Shakespeare on a Hog: The Sons of Anarchy thread

I'm hearing amazing things about the second season. Fans of the show, convince me this is worth my time.

well then, guess it has fallen to me to watch every episode and then report back. if you want something done right etc...

It's been pretty good this year, if very uncomfortable for much of it. Tonight's extra-long episode in particular was pretty good, delivering a bomb that we've been waiting for all season. Kind of surprised there wasn't a SOA thread already.

I don't know if I would push this show to everyone. The main three actors were totally enough for me to stick with it, and I'm glad I did despite much slowness in the first season, they've only gotten better and better as the show has moved on. Also you've got to be into its weird sense of politics. It's pretty slow burn, even more so this year, it feels, but it's definitely great to see things come together towards the end of the season.

If anyone saw it, man, the final scene in tonight's episode was pretty heartbreaking.

I've been watching this since the beginning and it's one of my must-sees. Yes it's formulaic and the biker Sopranos/Shakespeare description isn't too off the mark, but like Nhex says its the actors who keep me with it. Katey Sagal should be winning Emmys.

Kurt Sutter's blog is worth reading: http://sutterink.blogspot.com/

If this is formulaic, I need to be watching more formulaic stuff, because this show is damn good. Tonight's episode was truly great stuff.

Katey Sagal from "Married with Children"? Wow! Haven't heard of this, will have to tell my biker brother.

need the gay porn version

Good show and worth watching. Start from the beginning. A few tweaks and this could've been on HBO

Huh. Just like last year, great build-up to the end, then suddenly it's disappointingly anticlimactic. Damn cliffhangers...

We're halfway through this and I really do love it. Also: lol @ Northern California. Funny because it's true :/

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/05/06/exclusive-stephen-king-to-appear-on-sons-of-anarchy/

Stephen King will make a special appearance on Sons of Anarchy when the biker drama returns for a third season on FX this September. King, who is a columnist for Entertainment Weekly, will play a quiet loner who appears in Gemma’s (Katey Sagal) time of need. The producers learned that King was a fan of the drama, so they reached out to the author for a possible cameo. King will appear in the third episode.

that should be awkward

This starts in like 15 minutes iirc.

Never saw the last two episodes of Season 2. Gonna jump in anyway.

Ok does anyone want to fill me in on what happened with Henry Rollins and his white pride cru.

Finally got around to watching the first episode of season 3. Good grief, once it gets dark they keep turning off more lights.

lol bachman cameo

Finished Season 1 finally, about to start S2...I'm glad I invested the time, this show is really fucking good.

also just finished s1 and excited to start s2. it's getting better and better as it goes along. i think clay is the most well-drawn character so far. jax as earnest dude with true love and gemma as mother hen who will do anything for family aren't quite as interesting to me. not yet anyway. katey sagal in particular is awesome though!

i hope they develop the anarchy part more. first emma goldman quote in a TV drama?

lol i didn't realize Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original Chapter = SAMCRO until i just checked wikipedia

my favorite show on tv.

Gemma's character gets much more depth in S2.

Have just started S3. Holy O_O

Also my crush on Opie is reaching unmanageable levels :D

my wife is in love with hunnam and his naked ass. me...not so much. I do love me a little Tara though.

why cant they show her ass once.

I liked s1 and loved s2 up until the finale. s3 has kinda lost me tbh, I watch every now and then but it doesn't seem as good to me as it used to.

yeah this season has been a bit of a let down for me so far.

Jax's ass = very good tv imo.

Tara's great, it was a little weird at first not thinking of her as Rachel Mencken from Mad Men

jax is hott for sure. do wish this was hbo

aw man... wish i saw tig when he was stanley in streetcar

Yeah I gotta say s3 has been a let down so far. But hoping it will pick up when the gang hits Ireland.

Looks like Tig played lead in Macbeth too? How cool would that be. Love that guy.

I love all those moments with Tig where he reveals all of his perversions. Like at the stables when he's petting the horse, or at the morgue with the dead body, and Clay's always "I don't wanna know"

Tig is one of my favorite characters. At first i did not find tara attractive at all, she grew on me.

Oh ms vegemite, wait until you see last weeks "ending". My wife broke out in sweats.

:D

I fell in love with Tara when her & Gemma shoot up the porn star's hybrid. That was when I knew she was my gal

its amazing how much ron perlman looks like a beast.

I think about that all the time, like "Hey he was Vincent"

And also I can easily imagine Hellboy as the leader of an outlaw motorcycle gang

this show has also pushed me closer to buying a harley. especially since they replay that godamn commercial where they advertise harleys for $8995.

Just put your kid up as collateral. (Then break through the wall on said Harley, steal your kid back and hit the road to live the dream.)

good idea.

I notice motorcycles a lot more now, and I find myself staring at bikers patches a lot

I've always wanted a motorbike in theory, but I'm such a klutz irl that this would be a very bad idea for me

IM SO CONFUSED BY SEASON 3. WTF IS THE DEAL WITH THE PRIEST AND JIMMY!

I'm two episodes behind, so it might be getting better, but I think spreading this to Belfast on top of Gemma going away is a problem.

Things are finally coming together, we finally get now who's on what side and so on. I love that they're so obviously trying to get Katey an Emmy. Lots of great delivery by Jax this episode, too... "My mother".

lol @ the Irish trad version of the opening theme song. a little hammy, sure, but far superior to the orig. imo

I never knew that the actress who plays Maureen (the Deadwood/Caprica chick, Paula Malcomson) was a for real Irish gal, born in Belfast and the whole thing.

finally figured out who the actress is that plays Chib's daughter:

http://thegreenloopblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/qorianka_the_new_world.jpg

it's weird to me to see someone on this thread say Gemma gets better in season 2, to me she was immediately the most compelling character on the show. man, the actors have to sell some stupid dialogue on this show sometimes, though -- like, saying "secret babies are a bad idea" with a straight face, jeez.

Well, it's a pretty hammy show so that dialogue kind of works. I seem to always be running 3 or 4 episodes behind. I just have no motivation to watch it week in, week out. At some point I'll get bored and catch up. I usually enjoy it when I do, but then come Tuesday I still can't be bothered.

this season is moving incredibly slowly, you're probably making the right decision. still, i'm enjoying it - not really sure how it stacks up vs. last year yet, i guess the finale will really decide it (so, probably lesser)

lol @ the Irish trad version of the opening theme song. a little hammy, sure, but far superior to the orig. imo

My husband would agree.

I had a biker come into our shop the other week. THE EXACT SAME FUCKING PATCHES. I mean of course not sons of anarchy or samcro on it, but same style. WTF. Alas he didn't look like Jax. Or maybe for the best or I'd have jumped him. hihi

I don't know, I really like this season as well, but it IS indeed going very slowly.

