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“Sons of Anarchy” goes wonderfully crazy

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:49:00 +0000

My old friend David Dixon coined a phrase that popped into my head several times during the fourth-season finale of "Sons of Anarchy" -- maximum ludicrosity. It means just what you think it means: an already ludicrous story piles on twists so blazingly nutty that it hits a giddy new peak and becomes, in its way, sublime. This episode, which was written by series creator Kurt Sutter and Chris Collins and directed by Sutter, hit that point the second that the combined federal-local bust of the Sons of Anarchy, the Irish Kings and the Gallindo Cartel was preceded by two supposed members of the latter clan flashing CIA badges at assistant U.S. District Attorney Lincoln Potter. At first I thought it was a scam and wondered why Linc didn't tell them to take their thumbs off the ID photos on those "real" badges. But no: It turns out they were spooks all along!

“Sons of Anarchy”: What happens next, daddy?

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:18:00 +0000

When Charles Dickens was at the peak of his popularity, Americans used to wait on East Coast docks for the latest chapters of his serialized novels to arrive. TV dramas are our version of that. The best have that mix of shamelessness and sophistication that Dickens refined into art -- or at the very least, artful melodrama -- and the FX biker drama "Sons of Anarchy" is right up there in the pantheon. Its cliffhanger episode endings are among the most addictive I've seen, and last night offered a great example: a three-way standoff between the increasingly evil gang boss Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman), his disaffected lieutenant Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and the vengeful Opie (Ryan Hurst), who discovered his dad's reeking body and was informed that Clay secretly killed him. Everything about the standoff was utterly shameless: the race-to-the-finish-line lead-up; Opie's tearful speech; Opie leveling his gun at Clay at the precise moment when Jax burst in and screamed at him to drop it; the shot of Clay's body slamming against a wall; Jax's horrified close-up. Cut to black, roll credits. Is he dead? Was he wearing a bulletproof vest?

“Sons of Anarchy” has its “Sopranos” moment

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:01:00 +0000

Last night's "Sons of Anarchy" was the best episode this season, and one of the best single episodes the show has produced. At its best, it reminded me of a late "Sopranos" episode, "Members Only," with which it shared certain fascinations -- mainly a ruthless awareness of what sort of characters the show has chosen as its heroes.

"Sopranos" fans will recall that sixth-season episode. It was uncomfortable not just because of its horrifically violent acts, which included the shooting of a major character, but because of its tragic awareness that there was really no way out for these gangsters -- the life that they thought of as completely free was in fact a prison without bars, a walking death. It was the episode in which a mob informant decided he'd had enough of the life and naively asked to leave it, only to be reminded that this was not the sort of job one could just leave. He ended up hanging himself by a rope -- not unlike the half-black Juice on "Sons of Anarchy." Pushed into ratting on the Sons by a new sheriff who threatened to expose his lack of racial purity to the motorcycle club, Juice ended up trying and failing to hang himself from a tree like the "Strange Fruit" described in Billie Holiday's song, the episode's de facto theme. (It was an attempted self-lynching, one of the most spectacular acts of internalized racism and self-loathing that's ever been seen on American TV; the racism of the club and the government's exploitation of it drove Juice to wrap that chain around his neck.)

Kurt Sutter’s family values

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:05:00 +0000

Writer-producer Kurt Sutter made news this summer for reasons that had nothing to do with the content of his show, the FX biker drama "Sons of Anarchy" (Tuesdays, 10 p.m./9 Central). Furious that "Sons" -- a critically acclaimed but rough series that costars his wife, Katey Sagal -- had been shut out of the 2011 Emmys, Sutter made his displeasure known via his Twitter feed, blasting the Emmys' governing body, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and mocking shows and performers that did get a lot of nominations.

“If my mom and dad were alive, this Emmy snub would kill them," he said. "That’s not true, they were too old to understand my show. Just like the Academy.” And, "Broke into an Academy member’s porn locker. Found sticky fully-clothed photos of Mariska Hargitay, Kathy Bates…and ['Mad Men'] creator Matt Weiner. Very odd." Even Fox's feel-good musical fantasy wasn't safe from his ire: "Fuck 'Glee.' Hate those annoying, 'Please accept me for who I am' singing brats. There, I said it. are you happy?"

