Sons of Anarchy (2008 - 2014), Series
Ending Episode (Papa’s Goods)
Three and half Stars out of Five
TV MA LSV (Language, Sexual situations, Violence)
Crime/Drama
Jackson Teller: Charlie Hunnam
Gemma Teller: Katey Sagal
Creator/Writer: Kurt Sutter
Most of the best stories being written and broadcast on
television have for the past decade been violent, often to an extreme. In some
cases such as Breaking Bad, Deadwood or
The Walking Dead, the violence is as essential to the story line as the
lead character. In other equally good stories (such as Homeland or The Wire), violence plays a role but is
generally pushed into the background being used only when essential. The
prominence with which violence is used in the recently concluded Sons of Anarchy series is as astonishing
as its literal or metaphorical purpose is mysterious. To be sure, the outlaw
biker life depicted in the program is likely a violent one, but the extreme level of
it that is used by program creator Kurt Sutter begs to be explained. Is it
merely seven seasons of gratuitous violence, or is Sutter seeking a deeper,
more nuanced meaning? In the early seasons, I had hoped for subtlety, but with
the concluding episode shown on FX this past Tuesday (9Dec2014), I have to
conclude a gratuitous use of violence would have been preferable to the cloudy
thinking that went into the frankly sacrilegious comparison of lead character
Jackson Teller’s actions to those of Jesus Christ.
Season seven was cleverly (if with extreme and brutal
violence) set up with the murder of Teller’s wife, Tara (Maggie Siff) by his mom
Gemma (Katey Sagal). Gemma is saved from prosecution by Teller’s biker teammate, Juice (Theo Rossi).
Throughout season seven, Gemma and Juice maintain their charade even as Jax
starts multiple gangland wars based on his mother’s and Juice’s lies as to who
was responsible for Tara’s murder. When the truth is finally revealed to Jax,
he starts a program to wrap up various loose ends with his motorcycle club,
friends and family. The audience is given an opportunity to witness just how
ruthless and morally decrepit Jax has become. As in the previous six seasons,
Jax employs his sociopathic genius to reach his goals; all but one that is. And that
one is his own fate. He comes to the conclusion he is a danger to his two boys. He deposits them with the mother of the elder boy, Wendy
(Drea de Matteo), and then he sets off to end his own life. Is this intended to be Jax’s
redemption?
Sutter attempts to excuse Jax' depredations over the previous seven seasons in a less
than artful manner via his suicide/self-sacrifice. Near the story’s end,
Jax encounters a homeless woman that had been shown in previous episodes mystically
appearing and disappearing without explanation. She leaves her bread and wine
to give Jax her blanket and tells him it is time to end it. Having received this
permission/guidance from this Mary-like character, Jax collects the lives (and
presumably the souls) of the two thieves that will accompany him to the
hereafter; one August Marks (Billy Brown) nods his acceptance of Jax, while the
second thief, Charles Barosky (Peter Weller) is gunned down without comment.
Jax fleeing the police he himself has set on his tail decides suicide-by-cop is
taking too much time and as such, stretches his arms out crucifixion-style to
run his motorcycle headlong into a truck, whose driver’s only words are “Jesus”. The final
scene is a close up on two crows picking at a piece of wine-stained bread –
just in case anyone missed the first allusion to bread and wine.
Has there ever been a weaker, more offensive attempt to
excuse homicidal behavior than this awful attempt to write off a killer’s
countless murders with a comparison of his suicide to the sacrifice made on the
cross by Jesus? Consider also his mother’s self-delusional excuse for her
murder of Tara: she was looking out for her family. Later, she tells Jax that
she actually really loved Tara and gives him permission to kill/execute her;
which, of course, he does. It would appear there is never any other course of action in life; is
murder the only path forward. One might presume Jax has inherited his mother’s
flawed view of life (especially the lives of others) and her unbelievably feeble excuse, “it’s what we
do”. Are these characters humans or animals, incapable of thought and reason? Seven
seasons of endless and pointless death describe this series. If it had been
merely the pointless, car chase with bad music kind of violence (featured so prominently in season four), one could write the series off as just another
TV version of a b-movie or even more to the point, a video game. But really, Sutter clearly aspires to
something higher; he tries to give some meaning to the endless death and
violence in his series. To my mind, he tries but falls short. His violence has
become in the end nothing more than an addictive drug; there is no meaning,
only a seven year failed effort. And just like some desperate junkie with an
outstretched arm begging for more of their drug of choice, and then dies in some nameless alley, this series
will just fade away, forgotten, leaving not a trace of meaning.
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