I loved how that woman from the hospital had a MAJOR TATTOO on her back. Can't wait to find out how that works out.

she was probably someones old lady at some point. i think she sees a bit of herself in Tara.

gonna wait for s3 to finish before watching so i can binge again.

it's weird to me to see someone on this thread say Gemma gets better in season 2, to me she was immediately the most compelling character on the show.

i thought the character and the old lady dynamic were compelling from the start, but she got much more depth in s2 - her fears, growing relationship with tara, etc.

everyone otm about hamminess. i can see it turning some people off. in the beginning i groaned, but it's part of the charm now for sure.

yeah it's totally part and parcel of the show, but there are always moments here and there (the "secret babies" line, the speeches in the s1 finale) where it gets too much for me. and yeah, i guess what Gemma went through in s2 was big as far as developing that character.

i'm only in the middle of the first season, but this run of events was pretty good:

1. SOA burn the back tattoo off their former member
2. katey segal picks up a nearby skateboard and wallops the girl who clay slept with in the face
3. girl says, 'who are you??? why did you do that to me????'
4. septic tank full of contraband guns is emptied out into the parking lot, SOA members wretching

Gemma with the skateboard is k-lassic!

Still love Gemma & Tara shooting the porn star's Prius. Chicks with guns, man. LOVE. IT.

this show and Terriers are neck-and-neck right now, i think, for being macho FX shows mainly about guys that have pretty well drawn and/or intriguing female characters

I'm falling way behind, and considering giving up altogether. Should I persist? And why is Kurt Sutter saying fan dissatisfaction over this season has to do with male genitalia?

"Another two minutes and I would have been dancing in Tig territory."

Sonny Barger, one of the founders of the original Hells Angels Oakland chapter to star in season finale

mother fucking Fallon.

BRILLIANT EPISODE. the whole sun kil moon thing killed me.

it was good overall, but that sequence... ugh... especially when the husband stopped to give to the homeless person.

I actually thought that scene was well done.. For me, the heavy-handed THUD landed when Jimmy's henchman sprayed brains & blood all over the wall-mounted crucifix (w/ second, lingering camera shot, to really drive home symbolism).

overall, great ep tho. I was unsure of this season, given the pacing, but they've done a good job of tying everything up in the last few imo.

gemma and the baby...wow. she gets shit done.

heh yeah that was great

has she won an emmy for this show? she's fantastic.

holy crap @ scene leading into opening credits

looking back at it, this season has been GLOOMY AS FUCK (not a bad thing at all, tho I still prefer the relentless forward motion of S2). At least you've gotta hand it to the showrunners for not sanding down the edges & playing it up as a more straightforward action-adventure (w/ HEAVY THEMES), which they could have easily gotten away with after the boost in popularity last season.

trying not to read this thread for fear of spoilers but i'm way behind (i've not seen the episode before the 90 minute one and anything further than that) but I'm also not feeling motivated to watch it at all. someone tell me it's worth it.

holy crap @ scene leading into opening credits - <SPOILER> OK, that was a cheap trick.

Gukbe - how did you feel about some of the later Sopranos seasons that were heavy on existential brooding and (relatively) light on action & seemed to be a bit of a drag, except when the threads finally came together in the final 3-4 episodes, the slog seemed (at least somewhat) warranted? Your answer to this question should determine how you proceed.

I loved the latter Sopranos seasons, but this show is most definitely not The Sopranos. But I take your point, so I'll give it a real go this week.

oh, I wasn't comparing the quality of writing, mind - just general thematic & dramatic similarities (which are surely not accidental).

one hell of a season finale

agreed. i loved loved, chibs and opie doing the deed.

Yeah, this was great. I doubted they would pull it together after the last two seasons ended a bit strangely, especially with all the threads they had to collect; but the relatively slow going on this season was pretty much justified with this - also a nice setup for a year down the road when they eventually get out. With all the twists and turns I have to admit I didn't expect the Unser/Opie thing at all. Definitely the most satisfying season-ender of the show.

i sure hope that if katey sagal wins an emmy, they use the clip of her threatening to shoot the baby.

agreed

woo! golden globes results:

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama

Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"

Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men"

Piper Perabo, "Covert Affairs"

WINNER Katey Sagal, "Sons of Anarchy"

Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"

was really happy to hear that, she kills it on this show

that is phenomenal!!

being declared better than Piper Perabo isn't phenomenal, it's logical

yeah, but i never expected them to come through. she wasn't even nominated last year when she truly deserved it! not to say she wasn't good this season too.

she's by far the best thing about this show.

She deserves an honorary Oscar just because she's so rad

Hell yeah! Sons of Anarchy Revs Up Danny Trejo For Season Four

Nice.

I thought they already killed Trejo in "Breaking Bad?"

That was a joke. Anyway, my wife and I just started S2, and while we both enjoy it, it feels almost like camp to me. I can think of several SOA drinking games. Take a drink every time Jax reads his dad's journal. Take a drink every time the doctor girlfriend wonders what she's doing with her life/where her life is going. Take a drink every time Juice says something along the lines of "I'll hack into the database." Take a drink every time Tig alludes to some past deviant sexual transgression (animal, corpse, child, etc.). Take a drink every time some one goes "If you blah blah blah ... I'll kill you." I mean, it's entertaining enough that I'll stick with it, but it seems to be a lot of wheels spinning in place, so to speak. Does it get better? I didn't read this thread so that I could remain spoiler-free.

the show definitely hits certain beats a bit too often, but i don't mind too much personally. S3 isn't as good as S2 but is probably less reliant on those tropes, if that makes any sense.

By S3, do they spring for a couple of more sets? S2 got the hospital chapel and the cigar shop, so that was a step in the right direction beyond the garage/club house, barbershop and police station.

Found s3 to be mostly a drag, which was disappointing since s2 was great...except for the ending. Man, this show is not as awesome as it should be.

xp yes, let's say they do spring for more sets in S3.

I totally agree Simon... sometimes I almost wish the actors weren't as appealing so I could just write off this show entirely, because they're carrying the show way more than the scripts and story arcs are.

I think if this show were actually a movie, and had been made in the '70s, it would be a full-on exploitation classic that people would be citing to this day. As is, it's pretty disappointingly uneven. I wonder if that's because, given its source material, they have to drag out the inevitable plot beats of the play?

Season 3 is worth watching, even if purely for the awesomeness of Katy Sagal. They really lay the melodrama on her character in S3, but she totally aces it w/o skipping a beat.

Sons of Anarchy is based on a play? huh?

Per the thread title, Sutter's always been open about Hamlet being the template for the show.

yeah but i dunno, calling it "source material" seems a bit extreme.

They did hint strongly since the pilot that Gemma and Clay were vaguely responsible for JT's death, and Jax is pretty much Hamlet (don't a bunch of people even refer to him as the SAMCRO prince throughout the series?), they're just kinda dragging this out forever until presumably the series comes to a close. Not to mention the whole Opie's wife bit in the first season...

yeah i dunno, i don't see how those deliberate parallels, and the idea that the series will have a similar ending to the play, equal them 'dragging it out' -- they have a broad arc and are filling it with lots of other stories and subplots that have nothing to do with Hamlet

well, to discuss the end of season 3...

The central concept of the show is Jax either trying to live up to what his father was trying to do with the club - make it legit, end the violence - or make the club succeed on its existing terms as gun runners and off-the-books Charming protectors. Now based on the first two seasons, we see him clearly going down that road, usurping power from Clay, plotting with Opie to take him own, trying to get the club to stop running guns... meanwhile his own family is falling apart, between the original mother of his kid and his relationship with Tara and his parents...

