. All the rest were pretty forgettable (though Filthy Phil seemed like a decent guy, who unfortunately was one of two Prospects shot in the head, then dismembered to send a message to the club from one of their many enemies throughout the course of the show).
Jimmy Smits is an actor I find easily likeable...but after he was introduced as Nero in Season 5, he quickly seemed to become someone whose world/role revolved mainly around Gemma, he sort of served as older 'mentor'-type figure to Jax (who he didn't exactly listen to as often as he should've) and by the end I thought Smits was being pretty wasted on the show playing a character who didn't seem to have much of a point...but at least he got to LIVE, leaving town with Wendy and the kids. Speaking of Wendy, despite being played by Drea de Matteo (who I like), I wasn't fond of her character when she first appeared since she was kind of a 'rival' for Tara in regards to Jax (though he made it quite clear to her that he only had eyes for Tara). I also didn't think it made much sense for Gemma to seemingly rather have Wendy (the junkie) as a daughter-in-law than Tara...but this was back when she hated Tara's guts. However, when Wendy returned in the later seasons, although she could be annoying with listening to Gemma and going against Tara, it was hard not to feel sorry for her after Jax treated her like shit (the previously-mentioned shooting her up with drugs against her will being the prime example) and eventually she was in on Tara's plan to set Gemma up (unfortunately for Tara, everyone she recruited as part of her plan easily caved and it didn't even last longer than an episode or two before everyone knew about it). In the end, Wendy was certainly no Tara...but she also ended up being one of the least terrible characters in the show.
Another was Lyla, who started off as a porn star for the club (as they were in the porn business) who Jax cheated on with Tara with and thus I didn't like her in the beginning, but when she and Tara eventually became friendly to each other (she even slapped someone else Jax cheated on Tara with - I think Ima - on behalf of Tara, who saw her do this and later thanked her), I tolerated Lyla more. I also felt sorry for her that Opie self-sabotaged their marriage (yes, she had an abortion...but so what? I get sick of characters in shows who either go to get one but end up changing their minds, or if they *do* go through with it, they're vilified. She did what she had to do given her situation, plus she wound up saddled with Opie's kids on top of her own once they became orphaned - she had more than enough on her plate. I was amused that she ended up running the club's porn business in the end and directing the 'movies' she once starred in (one of the only genuinely funny moments in the final season was the 'Skankenstein' movie we got to see part of) and I was glad she survived, since she'd been through so much crap.
Porn stars and prostitutes seemed to make up a decent amount of the female guest stars on this show. It was fun to see Ashley Tisdale (mostly known for being a Disney actress) playing an escort...who Gemma beat up because she was with Clay, and then in the final season Inbar Lavi (who I knew from the shows Imposters and Lucifer) guest-starred in two episodes as a prostitute who Jax, naturally, got it on with.
There was a semi-decent cop character named Hale, who was Unser's Deputy until he got plowed down by drive-by shooters in the first episode of Season 3. He seemed like he was an antagonist to the club in the beginning, but he actually wasn't a bad guy and at least tried to do the right thing (moreso than Unser did, anyway). Plus, he had Tara's best interests at heart. I imagine something might've developed between them had he stuck around, but I think something must've happened and the actor had to be written out. There seemed to be a lot of sudden exits for characters from the show, like one named Kozik (played by Kenny Johnson, who I know from TONS of stuff). Tig seemed to harbor animosity towards him and kept refusing to vote for him when the rest of the club wanted him to 'patch over' (ie. join their club), and we were only given a hint of where that animosity stemmed from when we heard them talk about someone named 'Missy' in the past tense...who turned out to be a German Shepherd. It would appear Kozik must've had something to do with her apparent death, though he said he 'loved her too' when he and Tig talked about her. Some theorised that he must've entered her in a dog-fighting match - which would certainly explain Tig's emotional reaction when he came across that dog-fighting ring...not that I actually watched it (as I *knew* it was coming after having checked doesthedogdie.com prior to watching the show, which is a handy site to visit if you want a head's up on animal violence in shows/movies, as well as other sorts of things you might want to avoid seeing), averting my eyes just like I did with all the other animal violence/death in the show, but I'd heard about Tig's reaction, so that's how I knew he had an emotional response. I also can't believe Kozik would enter the dog into a dog-fight and then claim he 'loved her too' (as such an action would be the total opposite of what someone who 'loved' a dog would do). Unfortunately, we never got a concrete explanation of what happened between him, Tig and the dog they both loved, as Kozik was unceremoniously blown to bits (one of his arms comically whacking Juice in the face) by a landmine in an episode - which barely even seemed to register on the other characters' radar (according to what Kenny Johnson said on the podcast regarding his abrupt exit, Sutter was being a dick - which seems to be a recurring theme in regards to what various people have said about him). His wasn't the only character this sort of treatment happened to, as the show hardly ever seemed to linger on anyone's deaths.
I thought the show's opening credits were kinda neat, with images of who we could imagine *were* the characters themselves (though they were only parts of them, such as their bare backs, their chests, hands, etc so they were somewhat obscured from view) that would have tattoos on them (in some cases) which would turn into the names of the actors who played them (while in other cases different parts of the images would morph into the actors' names). They were all very fitting, as they kind of 'summed up' who the characters were. By Season 7, the opening credits underwent a significant change as so many castmembers had been killed off, and I kind of resented the image chosen for Drea de Matteo on her behalf, as it was the hand of (presumably) Abel playing with a toy motorcycle. At least with all the rest, we could pretend the images we were seeing were the actors/characters, but the hand of the hellspawn was most certainly NOT Drea de Matteo's/Wendy's - which seemed slightly insulting, I thought). One thing I'll be forever grateful to this show for is the music it introduced me to. Not only the last song played in the closing moments of the final episode, but also these:
Played^ during the opening montage of an episode (which the show had plenty of, as well as closing montages, for episodes throughout its run. Some were better than others and they kind of overdid the musical montages at times). I liked it SO much that I immediately had to listen to it via YouTube. I actually thought it would've been better utilised for the opening of a season final in the show, as it had that slight hint of foreboding (like bad shit was about to go down - which generally happened in every season final), but instead it was used at the beginning of just another normal episode partway into a season (which seemed like kind of a waste to me).
