jonnypockets/blog

Thanks to Mur Mur for finding this gem.

Success! The show was fantastic. Sons of Anarchy is officially on my watch-list, with the likes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, House, and Becker.

So, a quick review of last night’s pilot you ask? Of course. The show is about a motorcycle club (gang) in Charming, CA that does gun running in order to bring in the money. There are other rival clubs (gangs) that deal in things like drugs and white supremacy, however as the big dogs in town, the Sons of Anarchy make it their job to keep those less than desirable items out of their hometown. This is necessary to shows of this nature, as the show is essentially about bad guys, but no one wants to watch a show about true villains; there has to be the silver lining to the characters, something to bring them into the protagonist zone. So the Sons of Anarchy are all about family, against crack and meth, etc. They’re not that bad of guys…

This parallels real motorcycle clubs quite well. Hell’s Angels for example are huge into philanthropy. So even though they kill mafuckers all the time, and have their hands in every single illegal activity know to man, we can still kind of think they are nifty, cause they give toys to kids on Christmas.

As for the slang and lingo used in Sons, they did a good job of not laying it on too thick. No one referred to their motorcycle as a “hog”, they didn’t call their wives “old ladies” or “mamas”, and I don’t recall anyone muttering “ride or die”, so that’s all very good. They used some language that suggests they did their research and read the same books I have, but they didn’t make it a point to use the entire lexicon of biker language in one pilot episode; thank christ.

The acting was good; enjoyable; believable. Charlie Hunnam, who stars in the show and is from England, had a little trouble with ditching his accent, but I may just be too used to Hugh Laurie; that magnificent man. But any accent issues aside, is performance was great. Rounding out the rest of the cast is Ron Perlman, who it’s good to see out of the Hellboy costume and in a human role, and Katey Sagal, who is probably best know for her role as Peggy, on Married with Children. Sagal plays the role of the matriarch to the Sons of Anarchy, and thus far is the toughest character on the show.

Don doesn’t dig the motorcycles they chose for the Sons (exclusively Harley Davidson Dynas and Road Kings), and while I don’t have a problem with those particular bikes, I could have used some more variety, as it’s a little weird that 20 or so guys all have the exact same motorcycle. But I can look past that… I don’t know if Don can.

So the show’s got my vote. You should watch it, and make sure it stays on the air; I need this, guys. If this turns out to be another Arrested Development situation, I blaming you fuckers.

Wednesdays, 10pm, on FX.

Not sure why I suddenly became so obsessed with biker gangs; I know it happened about a year ago, and I know I only fueled my fascination by reading Hell’s Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson. Then I read Hell’s Angel, by Sonny Barger, president of the motorcycle club, The Hell’s Angels, the topic of both the aforementioned pieces of literature. After finishing those books, I decided to check out some movies that featured motorcycle rebels, so I watched The Wild One, Stone Cold, The Wild Angels, The Born Losers, and Hell Ride. The last movie of that list is a must-see I might add.

Now, by some sort of miracle and as my obsession runs out of material, the FX Network brings me Sons of Anarchy. The pilot episode airs tonight, at 10pm, and it better be fantastic, because I would love to have a weekly fix for my intense curiosity into this dark world of two wheeled outsiders. And because Ron Perlman is fucking awesome.

Link: ‘Bandit’ star Reed dies at 71

I knew about Jerry Reed for one reason, and one reason alone; the song, Amos Moses. For that singular reason, I am very saddened at the death of Jerry Reed. I leave you all with this magic to listen to as you mourn.

Jerry Reed - Amos Moses

Link: Les Ateliers Ruby

These are the best helmets I’ve seen in a long time. Very classic, yet very fashion snob; which means they are wildly expensive and I will never own one, but they are still a lot of fun to look at.

Ian is moving to Arizona on Tuesday. I’ll miss the ever living shit out of him. We’re all gonna miss ya, E. Be good.