Sons of Anarchy (Season 1)

Sons of Anarchy: follows a group of Californian outlaw bikers as their gang is squeezed by rivals, the cops, the feds, and themselves. The main story lies with Jax, the second-in-command of the gang, who’s dead dad co-founded it with the current leader, but after finding his dad’s unpublished book, he realises that SAMCRO has gone down a bad route – this is a good foundation for the show, but the ‘dead dad narration’ angle is cheesy beyond belief. To keep it interesting, the writers have stuffed in as much sexy chicks, loud Harley bikes, stacks of money, booze, gunfights, boxing as they could shove in, to appeal to the manly man inside you. Yet, despite all of the fireworks, it always returns to the theme of ‘family’, which for most of the guys is the club. For something centered around bikers, there’s a surprisingly high number of interesting characters: including a random Scottish guy (with an unapologetically thick Scottish accent) and several well-developed female characters, which lead to some unorthodox storylines, like a woman going through menopause! The cops feel like cops, bikers feel like bikers and everyone slots in nicely other than the lead (Jax) who feels a little miscast, but I guess he’s supposed to be more morally sound. What also sets this apart from run-of-the-mill shows is a thick streak of very black humour, that makes you crack a smile, even when the guys are dong despicable acts. Overall, the show starts off slow, but builds up a steam in the second half with several all-killer, action-packed, explosive storylines. Whilst Sons of Anarchy Season 1 is entertaining, watchable, and surprisingly moreish. there’s some room for improvement.

Score: 7.5/10