Played^ during an extended scene during the Irish storyline (DIE, LETTERS, DIE!!!) where Jax did his best creepy stalker impression, watching a couple who'd adopted Abel (when he was still an infant and before he turned into the dead-eyed likely-to-become-a-future-serial-killer 5-year-old he was in the last couple of seasons) after he'd been stolen and taken to Ireland. Jax started out fully prepared to take his kid back, but when he saw that Abel was with an obviously kind/caring couple (kudos to these bit-part actors, who didn't get a single line of dialogue, yet had to convey they were the right sort of people to raise Abel through only their body language and interaction with the child - not an easy task, but they did a good job...which made their brutal deaths soon thereafter all the more sad, as they were innocents caught up in the club's war and didn't deserve that. Ironically, if Jax *had* snatched his son back from them, they may have lived), he decided his kid was better off being left with them. It was a good scene, Hunnam once again showed some solid acting (as his whole thought process/all the emotions he went through were conveyed entirely on his face/in his reactions without a word being uttered). I appreciated the show taking the time to let this scene 'breathe', since it wouldn't have worked had it been rushed.
Played^ during one episode's closing montage where Tara was cradling her child whilst having a gun sitting nearby at the ready because she feared Jax would come after her once he learned of her plans to leave with the kids...but without him. Maggie Siff actually sang this whole song (though the way it was used in the episode, we only saw/heard Tara start to sing it, then the rest was played over the montage and people might've thought someone else sung the 'professional' version, but it was ALL her). The show had some really excellent music choices that added a lot to scenes/moments, and I've been listening to these^ repeatedly. I think it took me a couple of seasons to really get into this show, but once I did, I was watching multiple episodes at a time and I can understand how it would've been 'must watch' TV for people at the time it originally aired). I enjoyed the first two seasons the most, the next few seasons were just 'okay', and the last season was pretty dire...but despite its faults, it was a show that I enjoyed watching and I'm glad I bought it (despite knowing very little about it and not having seen any of it previously). Although I'd heard that the spin-off (Mayans M.C.) wasn't as good, towards the end of watching this show, I just felt like I wanted to stick with the SoA-verse a little longer and so I bought the first two seasons of that spin-off on DVD (though, annoyingly, it appears the other seasons haven't been released here and it looks unlikely that they ever will be...so when I do eventually get around to watching my DVDs of it, it'll be an 'unfinished' show for me once I reach the end of Season 2).
It annoyed me how at first he gave his g/f, Tara Knowles, grief for ditching him (which had taken place prior to when the show started), then eventually he worked out the best thing for her and their kids (the first of which he had with his junkie ex-wife, Wendy, who Tara basically adopted/raised as her own, while the second he actually had with Tara) was to get the hell out of the town of Charming (ironically-named, considering all the decidedly non-charming things that went on there), only for him to change his mind after he’d promised to leave with her, and by then she’d fallen so head over heels for him that she stuck around, he kept telling her to go, but it was too late and his mother killed Tara. He also had the nasty habit of treating women like shit at times (like bashing the face of a porn star named Ima Tite - which sounds like a Bond girl's name - into a mirror, threatening her and calling her 'whore' after he'd cheated on Tara with her...which was pretty much the pot calling the kettle black, since Jax was the biggest whore in the show. Poor Ima - whenever she appeared, she seemed to be getting her face bashed in and probably kept having to go get nose jobs from a plastic surgeon who wondered WTF was going on with her. Though even worse than his treatment of Ima was when Jax was shooting Wendy up with drugs after she was starting to get clean) while other times he could actually be quite kind/sensitive towards the ladies (it just depended on how he was feeling at any given time).
While Charlie Hunnam’s American accent did wander/his English accent came through at times (I think it was more noticeable in the later seasons, but I may be misremembering), I will give him credit for really selling the deeply emotional moments his character went through at various points in the series - like the loss of his ‘best friend’, Opie, who sacrificed himself in Season 5 or when he learned of his mother being Tara’s murderer in the final season (and all the innocent people who’d died as a result of the lie she'd used to cover it up, as Jax sought revenge for his wife’s murder and thus many people died - both innocent and guilty). However, the moment that really lived up to all the hype I’d seen regarding Hunnam as an actor on this show was the end of the Season 6 final when he discovered Tara’s body - that was some pretty impressive acting from him, as it felt very 'real' to me (while some actors tend to overact when it comes to conveying grief).
Although he was at his worst in the final season of the show, at least he acknowledged all the shit he’d done/caused and took responsibility for it, even being okay with the club voting for him to ‘meet Mr. Mayhem’ (ie. meet his maker). Of course, then he didn’t actually hang around to *pay* for his sins/suffer the consequences of his actions, but instead attracted the attention of as many cops as he could who pursued him (on his father's motorcycle he'd restored) in a scene reminiscent of The Blues Brothers, then decided his last dickish act would be to have some random trucker played by Michael Chiklis (who'd shared a scene with Jax's mother in the previous episode - making it rather coincidental that Jax just so happened to cross paths with him as well. The scene with Gemma was pretty pointless, so I think they should've just left the Chiklis cameo for the last episode) be responsible for his death by riding straight in front of the poor guy's oncoming semi (which is how his father had apparently died - though throughout the show we were first led to believe it was an accident, then that Jax’s mum and her husband, Clay, were responsible - with him sabotaging the bike and her giving it the ‘OK’, and in the final season someone else told Jax his dad had purposely killed himself).
