Sons Of Anarchy is a crime drama, television series that aired on FX.

When the show begins we are introduced to the bandit motorcycle club, Sons Of Anarchy, the Northern California chapter, headed by the president Clarence Morrow, Clay (Ron Perlman, Hellboy) and his manipulative, vociferous wife, Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal, Married….With Children). 

The most memorable character, Jackson Teller, Jax (Charlie Hunnam, Queer As Folk) is the son of Gemma and the club’s founder, late John Teller, JT. As Vice President of the club he focuses himself on planning ways to overtake Clay and transform the club into a more law-biding, civilized SAMCRO. 

Jax discovers The Life And Death Of Sam Crow transcripts that his father had written. The transcripts explain how the club and it’s members are doomed for failure under the leadership of Clay. Jax begins to question his father’s death and the involvement that Gemma and Clay play in it.

The entire town, especially the Chief of Police, Wayne Unser (Dayton Callie) appears to be involved with the illicit gun trading club, but he forms a deeper bond with Gemma. Wayne begins to exhibit some health issues and decides to visit his primary physician. The doctor’s visit only reveals what Wayne was expecting all along, cancer.

Clay continues to run the club with the help of Juan Carlos Ortiz, Juice (Theo Rossi), Alex Trager, Tig (Kim Coates, Waterworld),  Filip Telford, Chibs (Tommy Flanagan, Braveheart), and Robert Munson, Bobby Elvis (Mark Boone, Jr., Batman Begins). While some members of the club begin to die off, Clay works diligently making plans for his exit from the club, which will not be very long because his arthritis is beginning to rapidly becoming debilitative.

Jax has plans to leave SAMCRO and become a husband to his wife, Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff, Funny People) and father to his two sons, but things are not that easy.

Will Jax discover how his father truly died? Will he and Tara buy a White House with a picket fence and live happily ever after, or will Gemma stand in their way? 

Afterthought

This thriller appears to have been based partly on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the motorcycle gangs that were formed by Vietnam veterans. When the Vietnam veterans returned from the war, they were psychologically affect negatively by the war. With no where to turn, no jobs, and feeling like the government turned their back on them they became rebels and formed motorcycle gangs. As was some of the characters of the SOA television series. 

Review

I feel the first three seasons of SOA were very strong but the special effects begin the change for the worse. Some of the dialogue became kind of raunchy with unnecessary vulgar language. The main plot was focused on JT’s transcripts and his death, which carried out at a very slow pace, until the truth was revealed.

A big change in special effects also damaged the series. While the show is certainly on a downward spiral, everyone should at least check out the first two or three seasons. From there, you should know whether or not you want continue to ride with the Sons of Anarchy. At this point, the series deserves a 7.5.