Sons Of Anarchy: The In-Progress 2nd Second

Sons of Anarchy on F/X was a real surprise last season. I never would have expected to fall head over heels for a show about a biker gang, something that on first glance may have seemed more about kewl violence and blue-collar machismo. But it definitely won me over, and especially with the series’ eighth episode, “The Pull”, with the shocking sequence of events that followed FBI Agent/stalker Josh Kohn attacking Tara in her home. From there on I was in love. I loved the somber closing montage at the end of “Hell Followed,” set to a sad, instrumental version of CCR’s “Prodigal Son.” And the finale! The first season finale, “The Revelator,” was one of my favourite hours of television all season, perfectly setting up a second season I wanted to start watching immediately after the episode ended. It set lead character Jax Teller in a direction he’d been heading towards all season, angry and driven and on a mission to reform the Sons biker club onto a straighter, more righteous path.

And the second season, which premiered in early September, hasn't disappointed in the least. If anything the series has become more intense and more focused.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The series is about the Sons of Anarchy, or SAMCRO, a California biker gang in the small town of Charming. It’s loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with Jax (Charlie Hunnam), the young, reflective club VP, in the Prince Hamlet role, and his step-father, Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman), the current bull-headed President of the gang, in the King Claudius role. The series began with Jax finding a manuscript written by his diseased father—a co-founder of SAMCRO—called "The Life and Death of Sam Crow: How the Sons of Anarchy Lost Their Way." As a result of reading this script Jax began questioning the direction of the club and butting heads more and more with acting-President Clay.

The second season introduced two new storylines: Jax finding the club a new, legitimate business venture (porn), and the introduction of a new villain in Ethan Zobelle (Adam Arkin), the head of the League of American Nationalists, a white separatist gang who attempt to force SAMCRO out of Charming. The first episode of the season started off with a bang with the introduction of this new threat, and it hasn't let up since. One problem this has led to, however, is that the new (and admittedly awesome) frenetic pace has taken away from the more day-to-day inside-a-real-a-biker-gang type stories we saw more of last season.

Another criticism I have: I often wonder if Jax is too smart. It's surprising how someone of his young age and limited experience can know so much (“Up in hospitals, bounty hunters will pay admins to call in names of nefarious types”) or deduce the complex machinations of the show's different players (as in the scene in "Gilead" between him and ATF Agent Stahl). Occasionally it stretches credibility. Can it really just be explained by calling him a genius? However, its a minor complaint, as the series is good at also having Jax make the big mistakes or be completely wrong about something (like this week’s episode with him accusing Clay of burning down the porn warehouse.)

But minor criticisms aside, this has been a stellar season for the show, the highlight of which, for me, was “Gilead,” the episode where the gang was put behind bars and where Clay and Jax finally came to physical blows. This episode was dense, with a lot of plot for just one hour of television: the gang behind bars and in danger, trying to arrange for protection, Opie and Gemma on the outside, each trying to do their parts to help them, the ATF's attempts to work the crew; and that dirty, bloody fight between Clay and Jax, something so completely necessary that the other club members decided not to break it up (Bobby to the others: "They need this!"). And that bitter-sweet ending, with frustrated Jax walking the solo route, ignoring the oblivious Gemma and Tara. This episode was a minor epic for the series, and up there with "The Revelator" for me.

I can’t wait to see how the season’s remaining 3 episodes play out. My prediction: Clay and Jax will find out about what Zobelle did to Gemma and put aside their differences to take him down for good.