While I certainly didn’t get all weepy as Jax committed suicide via semi, I actually liked the final scene (and wasn’t even bothered by the ‘bad CGI’ others complained about. I had more of a problem with the ‘murder’ of crows constantly flying by one at a time, as it was on the nose/far too literal). What I think made the final moments of Jax’s life 'work' was the song used, as it seemed fitting/felt 'right' (I'd always imagined that some slow moody version of 'Don't Fear the Reaper' would be used...but this song choice was better). My favourite part of Hunnam's performance as Jax being at peace with dying was two blink-and-you’d-miss-them subtle facial expression moments - one was this look of almost happiness as he got the idea of how he was going to end his life, and the other was this slight grin he had as he put his plan into motion right before he took his hands off the handlebars and went all Jesus pose. I thought it was effective how the music/sound cut out for a second and then we heard the crash without actually seeing any of it, as the final shot of the show instead focused on two crows feeding on some bread (which I didn’t even realise was bread and had to look up what it was supposed to be) by the side of the road before blood seeped towards them (apparently this shot was mirroring the opening of the very first episode - not that I remembered it, due to my shoddy memory). While Jax certainly ended up not being a very good person by the end of the series, at least the show didn’t try to convince us otherwise (as is often the case with characters in shows/movies who are actually horrible, but we’re meant to think of them as ‘good’/’heroes’). I didn’t actually hate Jax at the end...but he really had nowhere else to go. It was the perfect ending for him (how much would it have sucked for him if his poetic suicide had failed, the trucker had avoided him, his bike had slid and he'd gotten caught by the cops then spent the rest of his life in jail?).
Gemma - I’d never watched Married…With Children really, but knew she was in it and that her role in this show was the COMPLETE opposite of that one (I mostly knew her as the voice of Leela in Futurama). I’d also heard about how ‘impressive’ she was in this role of Jax’s mother who was NOT to be messed with and that she was going to have an antagonistic relationship with Tara after she’d left Jax and ‘broke his heart’. For the first season, Gemma and Tara were definitely at odds, but by Season 2 they bonded over shooting the car of one porn star Jax cheated on Tara with and then I was surprised to see them...not exactly become ‘friends’, but become friendlier towards each other, eventually reaching the point where Tara was helping Gemma get through a vicious rape she suffered in the Season 3 premiere, and Gemma actually seemed somewhat ‘nice’ towards Tara. I knew this wouldn't last, but wondered how exactly they got to the point where Gemma would viciously murder Tara (which I'd been spoiled for). Everything started going to hell with the whole Irish storyline (WTF was that about?), as in the season final Tara found letters regarding Gemma and Clay’s apparent involvement in Jax’s dad’s death (which were meant for Jax, sent home inside a bag by a woman who’d been with his dad and given Jax a half-sister as a result...who he almost BONED, though thankfully they didn’t go full Lannister and only snogged before learning they were related. While some people apparently hated this development, I personally found it morbidly amusing). If it wasn’t for those damned letters Tara accidentally happened upon when doing laundry, things might’ve turned out very differently for everyone (like, she’d still be ALIVE...as would probably many others). I blame Jax’s hellspawn that he had with Wendy (Abel), who pulled out one of the letters Tara had hidden in a bag to draw on with crayon which Gemma found and this kickstarted the whole Clay-ordering-a-hit-on-Tara thing, as he didn’t want the truth revealed about his involvement in the death of Jax’s dad.
Gemma seemed the sort who could be a fierce friend if you stayed on her 'good side', but if you got on her bad side she became your worst enemy. Back in the first season, despite her being at odds with Tara, I didn’t mind her as a character (even when she randomly beat up one chick with a skateboard - it was still the kind of crazy behavior that you could shrug off). Where Gemma started becoming really unlikeable was when she’d react without getting all the necessary information first. She’d go crazy, beating people up (or killing them), only to discover later she was mistaken - which was the case with her murder of Tara, having been led to believe Tara had ratted on the club and consequently Jax was going to get sent to jail (when in fact he’d given himself up so Tara and the kids could leave Charming). Gemma was far too possessive of her grandkids (it was weird how she referred to them as 'my boys' and acted like they were her sons. Same with how she eventually started referring to Tara as 'my daughter', after she and Jax got hitched, instead of 'my daughter-in-law') and wasn’t going to let Tara leave with them, being particularly vicious towards her in the Season 5 final, which is why Tara took such drastic actions (faking a pregnancy, then setting Gemma up as having caused the ‘death’ of the unborn child). Things really got out of hand in the Season 6 final when Gemma lost it, beating Tara up with an iron, attempting to drown her in a sink of dirty water, then stabbing her in the back of the head repeatedly with a carving fork. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she then set up some innocent Chinese dude who Jax tortured and eventually ended the life of with a fork of his own to the guy’s cranium in retribution. Gemma really was the overarching ‘villain’ of the entire series, since so much of the shit that went down was because of her.
