Shakespeare on a Hog: The Sons of Anarchy thread

tig is probably just about the only character left who is worth a shit imo, and yeah coates is great. he's always memorable, even as a cackling CSI miami villain or chet from last boy scout.

I've never figured out why they don't give Coates/Tig more to do - I mean, I like Happy and the Scotsman and I know they're Jax's crew but Tig was always the most entertaining character.

in earlier seasons Tig had a lot more to do!

Was this the first Jax naked butt shot of the season?

Watching the first season again, I appreciate how calmly they deal with Tig's description of necrophilia.

i always thought Tara was prob the most compelling character and that in many ways the show was about her/seen through her perspective, as the person coming back into town and into the story at the beginning of the series who looks at the situation through the eyes of someone who used to live in the straight world. so for me the show worked up through last season on that level, and now one season of the aftermath of her death makes for a good denouement. if i felt that way about Opie (who was also great, obv) i'd probably be more bummed out/disinterested, not only has he been gone longer but his death is kind of settled business, can't remember the last time he was even mentioned in the last two seasons.

I wonder if there any Wild Angels references in the series. Or if Sutter has ever mentioned that movie.

man that Tig/Venus scene was the highlight of the whole season -- Coates is so great. Like, everyone else in that show seems to be going to great lengths to be 'Acting' whereas Coates is just *there*, he's right in it.

I still hate pretty much everything about this show now, but that scene at least made me feel like at least I haven't been watching for nothing.

this was the best episode of this show in years, right everyone? i mean it's not just because i have severely diminished expectations.

yeah that was pretty good. kinda back to first-season sturm und drang, gotta love that oedipal shit

fuckin love smits. he's good at crying

it's funny though
i look at this thread title now & go 'aw remember when we thought this show was good' lol

Juice in the interview room with Unser and the Sheriff was so great.

I love Smits too but I thought the crying routine was a bit overdone. There was one point where he was kind of jumping up and down slightly with a sad dog look on his face that was pretty silly.

But yeah, best ep of the season. Hope Kurt didn't shoot his wad too soon though - what are they going to fill up two more weeks with?

i liked Smits being the big emotional breakdown. he's kind of the new guy but he's already invested a lot of pathos into his character and all he's been through and you really feel for him in his "what the hell did i get into with all these crazy white people" weeping. and it just underlined that Gemma has done the unthinkable and that people that love her can never look at her the same way again.

yeah i like the unspeakable anguish angle

The look as he was listening to the phone -- and it was an excellent choice to show his end of the conversation without the audience actually hearing Jax's words -- and realized that the Gemma he thought he knew was hiding this all along was excellent. Just walking away from her, no confrontation, just being over.

okay mano

for all of this show's failings it's really good about letting dudes have a good cry when they want to cry, and not flinching from that

Yep. I was shocked at Jaxs breakdown.

I also really liked the jazz soundtrack to the car chase!

jax's murder of the other samcro president and its fallout have been really nicely done. very foreboding, a lot of creeping dread as the options narrow.

that was the same guy whose club they saved in Season 1, was it not? They patched them over? It is coming full circle. There have been so many mediocre seasons of this show, the first two seasons are so hazy in my memory.

jazz carchase was a+

damn .... so who is gonna die next week?

hal holbrooke wrecked me jfc

liked wendy's line about it not being the first time she'd been in the trunk of a car - nice sopranos nod

blood on the shelltoes
blood on the plough

sing with me now

jax is planning on dying very soon, isn't he?

I'm getting that impression. Kinda half thought he was gonna off himself in this ep from the way he was acting

only question is how. maybe forcing the gang to shoot him the way they did Clay?

well he did ask about the JT manuscript so that will probably play into his death scene.

blood on the manuscript, etc

force fed parts of his motorcycle piece by piece while a bluesy cover of 'Paradise City' plays over top

and what's the old policy thing he asked the other presidents to change? feel like that's something to do with his demise.

Brad Pitt shows up as a long lost cousin, extracts revenge for some bullshit, everyone dies

The bylaw is that there are no black SOA members. Which is a weird thing given John Teller's anarchist leanings - they just stole that device from the real Hells Angels but it doesn't fit this club.

yeah but they've already covered that in old episodes

i reckon it's something else

he doesn't say it's anything to do with the race thing, although now that i think about it, it could be so that they can patch in the niners??

the niners are worried about getting wiped out and jax has promised to take care of them, given all the help they given and risk taken.

that would make sense -- also a lot of things from past seasons are getting brought up again, and not just the "take down the greedy gun dealer and the IRA Kings will give the club what they want" plot

hmmm

he said it was an unofficial custom and not a bylaw, though

Speculation I saw was patching the Grim Reapers to give the club enough bodies.

Exit, pursued by a bear pig or twenty.

Because of the last few weeks irl, my first response was, "That's really not very many cops"

Cops pretty leisurely in pursuit. But who cares. Thank god this is done.

You probably should have gone with "it is finished" to further hammer home the clumsy Christ imagery.

that would have really "nailed" the ending

lol the very ending

i really had hope that the great pulpy storytelling side of the show would surface as it finished..but man…this episode was so bad. so boring.

the mayhem vote was actually a good scene and to then ruin it by having it be another wacky jax plan..and the last scene is just such a huge pileup of terrible writing and directing and editing and acting decisions.

it's always been clear that kurt sutter thinks that jax is a really cool guy and not a pathetic asshole but i wasn't expecting the full blown tongue bathing that goes on here…lol at jax draped in his jedi knight robes on the courthouse steps

introducing michael chiklis as a truck driver character who just happens to give gemma a ride, then happens to be driving along when jax needs a truck to ride into