Sons of Anarchy

[orator]

Tom, you talked about SoA in a recent show. As silly as that show is, you should read some interviews of its creator, Kurt Sutter.

He's the exact kind of guy who'd see The Sopranos or Deadwood and then make this dumb show. He's this excessively foul mouthed wannabe biker (long hair, tattoos - loves to mention riding his hog), wannabe tough guy douchebag. It would be one thing if he was actually was tough, but he has incredibly thin skin and can't take any criticism. Like, someone from his show's production left the show to go work on Frank Darabont's new AMC show. Sutter wrote on his blog or Twitter about how Frank Darabont's this giant asshole for "stealing" his employee, and how if he ever sees him he's going to curb stomp him. Seriously. Or how this last season of SoA was really bad, even by guilty pleasure standards. Critics naturally panned it. Sutter blogs about how all the critics are hacks and don't "get" the show. Or how his show didn't win any Emmy's. So what does he do? Of course, he blogs about how the Emmy voters are all worthless sheep who won't vote for his show because he's an non-conformist outsider and the show's too gritty and not stylish like Mad Men. I'm sure he would have had nothing but praise for them if he'd have won something. And I'm 99% positive he made up a story on his blog about how this trendy network executive girl who happened to run into him and recognize him at a Starbucks and cussed him out because he called network shows worthless garbage in an interview she happened to see. Because, you know, he's so famous and recognizable and of course everyone reads every dumb thing he says.

He's the hackiest of hacks. A lame internet tough guy who uses his dumb show for wish fulfillment. I actually enjoyed his show until I happened to read an interview of his, then I started reading his blog and Twitter and I just went further and further down the stupid rabbit hole.

[Alex_from_the_woods]

I haven't seen the show. The commercials are more than enough for me. That biker poseur tough guy stuff sets my teeth on edge.

 Dentist and Insurance salesmen of the world... Please save the leather costumes and head-to-toe harley branded regalia for halloween. Keep you biker fantasies to yourself. Please? Your worst nightmare is to go eye-to-eye with the type of people your trying to look like.

[cavorting with nudists]

I was feeling a little melancholy this morning, but the middle paragraph of orator's post cheered me right up!

[orator]

Oh god. I forgot to mention that he cast himself in his own show as the baddest, most hardest motherfucker ever, who not only starts off in prison with one eye (and a gnarly scar), but *spoilers* loses the other in the show. *spoilers*

[wood and iron]

He is also married to Katy Sagal, who he cast on his show.

[effecT]

Creepy sandals...

(now i know what john hodgman meant)

[Denim Gremlin]

Kurt Sutter being a dickhead aside, am I the only one who really digs this show?

I think it's pretty great, sure It's no Breaking Bad but it's way better than a lot of crap that's on. Being on FX it has a lot to live up to but it's got one of the best ensemble casts on tv right now in my opinion and it's consistently entertaining.

Sutter maybe be a bigmouth dumbie on the internet but I think the show has way more to offer than "biker poseur tough guy stuff".

[orator]

The first two seasons were all right. It was enjoyable, but it was never particularly smart or great, especially compared to the shows it imitates. The third season was just awful and amazingly stupid, though. The writing was in soap opera territory.

He is also married to Katy Sagal, who he cast on his show.

Yeah. I'm fine with that because she's thankfully a good actress, but he also has her singing in the show, too, and she doesn't seem particularly great at that. She even sings over a scene that she acts in, which I thought was especially silly.

[Eric Fishlegs]

Kurt Sutter being a dickhead aside, am I the only one who really digs this show?

I think it's pretty great, sure It's no Breaking Bad but it's way better than a lot of crap that's on. Being on FX it has a lot to live up to but it's got one of the best ensemble casts on tv right now in my opinion and it's consistently entertaining.

Sutter maybe be a bigmouth dumbie on the internet but I think the show has way more to offer than "biker poseur tough guy stuff".

I definitely enjoyed the first 2 seasons. Season 3 was kinda dull, but it ended on an interesting note so I'll be back. Honestly, Tom's the first person I heard of who was enjoying the show ironically or as a guilty pleasure.

[wood and iron]

I, too, enjoyed the first two season of the show and thought the third was poop.

I noticed at the PA state fair in Bloomsburg they were now selling bootleg Sons of Anarchy shirts. Instead of Redwood Original in the logo, they added a bunch of local PA town names.

[soupcrusher]

i just recently burned through the 1st two seasons on netflix. It's over the top, hyper dramatized and most likely nothing like a real biker gang. i know people who refuse to watch it because they genuinely dislike bikers. the show is very sopranos in it's character development, a nice device that gets you to root for criminals. i'm a sucker for that stuff. especially if the story and the acting holds up.

eh, i was entertained by it. ron perlman and stuff.

