Why The Mid Seasons of “Sons of Anarchy” Are a True Foundational Centerpiece To The Story As a Whole
And a hesitant but brief semi-defense of the notoriously least loved previous season 3 of one of the most remarkable series ever, IMO.
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Rewatches are one of my favorite things if it’s a movie, series, documentary, or comedy special worth watching. I love not only seeing it with fresh eyes but a fresh perspective as well. Hopefully, a wiser mind as well, not just an older one.
So I’ve recently (at times, admittedly loosely) started rewatching one of my all-time favorite series Sons of Anarchy, with no intention of writing about it when I began doing so. Yes, it was hard getting through the inevitable cheesiness that occurs as the actors develop into the characters we come to know and love, no matter how good or evil, or better yet and more likely, some of both. The perfect character has the right mix of both.
Think about it, Ned Flanders has no real fans and moves no real merch. He’s too pure, you can’t trust it. It would help if you had some dirt on a fellow, or at the very least, knowingly suspect some exists.
I’m not much of a Charlie Hunham fan, but I love me some Jax Teller. I’ll never watch his version of King Arthur, but I will watch Jax Teller shoot his Mother in the head with tears in his eyes, with her blessing, time and time again.
And I argue, seasons three and four are precisely when he becomes the real Jax Teller, with the violent but necessary aftermaths of seasons 1 and 2 no doubt carried by him, his family, and the club, after. Maybe not always the Jax we wanted him to be, but the one he needed to be, for club, self, and show. For story. For character.
From having his kid taken to one-upping every law enforcement agency local or federal, time and time again, doing time, ducking charges, brokering deals he should have never been big enough or smart enough to but was.
To get it all back and in semi-safe standing, only to learn his stepfather beat his mother, killed his real father back in the wild ’90s, and then tried to have the mother of his children whacked by a Mexican cartel assassin, severing her…
