Episode Commentary: Straw
Whoa. The ending to the season six premiere of “Sons of Anarchy” was water cool talk wasn’t it? With the recent headline garnering events in Aurora and Newtown, you have to wonder if the show is treading in water it can’t eventually swim out of. Show creator Kurt Sutter has said the plotline revolving around a child (Tate Berney) who used one of the club’s illegal guns to shoot up a school, is necessary because it leads the show into its final act.
Guess we’ll just have to see about that.
Slow moving and somewhat run of the mill, the season premiere was anything but charming. Even the sex scene between Jax and the madame was a bit dry. For the most part, the show felt like a bunch of old friends hanging out and getting reacquainted and not a continuation of the breakneck drama it was a year ago.
To make matters worse, some of the scenes were downright bizarre. Right off the bat in the show’s opening scene, it’s obvious that Gemma’s grandson wasn’t crying, but a crying noise was clearly audible. Poor sound editing? You think? For a second, it looked like the kid was doing a voice-over in a “Godzilla” flick. A later scene involving Gemma and a prospect where he called her “mam” and she quickly placed his hand on her breast and said that now he couldn’t call her that anymore, was just plain weird. While the show often has small silly moments like this, many of the hiccups this episode were due to poor writing, especially in terms of dialogue.
And let’s not even start on the performance of Tara’s lawyer, Ally Lowen, played by Robin Weigert. She’s been on the show for years and usually been sound, but this episode, it looked like her yes were going to pop out her head. When did she forget how to act?
Away from the mistakes, this episode sets the scene for a bunch of new feuds. The addition of Peter Weller as former cop turned crime kingpin Charlie Barosky (Robocop) is an interesting one. The same thing goes for Kim Dickens, who plays the Madame Jax quickly sleeps with after knowing for just a few minutes.
With Otto, Clay and Tara rotting in jail as well and the continued influence of Lee Toric (Donal Louge) and the fate of Tigg in the balance, thanks to Damon Pope’s death, the multiple plotline structure will be a strong one this season, even if it didn’t start out that way.
Regardless, you have to wonder if this biker gang is still riding strong or ready to chug into the sunset. The first five seasons were some of the best cable drama of all time, but after a stalling plod of a season premiere, how much does this show have left in its tank?
Leave a Reply