What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I recently bought and watched season one of Sons of Anarchy. I'm already a fan of the boardgame, so I always wanted to give the show a try. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. I assumed that it would be a slightly less violent and dirty version of Spartacus, except featuring modern bikers instead of Romans aristocrats and their slaves and gladiators. Fortunately, I was wrong about Sons of Anarchy.

The first few episodes were okay. The setup was decent, and while the show wasn't striving for ultra-realism (Irish gun runners operating in California?), many of the details of the setting matched up with my past reading about gangs like the Hell's Angels. Charlie Hunnan seemed like a bold choice for the lead character, while Ron Perlman and Katie Segal seemed like brilliant casting decisions. The rest of the casting seemed to err on the side of choosing good actors over visual stereotypes. And yet, the show seemed to be not much more than a foul-mouthed and violent version of the Dukes of Hazard.

After the early episodes, the writing seemed to get better and better. The characters showed some depth, the stories offered a decent amount of variety, and there was even some occasional humor to lighten the darkness of the setting. Late in the season, the whole show seemed to improve again with a pivotal episode and the aftermath. By the end of the first season, it was clear that this show was intended to be a modern version of Hamlet, complete with a ghost in the form of the diary of Jax's father. Nice touch, with nods to the days of biker clubs made up of military veterans and not violent criminals. However, I am hoping that the diary gets destroyed early in second season, because the guy doing the voiceovers sounds too much like Mister Rogers. I'm a big fan of Mister Rogers, but I would never have asked him to read biker diary entries.

So even though I have heard that the show goes off the rails for an extended period of time until the final season, I am at least willing to give season two of Sons of Anarchy a try. If nothing else, watching the show has certainly heightened my appreciation for the boardgame. Gale Force Nine did a great job of finding a game in the show, and bringing it to life with various mechanics and terminology. It was sometimes funny to watch the show and hear the characters obsessing over things that are central to the game, like having enough cash or getting more guns.

Columbob wrote:

Grudunza wrote: Conversely, after three episodes of the new X-Files, I'm feeling like she just ain't what she used to be. Last night's show was hailed by critics as being a great return to form, and was written by Darin Morgan, who did a few of the classic episodes... But still, I didn't really love it. Some amusing parts, and fun enough, I suppose. But I guess I'm just not connecting with this new run very much, which is too bad.

This is my brother's opinion as well after 2 episodes. He'll soldier on 'cause it's a short run. I'm enjoying the return so far.

Yeah, it's okay. And I'm still a big fan of the series in general, so of course I'm going to watch it all. But I think this, more than other reboots, is suffering from a sense of my not being in the same place I was in the mid-90's, speaking personally, and also television having moved past that. We've had Lost and House and Sherlock and other shows since then which were likely influenced by The X-Files, but I think have also done similar kinds of things better. I don't just mean the special effects, but the writing and acting and production in general.

In a way, this new series is a perfect reboot because it does share so much of the aesthetic and feel of the original show. I think the best thing is that it will introduce a new generation to the show and they will probably geek out on discovering the original series. But for me, beyond the obvious nostalgia appeal and some basic appreciation of the new episodes, it's been kind of like walking into your old elementary school and feeling like, wow, this used to seem so huge, but not so much, anymore.

Shellhead wrote: I recently bought and watched season one of Sons of Anarchy. I'm already a fan of the boardgame, so I always wanted to give the show a try. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. I assumed that it would be a slightly less violent and dirty version of Spartacus, except featuring modern bikers instead of Romans aristocrats and their slaves and gladiators. Fortunately, I was wrong about Sons of Anarchy.

The first two seasons of Sons are okay, but the third season (when they go to Ireland) is fucking AWFUL. I never watched the show anymore after that, so I couldn't say if the later seasons got any better.

I think Sons shows the dliminsihing returns on the whole "white male anit-hero" genre of TV. Jax Teller isn't anywhere close to being as interesting or compelling as characters like Tony Soprano, Walter White, or Raylan Givens. But the bigger problem is that Jax Teller is the least-interesting character on his own show! He's a bland, mopey, pretty boy who wants .. something?!? It was never clear what, exactly, he wanted, or what his father's dying dream was for the club. I remember wanting to hang around with Tig and Clay and Opie more than I ever wanted to hang around with Jax.

Your Dukes of Hazzard comparison nailed it right on the head. My brother once described every single episode of Sons as: "Rednecks get into trouble; rednecks get out of trouble."

Joebot wrote: But the bigger problem is that Jax Teller is the least-interesting character on his own show! He's a bland, mopey, pretty boy who wants .. something?!? It was never clear what, exactly, he wanted, or what his father's dying dream was for the club.

Sounds just like Hamlet, though I admit that it's been a very long time since I read that play.

I think Sons of Anarchy wanted to be The Shield but never came anywhere close to maintaining the constant knife edge tension. Sons achieves it over a few episodes here and there, but The Shield achieved a "no fucking way they're getting out of this" tension from me in almost its entire run.

I watched the first 3 seasons of Sons of Anarchy before finally giving up. Dumb, dumb show.

Seasons 1 & 2 are good, but 2 cliffhangers you into season 3. Season 3 sucks ass. Seasons 4 and 5 are okay, not great. Season 6 is mediocre. Season 7 is awful, but if you're watching it you've probably slogged through enough SoA that you just want to finish it.

I think it starts out with kinda sorta what Kurt Sutter is selling - 'Hamlet on Harleys', but it devolves into Jax's Crisis/Crises of the Day.

Sounds like I should watch season two of Sons of Anarchy and then stop right there. I'm cool with that. I gave up on BSG at the end of season three with no regrets.

If we're kicking Kurt Sutter around, I tried to watch The Bastard Executioner, but couldn't really get into it. My inner Medieval Warfare nerd was insulted that the townsfolk, armed with sticks and armored with a burlap shirt, wouldn't pick up a bunch of free chain mail and swords laying around after a little battle that they somehow won. However they did it, it wasn't with the Welsh bowmen that literally lived in the neighborhood. At that point I could no longer suspend my disbelief. I bitched about it to the missus, but she just looked at me like I was an idiot. That's not news to her, though, and I guess she loves me in spite of my inner 13-year-old.

Shellhead wrote: Sounds like I should watch season two of Sons of Anarchy and then stop right there. I'm cool with that. I gave up on BSG at the end of season three with no regrets.

There is a space battle near the end of the final season that was pretty great. I think there was an entire season that felt like filler where they hung out on dirtworld. I mostly fast forwarded through those.