Not Your Average Biker Gang

In the small town of Charming, there are no rules for the biker outlaws known as the “Sons of Anarchy,” aka SAMCRO. An intense thrill ride full of shootouts and knockout punches, season one is simply riveting, and has all the makings to be the next “Sopranos.”

The Sons of Anarchy run a legal bike shop while running guns illegally. Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman, “Hellboy”), is the leader of the club, and is violently old-school, while his stepson and the club’s vice president Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam, “Hooligans”) has thoughts about changing the way the organization is run after reading his dead father’s journal.

An intriguing, character-driven show, you can easily be attached to many of the other personas as well, one of whom is Clay’s wife and Jax’s mother, Gemma Teller Morrow, (Katey Sagal, “Married with Children”), a manipulating woman who tries to protect her son and push away Jax’s first love, Tara Knowles, played by the charming Maggie Siff (“Michael Clayton”). Tough, witty and not backing down from anyone, Gemma may seem overprotective, but her beliefs about family show her tough spirit and knowledge on how to protect her son and the club. Even though the members are violent and abominable criminals, their charismatic and comedic personalities will make you want to root for them.

Throughout the first season, the Sons of Anarchy deal with a rival biker gang known as the Mayans. Often times, dangerous and drastic wars between these bitter rivals break out, involving heavy shootouts. With plenty of shady situations taking place involving the Mayans doing what they can to undermine SAMCRO, the Sons of Anarchy hold their own and take care of business in the grittiest way possible.

The relationship that SAMCRO has with the law is also quite fascinating. Their ability to control the chief and deputy of Charming and get away with murder is what makes season one so intense. However, when ATF rolls into town, they’re sure get under the skin of SOA by raiding their clubhouse and continuously trying to put them away for good. Agent June Stahl (Ally Walker, “Universal Soldier”) becomes a real inconvenience for SAMCRO when she tries to pull out all of the stops and find any way possible to put the heat on them.

The turning point of season one is when agent Stahl conceives a setup and detains one of the members of the club, Opie, (Ryan Hurst, “Everwood”), making the others believe that he is a snitch, which in turn inspires Clay to try to kill him, but the plan backfires when a member of the club kills someone incredibly special to Opie.

When Jax finds out that Opie is not a rat and was killed by several members of the club, he questions their principles and decides to make a change.

Overall, season one of “Sons of Anarchy” was enjoyable. Each episode brought something new to the table, becoming even more thrilling and exciting to watch as it developed and definitely has the right ingredients for a good show. You’d better think twice before riding through Charming.