“Sons of Anarchy” comes roaring back to TV

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:07:00 +0000

[This article contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 1 of "Sons of Anarchy." Read at your own risk.]

The biker drama "Sons of Anarchy," which returned for a fourth season on FX tonight, has had drastic creative ups and downs -- especially last year, when it was often terrible. But it was never less than an ambitous show with an outlaw spirit. Tonight's premiere, "Out" -- in which the gang gets out of prison after 14 months and returns to find that its hometown of Charming has changed -- is "Sons" at its finest, easily one of the best individual episodes of a drama that I've seen this year. The elapsed time between this season and the last gives the show a chance to put the overreaching of Season 3, with its high-stakes Ireland adventure, behind it, and become centered again. The hour is executed with an easygoing swagger that's the hallmark of artists who know what they're doing and why.

“Anarchy,” “Glee”: As subtle as pulling a knife on a baby

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:01:00 +0000

We are not living in the age of subtlety. If you don't pick up a golf club, your husband may not grasp the emotional weight of your request that he stay and hear you out. If you don't create a horrifying national spectacle by dangling your own child's survival enticingly in front of the news cameras, producers may not show much interest in your big idea for a reality TV show, starring you. Without the courage to crash a dinner party thrown by the leaders of the free world, you may never win the public scorn and widespread notoriety that is the American dream.

Subtle parents, subtle teachers, subtle businesspeople, subtle leaders are passed over daily in search of something brighter and shinier and more full of obvious, ham-handed promise. We have grown into an insecure nation filled with jittery souls who seek the big, showy reassurances of corporate and commercial entities full of win-win scenarios. We don't want to weight costs against benefits with smart, balanced adults. We think the word "compromise" means we'll have to give up some of our toys. We are impatient children who want Disney princesses as mommies, Iron Man as daddies, and Barney the Dinosaur in the White House.

“Sons of Anarchy”: Badass or just bad?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:01:00 +0000

James Dean misled us. Rebellion without cause isn't sexy after all. In fact, in hindsight, it just looks like a bunch of impetuous foot-stomping, particularly to those of us who are too busy spot-cleaning stubborn laundry stains and paying our life insurance premiums to make a big show of going against the grain.

Yes, of course the governments of the world are a big joke, society is full of shit, rules are made for breaking, common wisdom is anything but wise, blah blah blah. You won't find any arguments from us there. But that doesn't mean we're going to run around setting shit on fire. Walking on the wild side, shunning conformity -- that kind of unfocused lashing out sounds so exhausting. Who has the kind of time and money it takes to exercise their free will anymore?

Maybe if we were loaded and had lots of handservants to keep us organized and vacuum our floors and watch our kids, then we could lounge about, chain-smoking and questioning authority and such. Surely filthy rich capitalists have the resources for extracurricular sticking-it-to-the-man types of activities. Yes, once we're landed gentry, then we can challenge the dominant paradigm at our leisure, just like Karl Marx and his tony surrealist friends!

I Like to Watch

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:20:00 +0000

I'm over this fall TV season. Like a dull girl who hides her below-average intelligence by cultivating a mysterious vibe -- mostly by keeping her mouth shut and refusing to put out -- the fall TV season somehow teased us into submission. She flashed a little thigh in mid-June, made one half-assed joke at the television critics' tour in late July, claimed not to believe in sex before marriage throughout September (while sleeping around like a filthy whore behind our backs), then she threw herself on us in October, sticking a rough, sluggy tongue down our throats and pledging her undying love forever and ever while we reeled in agony.

We're supposed to believe that the pseudo-scientific ass-hattery of "Fringe" is a cult hit? No amount of Kool-Aid can make me watch a show about a tangle of idiotic conspiracies, a kooky mad scientist, and an eeeevil corporate entity run by a one-handed Cruella de Vil. We're supposed to be excited to watch two guys fiddling with bamboo pea-shooters on NBC's "Crusoe"? NBC's "Knight Rider" is a big hit? Who do they think they're kidding?

And that's not to mention HBO's "Life and Times of Tim" and CBS's "Worst Week," two positively awful, irredeemable messes that it's hard to believe made it onto the air in the first place