Full Throttle
I actually hadn’t heard of “Sons of Anarchy” before receiving this first season in for review. Being on FX and coming from Kurt Sutter, I expected a strictly R or MA level of show, and I wasn’t letdown. “Sons of Anarchy” features plenty of in your face violence and language, but if you can get past the shock value, there’s a fine show in the making here.
So who are the Sons of Anarchy? Well, they’re just your friendly neighborhood bike gang that is involved in a lot of illegal activity; namely running weapons. Ron Perlman, aka Hellboy, stars as Clay Morrow, the present leader of the rough and tough Sons pack. Katey Sagal, formerly Peg on “Married…With Children,” plays Gemma, the mother of Jax and girlfriend of sorts to Clay. Jax, the character on the cover of the box, is played by Charlie Hunnam. Jax is the protagonist of the show and his internal conflict between what the Sons are doing and what he believes his late father would have them do is a constant theme during this first season. While the rest of the Sons gang are contempt with their violent, illegal, and unmoral ways, Jax is that halfway character that seems to be the only one to really stop and wonder about the path the Sons are going down.
His concern is for good reason as the local police, most of whom are paid off, and a fiery ATF agent, are a constant threat to the well being of the Sons. Rival gangs are another concern that keep the Sons on their toes. Meanwhile, Jax’s ex-wife Wendy, a former heavy drug user, is pregnant with their child but it’s a dangerous and uncertain pregnancy. Jax questions the life his son is destined to lead if he continues living the way he currently does.
The sum of the parts makes for an explosively violent and dramatic show that tends to be more entertaining than not. This wasn’t a show that I could just watch through in one or two sittings, like Showtime’s “Dexter,” but the narrative and characters kept me interested and coming back. This is a fine first season for “Sons of Anarchy,” and there’s little doubt that the second season will prove to be as good or better now that the fundamentals are well established.
On Blu-ray
The Blu-ray release of this first season is nicely put together. Of course, expect a 1080p picture and one that is very sharp and vibrant to boot. Grain was a minimal issue and each of the thirteen episodes looks as good as the next with little to nothing to complain about. As for audio, a DTS-HD 5.1 track keeps the action thumping, be it in the form of a explosion, motorcycle engine, or the rock soundtrack.
Extra features include an additional eighty minutes or so of content, on top of three commentary tracks for the “Pilot,” “The Pull,” and “The Revelator” episodes. In addition to those a making of feature running about ten minutes in HD is included, as are two features on the tattoos and bikes used in the show. A gag reel in SD, thirty five minutes of deleted and extended scenes, and a feature about the cast of “Sons” rounds out this intriguing packaged set.
To the summary…