Frustratingly, we didn’t even get to enjoy Gemma's eventual demise in the second-last episode of the series, as she actually got to dictate to Jax (after he’d learned the truth) the 'when and where' of how she died, getting to be amongst the garden of her old home and at peace (there was a whole storyline involving her father who had Alzheimer's which was well done, but that didn't excuse her actions...it just made me feel for her poor dad, since I have family with that disease myself). When Jax hesitated to shoot the MURDERER OF HIS WIFE, I was like, “Oh, COME ON!!” and Gemma actually had to give him her blessing/the go ahead to do it before he finally shot her through the back of the head (which was far too quick a death for her. She got off easy, when she should’ve suffered like she made Tara suffer, damn it!). I guess one of the ‘perks’ of being wife to the show’s creator/showrunner was that the show really did become all about *her* in the end (to the detriment of not only the other actors/characters, but the show as a whole). While I won’t deny that Katey Sagal certainly impressed in the role, her character just became TOO MUCH as the series went on. Everything was about her (even stuff that should’ve been about other characters), and it kinda ruined things.
Tara - I knew Maggie Siff previously from Mad Men and she was one of the main reasons I wanted to check this show out. I liked that she played someone who was primarily a *good* person (a doctor), but who would help out the club whenever they needed her (seriously, SO many of them would’ve been royally screwed without her since she patched up numerous club members whenever they received injuries as a result of the shit they got up to). However, over the course of the show, she gradually started compromising her principles, whether it was indulging her anger (the shooting of a car, as previously mentioned, or beating up of her boss at work who tried to fire her but later became her closest friend/confidant, which I wasn’t expecting. A shame we never got to see her reaction to Tara’s death. She was played by a relative of Katey Sagal, interestingly enough). Slowly the ‘good person’ Tara had been kinda morphed into a younger Gemma who would do whatever she needed to protect her kids/get them away from the dangers of the club (even if it meant doing highly questionable things). Unlike apparently a lot of people who watched the show, I never hated Tara. I was more or less on her side throughout the show up to and including her violent death (which she DIDN’T deserve). Considering at one point Gemma had threatened her, taking glee in the thought of her being ‘fist-raped’ in prison (which, thankfully, didn't end up happening and instead Tara beat the snot out of some bitch who stole her blanket. Tara got sent to jail thanks to a member of the club named Otto - played by show creator/showrunner Kurt Sutter - who 'took one for the team' by being in prison and suffering horribly, losing an eye, getting raped, etc...but once he learned one of the other club members on the outside had boned his wife and that she got beaten to death by I forget who, he turned on the club and tricked Tara into bringing him a crucifix he used to kill a nurse and set Tara up as aiding/abetting in the murder which resulted in her arrest) I couldn’t really blame her for what she did in regards to setting Gemma up. Plus, there seemed to be this weird incest-y vibe going on with Gemma in regards to her son, where it felt like she was fighting Tara for 'possession' of Jax (this was none more obvious than in the the Season 4 final where Tara held her arm over him like she was saying to Gemma, "He's mine, bitch. Back off." which was a direct reference to a photograph of young Gemma doing the same arm move with Jax's dad. In the Season 5 final Gemma did it again with Jax as Tara got carted off to prison).
It’s just too bad that they eventually became enemies again after all they'd been through, as they were pretty cool together when they were getting along and helping each other. It’s a shame they didn’t have ghosts in this show (though they had a homeless woman 'Angel of Death' occasionally appear - who I didn't even twig to until I listened to the first of many commentaries on the DVDs with the show's cast, though eventually those started dwindling to the point where in the final season there were no commentaries whatsoever...which I imagine was because they weren't getting along by the sounds of the behind the scenes goings on - which was what many had theorised she was supposed to be, but there was never a clear answer given, though we did discover she looked like the woman who was killed in the crash that also claimed the life of Jax's dad, as a photo of her was shown at one point and Jax recognised the face after having seen her at various points...so it would seem she was some sort of entity who appeared to Jax, and eventually Gemma, when deaths of characters were imminent - including Jax and Gemma's own deaths. She got a line in the final episode when she told Jax "It's time.", before providing him with a handy blanket that he used to look like a reaper - the club's symbol - whilst posing as a homeless person himself, before blowing away a villain as part of his tying up loose ends), as it would’ve been neat/pretty funny to see Ghost Tara with a fork sticking out of her head, as I saw people suggesting in regards to the final season of the show when Gemma was seemingly talking to herself (but was apparently supposed to be talking to Tara, who wasn’t there - I guess either because they couldn’t get Maggie Siff back or because dead characters turning up as ghosts was too ‘out there’ for this show. Though, really, at least that would’ve provided some entertainment value, whereas Gemma just talking to herself with no one else visibly there just seemed like an excuse for the showrunner to give his wife monologues - because not enough screentime was spent on her already). Yes, Tara ‘used’ Jax to help her get rid of her creepy stalker in Season 1 (and it’d seem that having sex in the same room as dead people, or after having just made people be dead, was a consistent character trait with Jax, as he and Tara boned after he blew away her stalker in Season 1 and then he had sex with Wendy after having only just offed two people including his own mum hours earlier in the final season. I guess the thought of dead people got Jax going? Ew). While Tara may have been regarded as 'annoying' or 'boring' by some people, I sympathised with her character and understood where she was coming from with her, at times, highly questionable actions. Maggie Siff was consistently great throughout the six seasons she appeared in and was one of the best actors in the show, I thought (I felt she didn't get nearly enough of the credit she deserved, as other actors in the series played more 'showy' roles which got them more attention but she really brought raw, believable emotion to all her scenes).
