Sons of Anarchy

This one definitely took me by surprise.
Just finished it recently... wife and I got hooked on it like crack, watched seasons 1,2 and 3 in just a bit over a week.
Now I'm wishing we'd taken our time.
 
I saw Season 1 on dvd. I had high hopes for it because I really liked The Shield (I think some of the same writers and producers were involved). I thought it was cliched nonsense. It didn't make any sense. What, so we have this small town that has 2 biker gangs, neo nazis, bangers etc etc?

The biker gang makes it's money from selling illegal arms it imports from the IRA in Ireland to the USA? Shouldn't that have been the other way around? Did the writers fail to do any basic research?
 
Seemed plausible enough to me. The small town has one biker gang that keeps all the other gangs out (mostly). The True IRA sells guns to the Sons to finance their own efforts in Ireland, since they have access to plenty of guns but not money. The Sons sell to the 1-9ers and generally remain at odds with the Mayans and the Nords. That's the black guys, Hispanics and neo-nazis respectively.

The first season is pretty good, lots of stuff happens but it's really a slow boil for when the sh!t hits the fan in season 2 (and I assume 3, haven't gotten to watch that yet).
 
Justin Kuhn said:
Seemed plausible enough to me. The True IRA sells guns to the Sons to finance their own efforts in Ireland, since they have access to plenty of guns but not money.
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No. Sorry. That is completely implausible.
In one of the episodes a ship rocks up with Oil drums from Ireland (that is itself completely implausible). The drums are filled with AK47's the IRA are shipping to the USA.

Back on planet earth anyone who cared to do even a cursory check would understand that the IRA had tried any number of different ways to import arms into Ireland - one of the steadiest streams was from the USA. Arms are completely illegal in Ireland, and impossible to get (the other big stream came from Colonel Gaddafi in Libya).

To have a story revolving around arms being exported from Ireland (where they are impossible to buy) to the USA (where lets face it they can be sourced easily enough) is just plain lousy storytelling.
 
Great character for Perlman. He is a very underrated actor. Think Salvatore in The Name of the Rose, still my favorite character of his.
 
simonpwood said:
No. Sorry. That is completely implausible.
In one of the episodes a ship rocks up with Oil drums from Ireland (that is itself completely implausible). The drums are filled with AK47's the IRA are shipping to the USA.

Back on planet earth anyone who cared to do even a cursory check would understand that the IRA had tried any number of different ways to import arms into Ireland - one of the steadiest streams was from the USA. Arms are completely illegal in Ireland, and impossible to get (the other big stream came from Colonel Gaddafi in Libya).

To have a story revolving around arms being exported from Ireland (where they are impossible to buy) to the USA (where lets face it they can be sourced easily enough) is just plain lousy storytelling.
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Well the story is actually that the Sons are buying from the IRA, who get guns from a "Russian Pipeline". So presumably, that pipeline is rich enough that they can sell off some surplus to fund other IRA activities. They are always very clear that the guns are not actually coming from Ireland. Maybe through Ireland. But AK-47s are very very plentiful in Russia, and not nearly as controlled as they ought to be, thus very very plentiful on the black market. So I actually don't think the logic is as off as you're making it.

But in general, I think they do cover up a multitude of sins in this show with a heavy dollup of pure, old fashioned CHEESE. So I'm not surprised if there are some logical flaws. That's just not one of them.

Did I mention it has Ron Perlman as an ass-kicking biker?

I'm also very excited to see Katey Segal in a really good role. She's another amazing actor who does not work nearly enough. And she has great range from Married with Children, to LOST, to Futurama, to this. Love love love her. I think she has a tendency to overact though, so she really needs a director to keep her in check. I've noticed her acting's gotten better rolling into season II, a lot more subtle and contained. I would love to get my hands on her someday...as a director, I mean.
 
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Well, as this is fiction I suppose we can imagine another reality where the IRA has a surplus of weapons. I guess I was kind of hoping for a show that would have been more grounded in reality, especially with the whole biking counterculture thing. The whole IRA thing just seemed like the writers were trying to get another extreme group in that small town: "I know lets have a terrorist group along with the neo nazis, bikers, bangers" etc - "Well we cant do al qaeda as they're a bit too extreme, how about the IRA...." etc. It just seems like that whole thing was shoehorned in there and the story was made to fit around it somehow.

Anyway, yeah Ron Perlman is always good to watch, as is Kim Coates who is another underrated actor (everyone knows his face but not his name!).
 
having lived in a small town and worked in a chopper shop i can tell you there spot on as far as the number of organized gangs. allota small towns near bigger metropolitan areas are a haven for ''bike clubs'' as they can generally skirt the law easier through bribes and the simple fact that they don't have the man power to deal with it. we had hells angels and the vagos with club houses within 20 miles of each other as well as the mexican x-13 and the usual rabble of crip/blood activity that would make it's way in on occasion. most citizens probably never new about the goings on as the clubs kept everything low key in city limits but would wreak havoc elsewhere. all in all, a very realistic depiction.
 
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