Season 3 was the ultimate wheel spinning since they more or less completely dropped this arc for the hunt for Jax's kid, and Tara opening the old letters from JT in the finale just felt like a really lame kind of bombshell reveal. I did love the twist that Jax decided after all that to just go along with Clay after all with the assassination and burn on the feds, but we all know he's eventually going to swing back over to the other side once he finds out about those letters and the probability that his mother and step-father killed his father... and he'll go crazy, destroy the club from within, etc. i.e. territory we already covered - A LOT - in seasons 1 and 2. There's something wrong when both seasons 2 and 3 end with everybody in the club loving each other again.

But who knows - I was surprised by season 3's resolution, so maybe they won't go that way after all.

yeah i get what you're saying; i personally think that letting those kinds of story arcs unfold over several years, complete with occasional diversions into storylines that don't move that arc forward in any significant way, are a strength of these kinds of shows, although SOA's handling of it is admittedly not always perfect. so when people talk about 'dragging it out' i'm kinda like what's the rush?

I hear you - it's tough because we all want to see what the show has in store when it's consistently entertaining, but we also want a good show to continually surprise us as well. (Even a show that I think has been doing great with this - Breaking Bad - is starting to make me wonder how far they can stretch its premise, going into season 4.) SOA deserves credit for even attempting the S3/SAMBEL storyline instead of rehashing the Clay/Jax rivalry, it just didn't turn out that great.

Like I said above, I enjoy the show well enough, but my wife and I are constantly struck by this sense of deja vu. Like, lines and conflicts are repeated over and over again, characters are boiled down to their one singular trait, almost sitcommy, as if the show isn't brave enough to take advantage of its characters creative freedom. Instead there's all that wheel spinning, with plot lines failing to advance the show's greater narrative and nothing coming of conflicts the show sometimes takes entire seasons to set up at the expense of elements that should be in place by now. Almost done S2 now, and we seem no closer to what's been set up as inevitable, let alone learning the practical mechanics of Charming (whose population appears to be almost exclusively the SoA and the police). Now, granted, I'm not a fan of "The Sopranos," but one major problem I had with it is that after its great first season the show settled into a similar habit of wheel spinning, introducing a major character or conflict at the beginning of a season just to neatly resolve it (or kill him/her off) at the end of the season, at the expense of advancing the big picture. Similarly, SoA has so much potential, but it seems like it's being written and made on the fly, with lots of sloppy shortcuts.

You know, I'm an ep or two at most away from the end of the second season, and for the life of me I don't know a) what the white power guy wants in Charming and b) why the SoA does't just kill him, given their history of hurting (or worse) people in positions of power. I chalk it up to good ol' fashioned bad storytelling.

curious to see your reaction (and/or rage) at the second season finale...

have never seen this, but would like to why cause it sounds intertsing

highly recommend watching it! it's kind of corny in places, the plots always have a hole or two but it is so much FUN! also it has ron perlman so you can't go wrong.

are you the person who's supposed to refund me for those Season of the Witch tickets? i been looking for you

I gave up 5 or so eps into season 3 but decided I'd pick it back up again for season 4. Read the wikipedia page to catch up and was lost.

yeah that's a terrible way to catch up on ANY show

good season premiere, i like where things are going. that preacher from deadwood is the goofy US attorney!

This season is so far miles ahead of the last one.

This is all the chatter going on for this show, this season?

Last 2 eps have been great, everything I love about the show without the nonsense.

I've watched ~14 episodes since Friday. This show is not good for one's faith in humanity.

halfway through S3 - Jax's half-sister (god I hope they don't bang) is a fox

omg Gemma
"Well, unless we want a three-headed grandchild, looks like we’re gonna have to share some family history."

That show is so addictive. I know in my heart it's cheesy melodrama but goddamn I love it.

Except: WHY CAN'T JAX WEAR NORMAL JEANS.

Last season was the best so far, imo

Wow, doc got even hotter for S4.

anyone still watching this?

About to watch the first couple eps of the new season tonight.

meeee!

Jimmy Smits is great thus far. Rest of it is more absurd than ever.

Yeah Jimmy is fantastic.

Yeesh:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/johnny-lewis-dead-28-sons-anarchy-actor-found-dead-home-murdered-woman-article-1.1169366

fucking hell

in other news I can't believe [spoiler]!!!! ;_;

!!!

buckets of tears

I've never seen him but there's something very sinister about this.

So i forgot about ep 2 and this shit doesn't seem to come On Demand but I noticed that late Tuesday night they reaired ep 2 AND 3 at about 1 in the morning or whatevs so I set the DVR to record. Started watching ep 2 but it was clearly in the last 15 or so minutes of ep 3 so I shut my eyes and fast forwarded and all was well. It bled into the recording of ep 3 but I figured I could watch it and it would wrap around to more or less the same part where the first recording started.

Obviously what happened was that presumably the only scene that I didn't get to see at all was the SPOILER but I figured it out from the aftermath so I guess I was deprived of this BIG MOMENT so in conclusion F U FX Scheduling.

it was pretty brutal, even for them

i was sad for a good 24 hours after seeing the latest episode. this season is totally ott

^^^

i like that twice already this season they've done a fake ending "oh here comes the mellow musical montage denouement part of the episode" and then BOOM it's rudely interrupted with more action

i feel like Sons of Anarchy the last couple years is one of the most gutwrenching shows ever -- not just purely for graphic violence or emotional charge or "holy shit" surprises but in terms of the combined effect of all of the above. i know some people would say Breaking Bad moreso, but for me SOA trumps it in that sense -- haven't watched enough Sopranos or The Shield to know if they went even further.

it's definitely gutwrenching.

Tara is really going down the dark rabbithole, I hate to think what they're going to do with her.

The Shield would hit me so hard and so often, some scenes would stay on my mind an haunt me for weeks.

xxp - I would have said that about Breaking Bad for the first couple of seasons, but at this point, it's no contest, SOA wins. I'm such a sap, though, I had to go back and watch episodes from previous seasons when everything was "happier" and "simpler" in order to feel better. In one of those Comic-Con interviews up on youtube, the dude that plays Opie compares his character to Job, in terms of his consistent suffering, and maybe that's why what happened to him hit me so hard? I dunno.

I always definitely felt something kinda biblical in Opie's character, I like the Job comparison. And the way he looked at Jax through the glass right before they beat him was just...yeah that destroyed me.

I bawled all over again when they had the wake.

yeah i think Opie has finally one-upped Tara on True Blood as the most relentlessly abused main character in contemporary cable drama

Walton Goggins FTW!

http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Content/121008/News/2_tues/thumbs/121009SOA1_210x305.jpg

Interview here: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Sons-Anarchy-Walton-Goggins-Woman-1054456.aspx

I quit on the show a bit ago, but that's pretty great.

Your loss, pal.

It looked like Juice was fighting losing his shit every time Walton and Tig interacted.

That whole scene was just awesome from start to finish. And when she kissed Jax at the end... All of their reactions were perfect.