Clay - I remember that I’d caught a tiny bit of one episode of this show when it was on TV here where I saw Ron Perlman’s character with breathing tubes stuck up his nose and had wondered how far into the series that was when I started watching the show on DVD. Turns out, it was by Season 5 (after he’d been shot by Opie, who was getting revenge against Clay because he’d shot his dad, Piney, in the chest with a shotgun all thanks to those damned letters). While Clay wasn’t exactly a likeable guy, Ron Perlman was endlessly watchable in the role (though, to me, he’ll always be Vincent from the Linda Hamilton Beauty and the Beast series I watched when I was young). Having been listening to a podcast with two of the actors from the show where they recap/review every episode...I’ve gathered from stuff they’ve said - as well as other actors they've had appear on the podcast - in regards to the showrunner, Kurt Sutter, that he was a major dick to Perlman (among others), and I wonder if Sutter resented him because of all the scenes with Ron getting it on with Katey Sagal since they played husband and wife - though that’d be a stupid reason to resent Perlman, since Sutter was the one who *wrote* all those sex scenes between them. Alternatively, maybe Katey Sagal wanted a ‘better-looking’ onscreen sex partner and that’s why Clay got the shaft in Season 6 (hardly appearing in the season, and when he did, it was confined to a jail setting until he finally got broken out...only to be shot by Jax and become a scapegoat), as she ‘upgraded’ to Jimmy Smits who played the character of Nero from Season 5 onwards. It’s a shame what was done to the Clay character (ie. making him unforgivably ‘villainous’) in the later seasons, as he wasn’t ‘all bad’ in the early seasons and actually had complexity about him. I enjoyed the few instances of one-on-one scenes we got between him and Tara...until that all went to shit (damn you, letters!), as he was usually pretty nice to her. I think the real character assassination of him came when he beat the shit out of Gemma, as he'd always seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't actually go that far. Sutter made him far too 'one-note' in the later seasons and it was a waste of not only what started out as a really good nuanced character, but also the excellent Ron Perlman who deserved a much better send-off/death in the show.
Chibs - I’d seen Tommy Flanagan in various movie roles, but not in a TV role (to my recollection). I spent a lot of the time struggling to understand half of what he was saying, I didn’t care for his estranged wife or kid when we met them (it was a joke when Gemma built up his wife as being the ‘only’ woman she was scared of, as the character didn’t live up to the promise of someone who’d scare Gemma and they had to make Gemma throw a lazy swing at her and have her punch Gemma in the gut to show she was a match for her, but it stank of trying too hard and she barely left an impression, imho), then in the final season Chibs got saddled with a lame romance involving the latest town Sheriff (played by Annabeth Gish, who always seems to get stuck playing these unlikeable characters. I still can’t tell if she’s a sucky actress or just has sucky roles written for her) which reached embarrassing lows during a scene where she demanded he prove his feelings for her and they screwed on the hood of a police car (all I could think of during it was the “You had SEX with Giles? You had SEX WITH GILES? On the hood of a police car?? TWICE?!” quote from Buffy to her mum in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3 episode ‘Earshot’). In the final episode, though, he seemed to have gotten what he wanted from her and threatened her, which wasn’t a real good look for the character (though, naturally, some people enjoyed that moment). Tommy Flanagan didn’t get a whole lot to do much of the time, but when he did he was quite good (especially in the emotional scenes his character had when members of the club were dying off, etc).
Tig - Kim Coates (one of the two actors who do the show podcast) was someone who I’d seen in various things but didn’t even know the name of until pretty late (whenever I saw his name come up in credits for shows/movies, I always assumed it was the name of an actress as I haven't seen too many guys named 'Kim'). His character here was the ‘weirdo’ of the club and I think was actually responsible for almost as much bad shit that happened as Jax and Gemma were. This started near the end of Season 1 when Clay was led to believe that Opie had ratted on the club and ordered Tig to off Opie in a drive-by, but Tig didn’t even bother to check to MAKE SURE it was Opie driving the car he rode up behind on his bike and consequently he offed Opie’s wife, Donna (who he’d switched cars with at the last minute), by mistake. This kicked off a whole thing with Opie, Clay and the one who’d set Opie up (an ATF agent by the name of June Stahl played by Abby Walker who I knew of from the 90’s TV series Profiler - not that I ever watched that show, but there was a crossover with it and a show I *did* watch called The Pretender, so I knew of her via that. I liked her in the role on this show, as she played a good 'villain' who was someone that *should've* been the 'good guy', but like a lot of 'good guys' on this show, ended up sinking to the level of the 'bad guys' in her pursuit of taking down the club. She was easily the best of all the law enforcement characters in the show. While some might've been annoyed by it, I personally found Ally Walker's way of speaking whilst in character to be interesting/compelling), and unlike most viewers...I actually felt a twinge of sympathy for her when she eventually met her end whereas pretty much everyone else was cheering her demise). Eventually, Tig came clean to Opie...but only received a moderate beating from him as payback (while Clay didn’t even get that much. Though I think Opie tried to shoot him, but was stopped...he would later succeed in shooting him, but not killing him, in a later season after he learned Clay offed his dad, Piney). When Opie eventually paid Stahl back by killing her in much the same way as Donna was killed - ie. shot in the back of the head with a load of bullets whilst inside a car - I thought it was somewhat unfair to put ALL of the blame for Donna’s death solely on her when, really, Clay and Tig were just as much to blame (Clay for ordering the hit and Tig for carrying it out without even being sure of who he was killing). Yes, Stahl started the whole thing off by setting Opie up to get what she needed, but the other two were the ones who made Donna's death actually happen. So, by all rights, when Opie was telling Stahl, “This is what she felt.” (in reference to Donna, before he blasted the back of Stahl’s head), he also should’ve done the same to Tig (and to a lesser extent, Clay) since it was at Tig’s hand that Donna’s life was ended.
