S.A.M.C.R.O.

“I’m tired of being crushed under the weight of greedy men who believe in nothing.”

- Jax Teller, Sons of Anarchy

The Walking Dead made me a zombie. Breaking Bad got me addicted. But Sons, Sons invited me to be part of the brotherhood.

From the above I suppose you can tell that I am a fan of those niche television dramas that have a cast full of characters that you are primed to love, and then you are forced to watch die off in excruciating ways.

It's hard to say what’s attractive about that. Perhaps it is akin to that Haruki Murakami quote; “Everyone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world to come.” Maybe in some strange way watching these small worlds on television implode due to greed, violence and the fallacy of humankind is darkly appealing.

I am now on the cusp of finishing this series via Netflix (Oh praise the streaming gods!). And yes, I realize I am about 3 years behind everyone else, but that’s my preference. No bandwagons and no commercials. I can also hear most of you screaming, “How can you write about it if you haven’t seen the ending?” Simple, because life’s a journey, not a destination. And I’ve know that the final episode is not the way to judge a long running series that’s brought me such high levels of entertainment. In other words, I’m not hanging my entire opinion of the entire show on however the last episode turns out.

For me, Sons had a great deal of things I liked; human drama, Chibs, and even a Stephen King cameo. Most of all it had characters that weren’t typical. I hate rooting for that white-washed hero that has no self-doubt, nothing to hide, and no scars. I like the characters that walk the line, and more to the point, sometimes feel that they need to roll up their sleeves and move the line themselves. I also like a good “villain seeking redemption angle” (à la Meryl from TWD). SOA had many rich characters that did both those things, sometimes those two traits were rolled into the same character. I enjoy that dichotomy within a character’s moral fiber- that battle of what they feel needs doing versus that which they feel is just. Both major and minor characters alike seemed to have at least a spark of that written into them on SOA. Which makes it extremely hard for a guy like me to hammer down a solitary favorite character. But that’s a damn good problem to have.

I know rumor has it that there’s supposed to be a SOA prequel in development and a potential spinoff centering on the Mayans MC, and I will definitely be interested in those if they come to fruition. Not only interested, but I won’t be waiting years after the shows air in order to watch.

However, until then I do have the last episode laying in wait. And as I did with Breaking Bad, I will procure an appropriately themed bomber of a fine craft beer, get comfortable and see where the MC’s last ride takes them...