Felt like we suddenly hit the 'things happening!' critical mass point last night. The home invasion thing, I'm thinking it's the 3 new Sons maybe? Maybe they were ringers from the Mayor to bring down the chapter somehow, or some other long game con of some kind?
idk

Yeah, the voice definitely sounded like the chubby curly-haired one. Could be Clay using them to undermine things?

I'm enjoying Jax this season - Hunnam is acting him as leader better than I expected.

he's come so far from
http://www.haro-online.com/stuff/greenst1.jpg

or
http://www.teenidols4you.com/blink/Actors/charlie_hunnam/charlie_hunnam_1265736658.jpg

or

http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/users16/beatingheartbaby/default/charlie-hunnam-lloyd-haythe-undeclared--large-msg-121208116106.jpg

yeah I was wondering if maybe Clay was behind the whole thing too

he's definitely up to something, shady bastard

I'm thinking it's the 3 new Sons maybe?

it's definitely them - during the home invasion of gemma's place, they showed the fake leg of one of the dudes, and one of the new sons has a fake leg

I came across a show that Sutter did for the Discovery Channel, called Outlaw Empires. It's kinda like that cheesy History Channel show Gangland, looks at different types of gangs and talks to members etc. It's not bad. It's less cheesy than Gangland, in that they limit the talking heads to just 3 or 4 ex-members of whatever gang they're talking about. Except they have super corny reenactments interspersed - hate that stuff, I don't get why they do that. But it's a bit more focused on the story at least. I've been watching them on youtube while I'm bored at work, lol

also I *think* it's narrated by Opie <3

uhh

you guys

did you know that Opie is CLETUS HOGG OF DUKES OF HAZZARD's IRL SON? His dad is Rick Hurst!

He's also 6'4!!!

SON OF CLETUS

Has anyone else noticed that Jax is wearing less S.O.A. "branded" clothing this season? I always thought it was noteworthy that he had all these logo items - the "SON" shirt, the "SO|NS" rings, the reaper crew hat - and wore them way more than any of the other mc members.

Joel Mchale! !!!!!

So, Tara and the perfume?

kinda O_O but mostly O_o

that whole otis thing in the infirmary was hard to watch. like is is this Showtime now, wtf

hey who was the female nurse (or doctor?) in the prison that Tara briefly speak to? she looks crazy familiar

was she masturbating or ... ?

yeah p sure masturbating unless she was perfuming her vag which I doubt it.

that's what i thought, and it was a bit ... strange

the otis stuff in the infirmary felt like, okay does Kurt Sutter just want to pretend to jerk it on tv or is this important somehow.

i think it's gonna be important somehow -- like so far everything this season, and plenty of stuff from prior seasons have come back to play significant functions -- how juice's blackness and run-ins with the feds from season 4 is being used by Clay, and will probably be used by Jax against Clay, how he's using his mom ... also, I remember reading some preview teaser article about this season and it said that both Tara and Jemma would develop various addictions ... or something like that?

i was wondering if somehow tara would hook up with otis but then that would be weird

but yeah, Tara's heading somewhere not good. she keeps making those weird, far-off faces when Jax looks away.

Tara leaving Jax for Otto would be 100% the most hilarious thing that could happen so I'm definitely in favor of that.

Did they even mention the kid in critical condition this week?

Yeah he got discharged

That tara scene was def ... Weird

why did I keep calling him otis lol

the kid had lines!

I know right! That was p cute.

I'm getting really scared for Juice now. I don't want him to get killed off.

i think he is going to prove himself very useful

huge lols @ "what the hell is wrong with you guys? somebody sneezes, you throw a fist? how do you get any business done?"

DONAL LOGUE

oh shit, awesome. I didn't watch last night

did we even talk about Joel McHale?

This season has kind of become an unenjoyable beatdown tbh.

that whole thing with Otis last episode was O_O

ragh Otto

why do I keep calling him otis

Is donal's character connected to the dead nurse?

i kind of enjoy how high the % of posts itt are by female posters since this has such a rep as a DUDE SHOW

Everyone has wanted Clay to get killed in the worst possible way for quite some time, right?

otm

god I want him gone so bad now

Most recent episode seems to tease the fact the club is going to want to make good with him and keep him

I guess we know the series is going to end with Jax meeting something horrible since it's a tragedy, I only hope Clay goes first

holy crap it's ramping up so hardcore now
I almost don't want to know how it ends
#bloodbath

jimmy smits is killing it, love him in this so much

This season seems to be the most tangled up one yet. Everyone being pulled in different directions and everyone knows it but no one knows who will sell who out when push comes to shove. Agree that Smits has been a great addition to this show/season.

I would miss Clay if he dies/gets written out. He is a delight to watch.

Dave Navarro looking v un-Dave Navarro

Jax is clearly not actually going to give Tig up to Pope, but interested to see how he gets around it.

lol dave was funny as a vato - loved the scar

yeah I'm interested to see what kind of long game Jax is playing with Pope -- I hope it's awesome.

The final moment of the episode reminded me that even if I feel sympathetic for the main characters or find them relatable, they're still pretty much all horrible people that do really nasty things

Yeah there's not much left of Jax in the redeem-ability department. Great great episode though, best of the year I think. So many things going on.

countdown to Tara leaving Charming (or something horrible happening). Jax can't keep telling her he's going to get them out of there and not deliver. You can see it in her eyes, she's already gone.

I thought she accepted the job offer and is pretty much trying to line up an exit strategy already?

yeah true

ou can see it in her eyes, she's already gone.

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, November 29, 2012 2:22 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah that last hug they had was the first time you can see that she clearly is not buying it anymore.

OMG OTTO's TONGUE

even for this show (saying a lot), the level of grotesquery & brutality on display this season has been just.. yeah.

that said, they totally nailed the finale imo - p sure this has been the best overall season, which is a nice surprise b/c i was pretty sure the show had jumped the shark sometime during the last two.

Listening to a recent interview with Charlie Hunnam on the Nerdist podcast

Apparently the reason for his look + shelltoes is this kid he hung out with in an Oakland club when he was researching the part; a lot of Jax's situation was similar to this kid (ie he had grown up in the club, was going to inherit leadership one day etc etc) and the sneakers were exactly the same as what the kid wore. He got shot a week later in a road rage beef, so that apparently sealed the deal. But he said he gets SO much shit about the sneakers and it makes him kinda mad, lol

Anyone still care enough to watch the season premiere? Downloading it now, sounds like it got brutal from the jump.

YES HI

i'm about to watch :D

of course, still on board

man so much of this felt really on the nose

I'm on board but

peter weller tho! :D

Starts pretty ehhh but lol at Gemma slamming the hooker's head into the bar.

is that Jackson Jr. looking kid who shoots the school supposed to be someone or is he like that magical crusty homeless lady from the first few seasons?

