Sons of Anarchy
I was, at first, hesitant. I’m about as far from the bike gangs of California as I am from the Yakuza gangs of Tokyo and neither held any special appeal to me. Although I’d watched gangs do business in Baltimore and drug cooks in Albuquerque, the idea of becoming invested in a series that portrayed a group of white trash bikers roughing up a neighbourhood, especially in this political climate, was not one I relished.
The first episode did little to dissuade me of this opinion, as too-good-looking-by-half meatheads indulged in misogyny and violence. Little seemed to occur besides some cliched gang violence and large dollops of casual racism. The Mexican characters spoke English to each other, even when alone. The burnt corpses of two dead immigrant workers are needlessly focuses on.
And yet. Lacking anything else to have on in the background after dinnertime, we put on the second episode. It was here things began to shift. Characters began to demonstrate subtle nuances, storylines I assumed would be dragged over an entire season were concluded within this, the second episode. The Captain America cop, set up as the gang’s primary antagonist, becomes something more rounded after the second hour. The gang’s leader went from aging thug to aging vulnerable thug. Its storytelling was blunt but effective and seeds were sown for further explorations not just of the characters but of opinioning as to their place in the town through which they ride.
After a season and a half, I’m hooked. The metanarrative has finally come into play and, although obvious from the start, is proving to be more interesting than anticipated. The secondary characters and gangs have woven themselves through the story in interesting ways. Hell, even the romantic subplots got their shit in order and avoided the usual melodrama.
This is a series written with affection for its characters, and skill with skill in its storytelling. It’s not perfect, the misogyny continues as does the casual and not so casual racism, but these are tempered somewhat by a number of strong female characters and the primary antagonist role being handed to white supremacists. The series is, at its heart, good natured towards characters that probably don’t deserve as such, but they are drawn so well you cannot help riding alongside them.
This is the first entry in my ongoing series of freewritten doodlings. The rational behind this is here: https://goo.gl/hi9Ub7
