Forever Sam Crow, or, Sons of Anarchy knows how to play my feelings like a cheap fiddle
I've got hooked on Sons of Anarchy recently. It's awesome. The title sequence isn't as great as True Blood or The Wire, but it's still pretty damn good, one of those ones where you go "woohoo!" when the song starts. "Riding through this world, all alone..."
I think it probably fails the Bechdel test, sample dialogue between Gemma and Tara being, "If you love the man, you learn to love the club." (Although consensus on the internet seems to be that SOA treats the women better than real-life outlaw motorbike clubs do.) But Gemma. Oh, Gemma. Falls right into my 'Dangerous MILF' type (see also: Supernatural's Ellen; Glee's Sue; Michelle Forbes' roles in BSG and True Blood). When she's not smashing a (younger, prettier) rival in the face with a skateboard or giving her junkie ex-daughter-in-law the means to kill herself, she's having the following exchange with the club sociopath:Tig (plaintive): I got nothin' but admiration for you. Why'd you have to give me so much grief?
Gemma (dismissive): It's my nature. I'm a giver.
Extra lolz: the guy who played Nathan Maloney (pouting Canal St jailbait) on Queer as Folk (British QAF, ie proper QAF) now plays Jax Teller (conflicted semi-grizzly California biker). N'awwwwww, he's all growed up. And he's a Geordie. And his first part was in Byker Grove. Why aye, man.
But oh, the contrast between the episode endings for the season one finale ('The Revelator') and the season two opener ('Albification'). I have only seen up to 'Albification', and I'm a bit spoilered for the rest of the series, but I don't want any more.
Also, warning for rape.
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So, the end of 'The Revelator'. Jax has shown up at Donna's funeral (arranged by the club members who accidentally had her killed, and are now frantically lying to her club-member husband), broken-down, hungover, wearing an improbably white t-shirt to everybody else's black. He kisses his non-club, hated-by-Gemma girlfriend, defiantly, in front of everyone. Then he's handed an undamaged copy of his father's memoirs (The Life and Death of Sam Crow: How the Sons of Anarchy Lost Their Way) by Donna's husband's father, who says it's time for a change. The episode ends with this perfectly staged shot of him standing before John Teller's grave, holding his memoirs, framed by all the other war veterans' graves and flags. The camera pulls back, Curtis Stigers sings John the Revelator, and Clay and Gemma watch, knowing this is probably a game-breaker.
It's gorgeous. It's soaring. It's just melodramatic enough, without becoming farcical. It's a defiant, line-in-the-sand, something's-gotta-change moment. Jax is growing the fuck up and stepping out of Clay's shadow. The song in the background fits just right, and it was only after I read Kurt Sutter's blog that I realised "who's that writing? John the revelator" was a reference to John Teller's memoirs.
...And then the end of 'Albification' just takes all that magnificent, soaring hope and defiance and crushes it like a bug. It's nasty. Of course Gemma gets captured by the white supremacists because she runs out of her car without her gun, because she hears a woman screaming for help because her baby's choking. That's how Gemma rolls. She's a mama bear. The scenes of Bobby's release party and Jax and Tara in bed are interspersed with horrifying close-ups on Gemma's eyes as she's gang-raped. It's not played for titillation at all. You cheer each time she kicks one of them, knowing she can't possibly win this fight. You just hope Gemma's howl of "you know who I am, and you know what I can do to you!" pans out, because damn, you really want to see her wreak bloody revenge for this.
I think it probably fails the Bechdel test, sample dialogue between Gemma and Tara being, "If you love the man, you learn to love the club." (Although consensus on the internet seems to be that SOA treats the women better than real-life outlaw motorbike clubs do.) But Gemma. Oh, Gemma. Falls right into my 'Dangerous MILF' type (see also: Supernatural's Ellen; Glee's Sue; Michelle Forbes' roles in BSG and True Blood). When she's not smashing a (younger, prettier) rival in the face with a skateboard or giving her junkie ex-daughter-in-law the means to kill herself, she's having the following exchange with the club sociopath:Tig (plaintive): I got nothin' but admiration for you. Why'd you have to give me so much grief?
Gemma (dismissive): It's my nature. I'm a giver.
Extra lolz: the guy who played Nathan Maloney (pouting Canal St jailbait) on Queer as Folk (British QAF, ie proper QAF) now plays Jax Teller (conflicted semi-grizzly California biker). N'awwwwww, he's all growed up. And he's a Geordie. And his first part was in Byker Grove. Why aye, man.
But oh, the contrast between the episode endings for the season one finale ('The Revelator') and the season two opener ('Albification'). I have only seen up to 'Albification', and I'm a bit spoilered for the rest of the series, but I don't want any more.
Also, warning for rape.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
So, the end of 'The Revelator'. Jax has shown up at Donna's funeral (arranged by the club members who accidentally had her killed, and are now frantically lying to her club-member husband), broken-down, hungover, wearing an improbably white t-shirt to everybody else's black. He kisses his non-club, hated-by-Gemma girlfriend, defiantly, in front of everyone. Then he's handed an undamaged copy of his father's memoirs (The Life and Death of Sam Crow: How the Sons of Anarchy Lost Their Way) by Donna's husband's father, who says it's time for a change. The episode ends with this perfectly staged shot of him standing before John Teller's grave, holding his memoirs, framed by all the other war veterans' graves and flags. The camera pulls back, Curtis Stigers sings John the Revelator, and Clay and Gemma watch, knowing this is probably a game-breaker.
It's gorgeous. It's soaring. It's just melodramatic enough, without becoming farcical. It's a defiant, line-in-the-sand, something's-gotta-change moment. Jax is growing the fuck up and stepping out of Clay's shadow. The song in the background fits just right, and it was only after I read Kurt Sutter's blog that I realised "who's that writing? John the revelator" was a reference to John Teller's memoirs.
...And then the end of 'Albification' just takes all that magnificent, soaring hope and defiance and crushes it like a bug. It's nasty. Of course Gemma gets captured by the white supremacists because she runs out of her car without her gun, because she hears a woman screaming for help because her baby's choking. That's how Gemma rolls. She's a mama bear. The scenes of Bobby's release party and Jax and Tara in bed are interspersed with horrifying close-ups on Gemma's eyes as she's gang-raped. It's not played for titillation at all. You cheer each time she kicks one of them, knowing she can't possibly win this fight. You just hope Gemma's howl of "you know who I am, and you know what I can do to you!" pans out, because damn, you really want to see her wreak bloody revenge for this.