That was an appalling opener that was. Wtf the massacre kid is, it is a terrible idea. I will still be be back for more!

yeah I couldn't tell either! first I thought he was something to do with Peter Weller then at the end I was like well Dave Navarro's old lady looks kiiinda like the mom that was asleep that the kid kissed goodbye so maybe it's his kid somehow, idk

he's the ghost of christmas shooting

a lot of it was really kinda terrible this time

i was glad they at least had Weller deliver the THEY'RE IRANIAN NOT PERSIAN FFS line, that was really bugging me

what did Nero call the dude, "Zero Dark Shithead?"

yes

irl facepalm

i laughed

donal logue strung out & naked, humping his own reflection was...something

My fave hooker from Deadwood, yay.
OTOH, this show is so bad. Almost How I Met Your Mother level of decline.

it was noteworthy that it seemed to cut from Donal's naked butt to Jax's

I'm not really feeling Logue's character at all, they keep trying to make him this menacing dude and I keep being like, that's steve, it's the tao of steve it'll be ok

lol yes donal butt to jax butt was some pretty nice editing

oh, I'm also watching Copper - and the character he plays in that is somewhat similar

I listen almost as good as I suck dick.

i was kinda happy that actress showed up, I like her a lot

hard to know where this whole thing is going. like, iranian torture porn in stockton now, really.

does Jackson's ersatz accent bother anyone else? It's starting to grate on me.

yes! i noticed it a lot more this episode than I have before, it's bugging me now too

maybe bobby elvis will save the storyline

also: uncle touchy

As far as big bads go they're not going to top the Reverend from Deadwood.

Lil Tec-9 kid wtf.

I found myself this morning getting nostalgic for the skinheads, I mean how long has it been since they had a decent bad guy.

Was that supposed to be in Charming or Stockton or where?

Every so often I have hopes that James Hetfield will have a guest appearance as Clay's son

If Rollins and Navarro can be on this show, why not James Hetfield?

it's partly a bay area show anyway FFS, hetfield should totally be in it

new whorehouse is supposed to be stockton, or at least that's what I thought

Every so often I try and figure out where Charming is supposed to be geographically -- I know it's probably shot in SoCal, though it looks a bit like where I grew up. The scenes that are supposed to be Oakland aren't totally off but small details make it clear that it is not shot here.

i always pictured charming being like kinda Redding or that area? it seems kinda foothilly --- like sorta near Reno, sorta near Stockton, but not way up in the mountains and not right in the valley

though they do dip down to Oakland a lot so maybe Redding's too far north

I had to look it up, but the school shooting kid is the son of the woman that Navarro is hooking up with... no doubt the kid got the gun from him and is likely tied to the Sons.

sigh

weird episode, didnt like it.

Dave Navarro is on this show? Glad I checked out after season 2.

Well, it took a lot longer than anyone expected, but Otto just went out in a blaze of glory

god i wish there had been more scenes with Ron Perlman and Donal Logue

This is kind of not terrible now? Best run of episodes since S3?

hmm really? I watched ep 1 of this season and decided I was done. Its good again?

totally good again

first few episodes were meh but then heeeey crazytown

that was pretty satisfying

;_;

Or whatever the sad emoticon is.

kind of was just good that they finally went for it, after that stupid non-fatal shootout 2 seasons ago

I was kind of taken aback by the formality of it, in that they pretty much followed club procedures. I figured it'd be another shooting on the sly.

Watching older seasons again - so many lols at Happy's response to Jax killing Henry Rollins - "I am so proud of you."

CUNT PUNCH

I'm nostalgic for pre Prison-Hair Tara

I actually appreciated Prison-Hair Tara because I was almost going to grow my bangs out to emulate pre-Prison-Hair Tara

Zobelle's daughter is a WS of Shame

finally watched the season finale and thought it was alright.. im still kind of confused about tara, gemma, jax, etc and what their motivations are as they fluctuate between being sympathetic and intolerable monster from episode to episode

that wasn't the finale...there's one more episode this coming week.

one of my favorite things about the show is that for all the DUDE-ness of the show, Tara and Gemma can be as volatile and unpredictable as any other character on the show. feels very different from the "male anti-hero acts, the women around him react" formula of a lot of dark cable dramas.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

Fuuuuuuuuuuuu

ck

I think that was the most brutal thing they've showed.

good episode...was getting worried they'd do the "jax has a secret plan that works perfectly" thing for the third episode in a row.

wait, so the December 3rd episode wasn't the season finale .... shit! I am really looking forward to this then.

fffuuuuucccckkkking hell

can't wait for spinoff prequel show, "Juice Makes the Worst Decisions"

at least he disposed of the evidence in different dumpsters

i was half expecting him to kill himself and/or jemma after that whole thing went down

I guess the question is whether he will return to the club or run.

he'll walk the earth like caine in kung fu *pan pipes*

it will be called Juice-tified

well done, sarahell

omg lol

that punny dad joke made me feel like a man

innately?

lol

:)

just finished this and uhhhhhhhh...

idk kinda didn't like the finale even tho the season got better as it went on. Good to see Jax making some human decisions again but wow.

Are there ANY likable characters left, maybe Bobby a little? Unser is a worthless mopey dope now. Nero was cool then he wasn't.

Bobby's kind of likable but yeah, that's it.

Kinda weird watching the early seasons where all the fucked up shit is punctuated with wild parties and now being in a biker gang looks like a pretty shitty job, tbh. I feel like other criminal work would be easier, or signing on with a bigger, more stable club. (Sons aren't even top 10, per the weird ADA from S4)

They aren't even making money anymore! Just retire and get a job at the grocery store or w/e. Hell just start the bike shop back up and live off that idk. It's all so drab now and the weird guy with the wrapped hands is not near enough comic relief.

I can't tell if the show is in on the joke that the club 'going straight' means they'll just be pimping porn stars.

7+ dudes surviving on their cut of a brothel seems like it might be tough to pull off.

ice cream was a popular treat and it still is

theoretically they have a garage to rebuild, what with the mechanic business and all

iirc they're also supposed to be getting work at the housing development site, but that keeps getting delayed

i know this show requires a lot of suspension of disbelief but officer roosevelt not securing the scene when he had just walked in on a murder really bugged me. like...he just stood there? really? didn't even pull his gun? what gives man

I guess, but it seemed like they hadn't left Tara alone for very long and it was pretty clear Gemma acted alone and wasn't about to fight back so there was some time to just be appalled. it seemed realistic enough given the circumstances. although sure the show is stretching credulity more and more all the time.

i guess i felt like they'd really built up roosevelt's professionalism. a lot. so the perp/victim being people he knows IRL causing his brain to totally shut down just seemed like a lame (even for SOA) plot contrivance. even if he thought gemma acted alone he still let juice get the drop on him and i was like well that's just not the roosevelt i know.

I gotta wonder who the fuck would take their car to be serviced at Teller-Morrow. Imagining the Yelp reviews...

"Mechanic who was originally assigned my car was killed, repair delayed. Came back the next day and witnessed a Mexican standoff and was told to *come back later*. Came back to find bullet holes in my car, told repair would take another day. Refused to comp repair, man who went by 'Tig' told me to get my happy ass off the lot before something bad happened. Never visiting this place again."

lmoa otm

loool

"...and THEN the whole place blew up! WTF..."