It seemed to me that Tig earned a ‘pass’ throughout the show, no matter what shit he was responsible for, because he was well-liked by the audience. He really only had himself to blame for his daughter’s death, when he thought another club was responsible for Clay getting shot and once again, before getting all the facts, he took action by crazily driving towards a member of that other club whose g/f died as an unintended result (Tig was making a habit of unintentionally killing the wrong people by this point) and then her father (who was built up as the biggest, baddest mofo...but was actually pretty lame/boring, played by the "WAAAAALT!!!" actor from Lost. His righthand man was actually much more effective and thankfully took over once Tig killed the guy who killed his daughter) got revenge against Tig by burning one of his two daughters alive in a pit by a railroad (I’d totally imagined this scene playing out a bit differently when I’d heard about it prior to ever watching the show. I also thought Coates made a questionable acting choice moaning “Oh, baby...” over and over even when his daughter was SET ALIGHT. To my way of thinking, him screaming “NOOOOOO!!!!” should’ve happened at that point. Ah well, I was glad to see the actress who played Meg 2.0 in Supernatural bite the dust, as I never liked her much in that show and she was unlikeable in this show too). What I liked about Tig was his love of animals, especially dogs (one of which he rescued from a dog-fighting ring. I only wish when the bastard who ran the thing was locked in a car with one of the dogs, that they'd kept him locked in there for the dog to rip to pieces. Instead he just suffered some moderate injuries and was allowed to live - albeit in humiliation). Tig had numerous 'quirks' to him (like being afraid of dolls), though I was surprised people were so happy to see him get involved with a member of the LGBTQ+ community (before that group added more letters) named Venus, since it was basically suggesting that the ONLY person who could be interested in someone like Venus was a weirdo like Tig. Shouldn't that have offended people more than made them happy (the message seemingly being "Only weirdos would like someone like that!")? There's no denying that Walton Goggins did a good job in the role of Venus (making the character feel like a real person rather than a caricature as others might've played the part), but considering the club had a rule about no 'black guys' being members (which only got changed in the final episode as one of Jax's last acts as Club President), you'd think they'd also have rules about club members being with someone who was LGBTQ+...but other than some teasing towards Tig, they were actually pretty openminded in regards to it (even happily giving him the go-ahead to off other people who weren't so openminded).
Juice - It took me a while to even learn the names of most of the club members (though I'd read about Juice prior to watching the show, and all I could think was what a dumb name that was for a character. No, it wasn’t his actual birth name...but it was still a dumb nickname. Tig and Chibs weren’t much better. Really, ‘Jax’ was the only cool-sounding name of anyone in the club). Theo Rossi is the other person who does the show podcast with Kim Coates, and from having listened to six seasons' worth of him commenting on the show...he sounds like someone who resented how underutilised his character was in the early seasons - but, honestly, those were the only seasons where I didn't mind his character. When he actually got some *focus* in Season 4 and onwards, I found the storyline he was given was pretty 'meh' (he was threatened by the Sheriff at the time - not Annabeth Gish's character, as she came later - who wanted him to be a rat against the club, and if Juice refused, it'd be made known to the club that his father was *gasp* BLACK - which was a big no-no regarding being a member of the club, apparently. Which was a bizarre rule, considering Juice and another ironically-named club member called Happy - who was anything but happy the majority of the time - were both non-white members themselves. But I guess that was regarded differently to being black). This blackmail by the Sheriff (who himself was black) led to Juice ratting on the club, setting up another innocent club member for a crime Juice himself had committed and offing the poor dude which he claimed was 'self-defense'. His worst sin, however, was him shooting the Sheriff (but he didn't shoot the Deputy! Not that I can remember, anyway) in the Season 6 final to help cover up Gemma's murder of Tara (this was only after a brief talking with Gemma, which somehow was enough to make him loyal to her - because apparently EVERYONE just loved Gemma). Early in the series Juice seemed like an okay guy, but from Season 4 onwards he became someone I didn't like and by the final season I was well and truly ready for him to die. He, like Gemma, got to dictate when he died and he went out on more or less his own terms...but at least he didn't go as easily as she did (instead of receiving a quick bullet to the brain, he was stabbed repeatedly and died choking on his own blood). I've seen that Juice was a lot of people's favourite character from the show, but he became one of the WORST club members for me (the only worthwhile thing he did was tell Jax the truth about Gemma killing Tara and his helping her cover it up).