[Denim Gremlin]

and most likely nothing like a real biker gang.

It totally isn't. That's probably the thing about the show that most bothers me because I have a real fascination with gangs and stuff like that, particularly outlaw biker gang culture, and I've read and learned a lot about it. Other than a superficial resemblance to outlaw bikers, like riding motorcycles, wearing vests with patches, etc, SAMCRO is basically bullshit. There are some real gangs that set a precedent for some of SAMCRO's more progressive aspects, like the multiracial gang The Chosen Few but they're a rare exception. Institutionalized racism and sexism, random violence, sexual assaults, and all around anti social behavior are pretty much ubiquitous in one-percenter gangs, at least in the past. Many gangs have reigned some of the wild antics in a bunch but the racist, sexist, jingoistic mentality and violent criminal activity still goes on.

Also, there's no way they'd be wearing their colors all the time like they do in the show. I'm not familiar with the laws in Charming but in the real world that's a great way to get pinched.

as a side note, If anyone else is interested in biker gangs too you should try to get your hands on a book called Freewheelin' Frank, Secretary of The Angels. It's out of print now but I easily found a cheap copy online. It's one of the most bizarre and fascinating books I've ever read. It's also the best, most in depth book I've read about the Hell's Angels, their culture and activities. It's a sorta memoir/drugged out rant written in 1967 by Frank Reynolds, the then Secretary of the San Francisco Hell's Angels. It's great read for anyone interested in outlaw biker culture, The Hell's Angels in particular, as well as their introduction to and crossover with the 60's freak-out drug scene. There's a great part where Frank talks about the infamous party thrown for them by Ken Kesey at his place in La Honda, also talked about in Electric Kool Aid Acid Test and Hunter Thompson's Hell's angels book. It's really wild to read about the party through the eyes of a Hell's Angel instead of a journalist.

[Rick in Salt Lake]

I, too, enjoyed the first two season of the show and thought the third was poop.

Besides being a bit silly, I thought part o the problem with the thrid season is that, while Charlie Hunan does a decent job for the most part, he struck me as lacking a certain... I guess darkness or "ooomph" that would give his mantra of "I just wanna get my son back" an emotional power...

I noticed at the PA state fair in Bloomsburg they were now selling bootleg Sons of Anarchy shirts. Instead of Redwood Original in the logo, they added a bunch of local PA town names.

How quickly do you think somebody donning one of those shirts in a biker bar would get the holy shit kicked out of them? Please give your answer to the nearest tenth of a second...

[wood and iron]

I, too, enjoyed the first two season of the show and thought the third was poop.

Besides being a bit silly, I thought part o the problem with the thrid season is that, while Charlie Hunan does a decent job for the most part, he struck me as lacking a certain... I guess darkness or "ooomph" that would give his mantra of "I just wanna get my son back" an emotional power...

I noticed at the PA state fair in Bloomsburg they were now selling bootleg Sons of Anarchy shirts. Instead of Redwood Original in the logo, they added a bunch of local PA town names.

How quickly do you think somebody donning one of those shirts in a biker bar would get the holy shit kicked out of them? Please give your answer to the nearest tenth of a second...

-12.5 seconds. There would be a ripple in the time space fabric making his ass kicked as he reached for the sticky bar door handle.

[KickTheBobo]

I'm now closing in on finishing the first season, and can safely say that this show pretty much stinks.

It's so over-the-top and predictable. This is the sort of thing that gets created when dumb people are really motivated.

Sure, I need to suspend my disbelief, but certain parts that really irked me are:

POSSIBLE SPOLIERS!

- You idiots couldn't even put the AK47s into garbage bags before hiding them in the sewage trucks? Wouldn't this pretty much ruin and expensive weapon.

- The Masturbator - not funny or clever or the least bit edgy, just annoying.

- The hostess at the Chinese restaurant - Really? It's 2011, chief.

- If you've ever had your nose broken (Cherry) the LAST thing you would do would be to shortly afterwards have a makeout session

- Tig and his *totally outrageous & shocking* sexual proclivities. "Get outta here before I rape you both." Gimme a friggin break.

- That dumb SOA hat that the baby wears at the hospital.

- Naming your kid Abel

- Jeez, I really wonder if Gemma and Clay have something they are hiding about Jax's father's death.

- The overuse of swear words.

- Sheriff Roscoe Foghorn Leghorn

- That stupid theme song that is pretty much just a rip off of Kenny Wayne Shepard's "Blue on Black".

- The fact that the only woman that has been featured thus far (Ep , that has gone "against the club" (Opie's Mom), is played by an overweight woman, instead of a hottie. She even has to mention her "fat ass" at one point.

and so much more.

The one phrase that I find myself saying continually during this show is "Oh, come ON!".