Wish they'd kill everyone but Tig and Happy.

i get no joy out of watching vengeful Jax, it know it's the arc but there's no light to balance the shade

Okay, they can save Jimmy Smits too.

can't wait for spinoff prequel show, "Juice Makes the Worst Decisions"

― mh, Thursday, December 12, 2013 6:51 AM (10 months ago)

hahah that is the theme of this season

The blasé take on the mass murder of a dozen-plus escorts - not just by the sociopath bikers but the apparent lack of national news coverage, etc. - might be this show's nadir.

Even the moral center/pimp of the show now was just "yeah, fine, we'll clean it up and hire some new women."

otm

This show has some gross frank miller and/or women in refrigerators shit w/r/t its female characters.

I'm torn between finding it really entertaining and thinking that it represents everything wrong w/basic cable drama shows.

yeah no kidding

in-character racism really gets to me too

closeup of dead niner bikers stacked like cordwood was a real nadir

sometimes i'm like "wait why do i watch this show again?"

I haven't actually finished the last two seasons - I keep making it halfway and just going "nope, don't give a shit" and then trying again the next season.

Stark how much better it was with Ron Perlman even after his character became the supervillain.

yeah there's no counterweight to jax anymore & it makes the show much more leaden imo

jax's accent seems like it's slipping more this season too

i noticed that as well!

i feel short-changed that Happy is finally in the opening credits but he's given fuck-all to do.

and the cannonfodder/red-shirt new MC brothers -- it's just a question of who kills them and how

yeah they may as well have a coundown clock for those new dudes

& is anybody loling over their starburst/fanta girl/might morphon power rangers colored bikes? i find them v hilar

can i spell today? no, no i can't

yes!!

Last time I loved this was Season 4, that was a riot! It has been a case of rapidly diminishing returns since then. i don't suppose it helps that Sutter is an insufferable, idiotic prick and the worse this series gets the higher the viewer figures seem to go.

can't really notice Jax's accent slipping on account of 90% of the dialogue being in whispered voices now

regarding the lack of national news coverage: this show has always seemed like sutter wanted to set it in a postapocalypic/dystopian future like the mad max movies but changed it to modern day for whatever reason. like the way you rarely see anyone that lives in charming that isn't a cop or in a gang. the universe of the show seems so desolate.

i don't suppose it helps that Sutter is an insufferable, idiotic prick and the worse this series gets the higher the viewer figures seem to go.

― xelab, Sunday, October 19, 2014 4:18 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what is this based on? not saying its not true just wondering

I don't know about that, but certain things made more sense when I realized he played Otto and all the terrible tattoos are real. Unfairly judging a book by its cover and a couple of interviews but he seemed like a creative writing MFA who really wishes he'd been a badass biker instead.

He's been a confrontational dick towards certain critics on Twitter. Not a good look.

otto's downward spiral character arc was one of the best things abt the show

I'm glad you didn't say the absolute best, because that was Clay's pussy sermon IIRC

http://i.imgur.com/skPEQp3.jpg

This show is so dumb.

the dumbest thing abt this show is how they have had a bunch of cool likable and/or charismatic characters and killed almost all of them off. the fact that opie and bobby and clay and tara are gone and juice is still around is indicative of a bunch of producers who don't know their own show.

imo

did Abel kill Gemma's birds?

I like Juice, but at this point I just want everyone to die and the show to be wrapped up.

http://i.imgur.com/OWQp5sv.jpg
"I can sense you're a decent man."

"
The Magical Negro is typically but not always "in some way outwardly or inwardly disabled, either by discrimination, disability or social constraint," often a janitor or prisoner.[6] He has no past; he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist.[7][8] He usually has some sort of magical power, "rather vaguely defined but not the sort of thing one typically encounters."[7] He is patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and is "closer to the earth."[4] The magical negro will also do almost anything, including sacrificing himself, to save the white protagonist, as exemplified in The Defiant Ones, in which Sidney Poitier plays the prototypical Magical Negro.[4]

The Magical Negro serves as a plot device to help the protagonist get out of trouble, typically through helping the white character recognize his own faults and overcome them.[4] Although he has magical powers, his "magic is ostensibly directed toward helping and enlightening a white male character.
"

i have been basically hatewatching this all season

Tig is pretty much the one good thing about this season.

Like, I get a smidgen of hope when he's even in the frame ... when did this show get so dire?

idk

it's really fuckin bad though.

yeah, I'm having a real "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" existential crisis about watching it

otm

everything that comes out of gemma's mouth now sounds so forced & stupid & ignorant & fuuuuuuck i hate these ppl

also can we talk about abel the little wooden boy

he creeps me out

Honestly, outside of Jax banging Courtney Love or Abel-as-burgeoning-sociopath, I am at a loss for what this show could do to improve

Yeah, Abel is sooo creepy, if he doesn't kill anyone, even a small to moderately sized animal by the end of the season, I will be surprised

i'm in it for the abject human misery at this point

also the sex on the hood of a cop car

want to state again how apparently kurt sutter hates women

i think it was most blatant for me when jax fakes out that porn girl, pretending he's gonna seduce her, and then bashes her face into her makeup table and points at her bloodied face and says "whore." i recognize that the show tries to come off like there's a valid reason to have that scene, but it only exists bc she was created to be such a terrible person who just tries to fuck everyone and waves a gun around at the drop of a hat. like she was created for the pleasure of watching jax break her nose.

watching it now makes me question every reason i had for watching it in the first place
so much of it is repugnant

the soul kinda went out of the show when opie died, bc i thought his character was this really great, broken, tragic figure who gave the show a necessary gravity as well as him being dangerous and lovable and charismatic.

tig is the best character left, kim coates owns that role. it's a little one-note but he has such wonderful moments.

the dumbest thing abt this show is how they have had a bunch of cool likable and/or charismatic characters and killed almost all of them off. the fact that opie and bobby and clay and tara are gone and juice is still around is indicative of a bunch of producers who don't know their own show.

― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Thursday, November 6, 2014 10:37 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this happened on boardwalk empire too.

to be fair sutter clearly loved clay morrow, he just wrote him into a corner really early on and it became increasingly ridiculous that he was even still alive. tara was destined to be killed from day one. opie's death was one of the only genuinely emotional moments of the whole thing imo, even though it definitely deflated the show somewhat.

i def think this show has gone way downhill (does anyone not?) but i still watch every episode and would helplessly watch several more seasons of this bullshit..at its core is really strong pulpy storytelling, plus its willingness to follow through on depicting the sociopathy of its characters is compelling to me. i also like what it has to say about a life of crime-in that every member of sons of anarchy seems miserable and stressed out all the time but you still get what is appealing about it and why they do it.

and yeah gemma has been getting way too many *pauses for applause* moments for awhile now. she's still a great character though. i am really excited for this show to be over.

i was really troubled by the porn girl storyline too. there was a feeling of anticipated audience identification that was really unsettling.

does no one else like nero? is everyone just sick of jimmy smits?i think he's excellent in that role and his character is pretty interesting and compelling. he would be the character i would be most bummed to see die at this point.