Opie, Piney, Bobby & Unser - I didn't actually know what to make of these characters for a good portion of the show. Bobby was probably the most 'decent' one, as he offered some sage advice to other characters (not that they often listened to him). Though he *was* responsible for Otto turning against the club, so he wasn't without his faults. In the final season he got captured, then tortured (losing an eye and fingers, as well as having his jaw broken) before finally getting shot dead in front of Jax. I mostly knew the guy who played Bobby from Batman Begins. Opie was someone who I couldn't really make my mind up about for the longest time, as he didn't really seem to 'emote' much (except when Donna died or he went after those responsible for her and his dad's deaths). He could be a cheating dick at times, which resulted in the SHORTEST MARRIAGE EVER on the show (after he wed one of the club's porn stars named Lyla - who had first been with Jax), and for a BFF of Jax...he didn't seem too BFF-like (more often siding with Clay against Jax...that was until he learned of Clay's involvement in Donna's death). Honestly, Opie's beard and long hair (which was covered up by his signature beanie most of the time in the early seasons) left more of an impression on me than Opie himself did, but at least he got to go out sacrificing himself for his BFF, Jax (as well as Tig & Chibs), which ended with him receiving a fatal blow to the back of the head with a lead pipe. Opie's dad, Piney, was even less of note to me than Opie was, as he didn't really seem to do a whole lot (I rolled my eyes at one line of his about the club being 'the good guys', considering a lot of the shit they did was most decidedly not 'good'). In the end he tried to protect Tara against Clay (DAMN YOU, LETTERS!) and met his end standing up to him. Unser was the Police Chief for the first three seasons who was on the club's payroll and looked the other way when they got up to questionable shit (which was most of the time), while also acting morally superior to the club, voicing his dissatisfaction with their actions but not really doing anything to stop it. He really sank to the club's level in the Season 3 final when he helped set up Stahl to be executed. After that, he retired but still somehow stayed involved in club business (though it felt like the show struggled to find a use for him. I was amused by his nickname of 'Uncle Touchy' when he wound up playing babysitter for the kids - which he pointed out to Gemma was a highly inappropriate nickname for him, but she said that's why she liked it). He'd always had a thing for Gemma, but it became clear how little she felt the same way about him in the episode where he died when he was trying to protect her from Jax, Jax shot him in the chest (doing what Unser's cancer couldn't/seemed to be taking its sweet time doing - ie. ending his life) and then both Jax and Gemma proceeded to act like Unser's corpse wasn't right there beside them as they reminisced about old family photos, before Gemma's death (so Unser really died for nothing in his effort to protect her). I didn't mind Unser in the beginning, but by the end he was another character who I wasn't sad to see go as he was kinda too dumb to live.
Other Characters - This show's attempts at 'humour' could at times fall flat, as was often the case with the character of Chuckie...who was a chronic masturbator. He was good as a one-off laugh in the first season, but then they made him a recurring character who had all but his index fingers removed by the Chinese, then was gifted wooden hands (by Gemma, I think), and it seemed the show struggled to find a purpose for him other than having some random new 'quirk' every episode (be it speaking French or playing a damn KAZOO) - most of which were more annoying than 'funny'. I could've lived without his character (his attempt at a 'catchphrase' - "I accept that." felt too try-hard, imho). The club had various 'Prospects' (ie. those whose joining the club was pending approval), most of whom I didn't even really know the names of nor care about. The only two who I did know the names of/sort of cared about were the first Prospect in the show, Half-Sack (who died protecting Tara and Jax's hellspawn in the Season 2 final against the Irish dude who stole it and sent them on that whole mission to Ireland - seriously WTF?? You could tell the show was getting off-track when they travelled to frickin' IRELAND. Yes, it did lead to stuff that impacted later seasons...but hardly seemed worth it, like they could've reached the same result without a journey to Ireland), and then in the last few seasons another Prospect called Ratboy. All the rest were pretty forgettable (though Filthy Phil seemed like a decent guy, who unfortunately was one of two Prospects shot in the head, then dismembered to send a message to the club from one of their many enemies throughout the course of the show).
Jimmy Smits is an actor I find easily likeable...but after he was introduced as Nero in Season 5, he quickly seemed to become someone whose world/role revolved mainly around Gemma, he sort of served as older 'mentor'-type figure to Jax (who he didn't exactly listen to as often as he should've) and by the end I thought Smits was being pretty wasted on the show playing a character who didn't seem to have much of a point...but at least he got to LIVE, leaving town with Wendy and the kids. Speaking of Wendy, despite being played by Drea de Matteo (who I like), I wasn't fond of her character when she first appeared since she was kind of a 'rival' for Tara in regards to Jax (though he made it quite clear to her that he only had eyes for Tara). I also didn't think it made much sense for Gemma to seemingly rather have Wendy (the junkie) as a daughter-in-law than Tara...but this was back when she hated Tara's guts. However, when Wendy returned in the later seasons, although she could be annoying with listening to Gemma and going against Tara, it was hard not to feel sorry for her after Jax treated her like shit (the previously-mentioned shooting her up with drugs against her will being the prime example) and eventually she was in on Tara's plan to set Gemma up (unfortunately for Tara, everyone she recruited as part of her plan easily caved and it didn't even last longer than an episode or two before everyone knew about it). In the end, Wendy was certainly no Tara...but she also ended up being one of the least terrible characters in the show.
Another was Lyla, who started off as a porn star for the club (as they were in the porn business) who Jax cheated on with Tara with and thus I didn't like her in the beginning, but when she and Tara eventually became friendly to each other (she even slapped someone else Jax cheated on Tara with - I think Ima - on behalf of Tara, who saw her do this and later thanked her), I tolerated Lyla more. I also felt sorry for her that Opie self-sabotaged their marriage (yes, she had an abortion...but so what? I get sick of characters in shows who either go to get one but end up changing their minds, or if they *do* go through with it, they're vilified. She did what she had to do given her situation, plus she wound up saddled with Opie's kids on top of her own once they became orphaned - she had more than enough on her plate. I was amused that she ended up running the club's porn business in the end and directing the 'movies' she once starred in (one of the only genuinely funny moments in the final season was the 'Skankenstein' movie we got to see part of) and I was glad she survived, since she'd been through so much crap.
Porn stars and prostitutes seemed to make up a decent amount of the female guest stars on this show. It was fun to see Ashley Tisdale (mostly known for being a Disney actress) playing an escort...who Gemma beat up because she was with Clay, and then in the final season Inbar Lavi (who I knew from the shows Imposters and Lucifer) guest-starred in two episodes as a prostitute who Jax, naturally, got it on with.
