Is Sons of Anarchy a good show? Not really, but it sure is persistent. The series has had occasional flashes of greatness—season 2’s villain and aspects of seasons 4 and 5 were very strong—but this seventh and final season begins right after a series’ worst sixth-season which felt bloated even by Kurt Sutter’s standards.
In fact, the seventh season premiere was nearly two hours long, and was actually two and a half hours if you counted the Sons of Anarchy afterword that immediately followed it. It’s not that it was a bad episode so much as just too indulgent and maybe straining a bit too hard to feel “epic.” SoA’s biggest problem has always been that Sutter thinks it’s legitimately great television (just listen to him talk about “Hamlet” as a framework and try not to crack up) instead of just a B-movie pulp vehicle to deliver down and dirty thrills. “Sons” excels when it jettisons its ridiculous pseudo-poetry side and goes fully into its feral gangland wars. [Although even some of that is trying so hard to “shock” us that it risks going so far over the top that we’re numb to what’s going on. In general, it’s hard to get too invested in cartoons.]
That said, I liked Jax’s embrace of his full outlaw side, and the final season promises to see even more rivalries and outmaneuvering from all the key players. Now if only we could whittle the show down to just three unnecessary subplots or characters an episode; like it’d be okay to see Jax’s worst baby mama only if we also don’t have to see that expendable weird guy who hangs around the club…and if you’re not sure which guy I’m talking about, then isn’t that point proven? Grade for Season Premiere: C+ Grade if it Had Only Included One Music Montage: B
Well said.