i love nero. smits is a legit good actor imo. not as noticeable as coates, but i like him just as much

his whole "gemma, let's move out of this crazy town, you and me!" thing is so "it's my last week before retirement" though...he's dead for sure.

true

it's the same as jax's "we're gonna leave this place"

bodybag is the only vehicle

i think SoA as a show was kinda painted into a corner from day one, relying on this family secret bullshit and jax's dead father and what not.

sutter's a graduate of the shield, which was also a show that painted itself into a corner from episode 1 but had a lot more push and pull with the tension and interesting toying w/the audience identification w/vic mackey, us both rooting for him and hoping he'd get caught in the act, despite it getting a little ridiculous at times (so many people popped in and out of adjacent rooms in the police station trying to spy on each other and confront each other, there were so many wires and cameras going, it was like 24's ctu headquarters crossed with 'oh no frasier's trying to cook a chicken and juggle two dates he accidentally set for the same night, hope niles and daphne can keep him covered.')

also i don't think motorcycle gangs are quite as cool or interesting as sutter thinks they are.

otm

the reality has way more meth & a lot less dialog

the soul kinda went out of the show when opie died

Yeah I checked out at the end of s4 because thefinale was so annoying, but assoon asI heard about Opie I checked back in just to watch that episode. Best perf the show ever had.

And comparing this to The Shield (which is fair game since Sutter was on staff there) really underlines this show's flaws. Sutter just does not have nearly as interesting a grasp on sustaining tension or resolvng conflicts without silly contrivances. (Also Shawn Ryan seems way less odious as a human.) In all the seasons I watched he never even managed one satisfying season arc; S2 probably came closest.

we should actually poll Nucky Thompson vs Jaz Teller for least interesting 00s lead character in a drama

lol er Jax

Hah would be a good poll really

nucky is way better imo. bc of the kessler interactions alone.

opie was such a rad dude

why did they have to kill him

It's crazy to watch the OG Queer as Folk and see the gap btwn wide-eyed teenage Hunnam and mega-boring "intense" adult Hunnam

also i think the shield was helped a lot by never letting us really forget vic and co were basically bad guys who occasionally did good because it was their day job. and also having dutch and claudette as occasionally flawed but good (both in skill and morally except for that cat thing) detectives in the same precinct was crucial, as well as glenn close's performance in season 4; they provided balance and grounding that kinda made vic's bullshit look like macho posturing even more. and the purgatory ending was sweet. and the fates of the characters was pretty realistic. and also a character like kavanaugh, who on the surface i think seemed to exist to make vic look better, was i think revealed to be a fucked up dude driven insane by his inability to pin down the genuinely guys he was trying to catch.

SoA doesn't have any balance at all, especially once characters like opie and tara and to a lesser extent piney were gone. also opie's reaction to finding piney's body was one of the best bits of acting in the show.

the best thing about hunnam's role is, idk, he's got that exaggerated slouch-walk down pretty good. i can see a motorcycle dude walking around like that.

reeeeeally liked opie's season 4 inability to move past donna's death tbqf. it seemed like we were set up for something else and then he just intentionally torpedoes his second marriage bc of it. which was one of the truer-feeling things on the show too.

Yeah that was one of the things that made that season kinda work

My recollection goes something like: S1 = interesting slog, S2 = great setup, lackluster ending; S3 = booooooring; S4 = again, geat setup, insulting final act

as aforementioned Sutter has a bad habit of keeping characters on way past their natural expiration date, to the point beyond fatigue, like the Fed played by the head of FX's wife, who clung on till (iirc) the end of S3

jax hardly even gets naked anymore i mean srsly what are we doing here

yeah she was the most transparent attempt at delaying the story sutter set up from the beginning by creating a totally abhorrent villain for everyone to rally together to destroy, turning her from an amusingly tough atf agent and into an insanely murderous bisexual nightmare. she basically went from an asshole marge gunderson and turned into natasha henstridge from 'species'

opie reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from the show, where they try to intimidate that judge into dropping some charges on something or other. opie's ready to go off and kill somebody, tig is unable to deal with violence at that second bc of guilt from donna's death, the judge's kid realizes his dad is willing to risk the kid's life in order to not acquiesce to the SoA demands, etc. all the better played bc this was done while they're wearing ski masks. anyway what does it matter, opie's gone, fuck this show.

Season 3 was corny as fuck (someone stole my baby!) but it wasn't boring

would be far more interested in an Opie/Bobby/Clay/Tara afterlife show than this season

although I was hoping that every remaining episode would have a closing montage of them receiving a delivery of another boxed body part

The Tig + Exchange from this ep was the only good moment of this entire season.

http://i1354.photobucket.com/albums/q686/tinyservants/Screenshot2014-11-11at115017PM_zps0569fecb.png

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101230120126/wildhogs/images/d/db/Wild-hogs.jpg

we should take turns watching this, in like 15 minute chunks

Not sure what to make of the love scene between Tig and the tranny (sorry, I don't know her name).

Tig has had about one or two lines for the last xx episodes, and he finally got the chance to emote and act.

I think Kim is a really good actor so I was happy to see him get some screen time. But...maybe he was overacting? Hard to tell if that was the best performance of the season or just kind of overdone. I think I'm leaning toward the first option.

Venus!

tig is probably just about the only character left who is worth a shit imo, and yeah coates is great. he's always memorable, even as a cackling CSI miami villain or chet from last boy scout.

I've never figured out why they don't give Coates/Tig more to do - I mean, I like Happy and the Scotsman and I know they're Jax's crew but Tig was always the most entertaining character.

in earlier seasons Tig had a lot more to do!

Was this the first Jax naked butt shot of the season?

Watching the first season again, I appreciate how calmly they deal with Tig's description of necrophilia.

i always thought Tara was prob the most compelling character and that in many ways the show was about her/seen through her perspective, as the person coming back into town and into the story at the beginning of the series who looks at the situation through the eyes of someone who used to live in the straight world. so for me the show worked up through last season on that level, and now one season of the aftermath of her death makes for a good denouement. if i felt that way about Opie (who was also great, obv) i'd probably be more bummed out/disinterested, not only has he been gone longer but his death is kind of settled business, can't remember the last time he was even mentioned in the last two seasons.

I wonder if there any Wild Angels references in the series. Or if Sutter has ever mentioned that movie.

man that Tig/Venus scene was the highlight of the whole season -- Coates is so great. Like, everyone else in that show seems to be going to great lengths to be 'Acting' whereas Coates is just *there*, he's right in it.

I still hate pretty much everything about this show now, but that scene at least made me feel like at least I haven't been watching for nothing.

this was the best episode of this show in years, right everyone? i mean it's not just because i have severely diminished expectations.

yeah that was pretty good. kinda back to first-season sturm und drang, gotta love that oedipal shit

fuckin love smits. he's good at crying

it's funny though
i look at this thread title now & go 'aw remember when we thought this show was good' lol

Juice in the interview room with Unser and the Sheriff was so great.

I love Smits too but I thought the crying routine was a bit overdone. There was one point where he was kind of jumping up and down slightly with a sad dog look on his face that was pretty silly.