There was a semi-decent cop character named Hale, who was Unser's Deputy until he got plowed down by drive-by shooters in the first episode of Season 3. He seemed like he was an antagonist to the club in the beginning, but he actually wasn't a bad guy and at least tried to do the right thing (moreso than Unser did, anyway). Plus, he had Tara's best interests at heart. I imagine something might've developed between them had he stuck around, but I think something must've happened and the actor had to be written out. There seemed to be a lot of sudden exits for characters from the show, like one named Kozik (played by Kenny Johnson, who I know from TONS of stuff). Tig seemed to harbor animosity towards him and kept refusing to vote for him when the rest of the club wanted him to 'patch over' (ie. join their club), and we were only given a hint of where that animosity stemmed from when we heard them talk about someone named 'Missy' in the past tense...who turned out to be a German Shepherd. It would appear Kozik must've had something to do with her apparent death, though he said he 'loved her too' when he and Tig talked about her. Some theorised that he must've entered her in a dog-fighting match - which would certainly explain Tig's emotional reaction when he came across that dog-fighting ring...not that I actually watched it (as I *knew* it was coming after having checked doesthedogdie.com prior to watching the show, which is a handy site to visit if you want a head's up on animal violence in shows/movies, as well as other sorts of things you might want to avoid seeing), averting my eyes just like I did with all the other animal violence/death in the show, but I'd heard about Tig's reaction, so that's how I knew he had an emotional response. I also can't believe Kozik would enter the dog into a dog-fight and then claim he 'loved her too' (as such an action would be the total opposite of what someone who 'loved' a dog would do). Unfortunately, we never got a concrete explanation of what happened between him, Tig and the dog they both loved, as Kozik was unceremoniously blown to bits (one of his arms comically whacking Juice in the face) by a landmine in an episode - which barely even seemed to register on the other characters' radar (according to what Kenny Johnson said on the podcast regarding his abrupt exit, Sutter was being a dick - which seems to be a recurring theme in regards to what various people have said about him). His wasn't the only character this sort of treatment happened to, as the show hardly ever seemed to linger on anyone's deaths.
I thought the show's opening credits were kinda neat, with images of who we could imagine *were* the characters themselves (though they were only parts of them, such as their bare backs, their chests, hands, etc so they were somewhat obscured from view) that would have tattoos on them (in some cases) which would turn into the names of the actors who played them (while in other cases different parts of the images would morph into the actors' names). They were all very fitting, as they kind of 'summed up' who the characters were. By Season 7, the opening credits underwent a significant change as so many castmembers had been killed off, and I kind of resented the image chosen for Drea de Matteo on her behalf, as it was the hand of (presumably) Abel playing with a toy motorcycle. At least with all the rest, we could pretend the images we were seeing were the actors/characters, but the hand of the hellspawn was most certainly NOT Drea de Matteo's/Wendy's - which seemed slightly insulting, I thought). One thing I'll be forever grateful to this show for is the music it introduced me to. Not only the last song played in the closing moments of the final episode, but also these:
Played^ during the opening montage of an episode (which the show had plenty of, as well as closing montages, for episodes throughout its run. Some were better than others and they kind of overdid the musical montages at times). I liked it SO much that I immediately had to listen to it via YouTube. I actually thought it would've been better utilised for the opening of a season final in the show, as it had that slight hint of foreboding (like bad shit was about to go down - which generally happened in every season final), but instead it was used at the beginning of just another normal episode partway into a season (which seemed like kind of a waste to me).
Played^ during an extended scene during the Irish storyline (DIE, LETTERS, DIE!!!) where Jax did his best creepy stalker impression, watching a couple who'd adopted Abel (when he was still an infant and before he turned into the dead-eyed likely-to-become-a-future-serial-killer 5-year-old he was in the last couple of seasons) after he'd been stolen and taken to Ireland. Jax started out fully prepared to take his kid back, but when he saw that Abel was with an obviously kind/caring couple (kudos to these bit-part actors, who didn't get a single line of dialogue, yet had to convey they were the right sort of people to raise Abel through only their body language and interaction with the child - not an easy task, but they did a good job...which made their brutal deaths soon thereafter all the more sad, as they were innocents caught up in the club's war and didn't deserve that. Ironically, if Jax *had* snatched his son back from them, they may have lived), he decided his kid was better off being left with them. It was a good scene, Hunnam once again showed some solid acting (as his whole thought process/all the emotions he went through were conveyed entirely on his face/in his reactions without a word being uttered). I appreciated the show taking the time to let this scene 'breathe', since it wouldn't have worked had it been rushed.
Played^ during one episode's closing montage where Tara was cradling her child whilst having a gun sitting nearby at the ready because she feared Jax would come after her once he learned of her plans to leave with the kids...but without him. Maggie Siff actually sang this whole song (though the way it was used in the episode, we only saw/heard Tara start to sing it, then the rest was played over the montage and people might've thought someone else sung the 'professional' version, but it was ALL her). The show had some really excellent music choices that added a lot to scenes/moments, and I've been listening to these^ repeatedly. I think it took me a couple of seasons to really get into this show, but once I did, I was watching multiple episodes at a time and I can understand how it would've been 'must watch' TV for people at the time it originally aired). I enjoyed the first two seasons the most, the next few seasons were just 'okay', and the last season was pretty dire...but despite its faults, it was a show that I enjoyed watching and I'm glad I bought it (despite knowing very little about it and not having seen any of it previously). Although I'd heard that the spin-off (Mayans M.C.) wasn't as good, towards the end of watching this show, I just felt like I wanted to stick with the SoA-verse a little longer and so I bought the first two seasons of that spin-off on DVD (though, annoyingly, it appears the other seasons haven't been released here and it looks unlikely that they ever will be...so when I do eventually get around to watching my DVDs of it, it'll be an 'unfinished' show for me once I reach the end of Season 2).