But yeah, best ep of the season. Hope Kurt didn't shoot his wad too soon though - what are they going to fill up two more weeks with?

i liked Smits being the big emotional breakdown. he's kind of the new guy but he's already invested a lot of pathos into his character and all he's been through and you really feel for him in his "what the hell did i get into with all these crazy white people" weeping. and it just underlined that Gemma has done the unthinkable and that people that love her can never look at her the same way again.

yeah i like the unspeakable anguish angle

The look as he was listening to the phone -- and it was an excellent choice to show his end of the conversation without the audience actually hearing Jax's words -- and realized that the Gemma he thought he knew was hiding this all along was excellent. Just walking away from her, no confrontation, just being over.

okay mano

for all of this show's failings it's really good about letting dudes have a good cry when they want to cry, and not flinching from that

Yep. I was shocked at Jaxs breakdown.

I also really liked the jazz soundtrack to the car chase!

jax's murder of the other samcro president and its fallout have been really nicely done. very foreboding, a lot of creeping dread as the options narrow.

that was the same guy whose club they saved in Season 1, was it not? They patched them over? It is coming full circle. There have been so many mediocre seasons of this show, the first two seasons are so hazy in my memory.

jazz carchase was a+

damn .... so who is gonna die next week?

hal holbrooke wrecked me jfc

liked wendy's line about it not being the first time she'd been in the trunk of a car - nice sopranos nod

blood on the shelltoes
blood on the plough

sing with me now

jax is planning on dying very soon, isn't he?

I'm getting that impression. Kinda half thought he was gonna off himself in this ep from the way he was acting

only question is how. maybe forcing the gang to shoot him the way they did Clay?

well he did ask about the JT manuscript so that will probably play into his death scene.

blood on the manuscript, etc

force fed parts of his motorcycle piece by piece while a bluesy cover of 'Paradise City' plays over top

and what's the old policy thing he asked the other presidents to change? feel like that's something to do with his demise.

Brad Pitt shows up as a long lost cousin, extracts revenge for some bullshit, everyone dies

The bylaw is that there are no black SOA members. Which is a weird thing given John Teller's anarchist leanings - they just stole that device from the real Hells Angels but it doesn't fit this club.

yeah but they've already covered that in old episodes

i reckon it's something else

he doesn't say it's anything to do with the race thing, although now that i think about it, it could be so that they can patch in the niners??

the niners are worried about getting wiped out and jax has promised to take care of them, given all the help they given and risk taken.

that would make sense -- also a lot of things from past seasons are getting brought up again, and not just the "take down the greedy gun dealer and the IRA Kings will give the club what they want" plot

hmmm

he said it was an unofficial custom and not a bylaw, though

Speculation I saw was patching the Grim Reapers to give the club enough bodies.

Exit, pursued by a bear pig or twenty.

Because of the last few weeks irl, my first response was, "That's really not very many cops"

Cops pretty leisurely in pursuit. But who cares. Thank god this is done.

You probably should have gone with "it is finished" to further hammer home the clumsy Christ imagery.

that would have really "nailed" the ending

lol the very ending

i really had hope that the great pulpy storytelling side of the show would surface as it finished..but man…this episode was so bad. so boring.

the mayhem vote was actually a good scene and to then ruin it by having it be another wacky jax plan..and the last scene is just such a huge pileup of terrible writing and directing and editing and acting decisions.

it's always been clear that kurt sutter thinks that jax is a really cool guy and not a pathetic asshole but i wasn't expecting the full blown tongue bathing that goes on here…lol at jax draped in his jedi knight robes on the courthouse steps

introducing michael chiklis as a truck driver character who just happens to give gemma a ride, then happens to be driving along when jax needs a truck to ride into

kind of hoping he gets a spinoff series

zero-fat grownup macho Hunnam looks boring

they should have let Gemma get away with chiklis, then went ahead with the rest of the plot. But then at the moment when Jax crashes, he sees Gemma in the passenger seat. Capture both of their facial expressions and end the series.

The CGI at the end was hilariously bad, the rest of the episode was just bad.

i got tired of how bad they were at being criminals. i felt bad for them. i don't think they could have stolen a pack of gum without it ending in multiple deaths. i think i actually liked ireland the best. maybe i'll watch the last couple of seasons someday...

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/bastard-executioner-finally-moves-dull-despicable-227865

this show sounds terrible but why should i be surprised? tbh even when i liked SOA at the beginning it was still a dumb and faintly despicable show too.

yep

I'm only at season 5 episode 4 so I haven't read any of this thread but geez Gemma is evil!

WOW! Tig lusting after Walter Goggins, I haven't laughed as much in awhile!

And still she steals my heart.

Fuck this show

haha where are you?

Just finished season 6, Tara was my hero. Feel bad about people, my decisions, but at this point I have to see it out.

oh yeaaaa

ugh

Tig just won my heart heart and might be the hero in this shitshow. How or why they decided to throw in this love story I have no idea, but in the midst of the murder, torture, sexism, and stubbornness I'm grateful there's an against all odds lay my soul bare love story. I still have 3 more episodes until the end, so they could just ruin it, but I hope not.

Haha that side story def semi redeems the last couple seasons

can't wait for spinoff prequel show, "Juice Makes the Worst Decisions"

― mh, Thursday, December 12, 2013 6:51 AM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...

it will be called Juice-tified

― sarahell, Thursday, December 12, 2013 1:08 PM (four years ago)

I actually think of this on the reg, like people I know that just constantly make the worst decisions, one of whom is named Anthony. useage e.g. Anthony is so Juice-tified.

episode 2 and this is gonna scratch all the itches alright

Just stop when they leave for Ireland.

Wait, when they get back from Ireland, there's a couple of funny bits there.

milo otm

ive been potting about catching these in dribs and drabs, but ive heard enough to know that a shark is about to be oerleapt- the lads are just about to head off to belfast (which you'd think would be a hard word to mispronounce but).

now without me reading thread or hearing spoilers, should i call it quits now or power through

wait wasnt this answered literally in the last two posts

it's years since I've watched this, but I think the Irish script consultant was actually Jon Bon Jovi!

xp -- oh, you should power through but definitely have a beverage nearby

i think i landed on actually liking this show on the whole despite its massive flaws. not sure i could stomach a rewatch tho.

i confirmed stopping upthread but sarahell is otm - watch with booze! it’s bad but youve come this far,

you can play the drinking game where you drink at every stereotypical portrayal of the Irish

i always do

bell, fast

Mayans MC had all the stupidity and brutality with none of the laughs of the first 2.5-3 seasons of SOA that made it watchable. Almost curious to watch a Sutter-less season to see if anything changed.

I couldn’t even get through the pilot of that show

all the stupidity and brutality with none of the laughs of the first 2.5-3 seasons of SOA

glad i left it alone

Was the move to Ireland noticeably more ridiculous? I can't remember anymore. I recall SoA being fairly ridiculous from the get go.

the only thing missing was leprechauns and a Sean O’Connery carriage ride

sister bangin'

just realized that kelly loeffler reminds me of agent stahl

Hard to say if the show's nadir was the Dave Navarro-related school shooting or the murder of several dozen sex workers that is completely forgotten within two episodes.

so many nadirs