DVD Reviews

Sons of Anarchy Seasons 1 & 2 – DVD Review

By Ian Cullen Aug 23, 2010, 15:06 GMT

FX Network’s original series, “Sons of Anarchy,” is an adrenalized drama with darkly comedic undertones that explores a notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s (MC) desire to protect its livelihood while ensuring that their simple, sheltered town of Charming, California remains exactly that. Charming. The MC must confront threats from drug dealers, corporate developers and overzealous law officers. Behind the MC’s familial lifestyle and legally thriving automotive shop is a ruthless and ...more

To start off with I think it would be a good idea to point out that this review is for the Region 2 European release of the DVD. So a few things may differ from the North American version.

It’s no secret that we here at monstersandcritics.com love Sons of Anarchy, and I love the series so much that I shelled out £35.90 on the Complete Seasons 1 & 2 box set - which is no mean fete given my limited income.

On the upside the series is every bit as gnarly and brilliant to watch over again, and the joy of DVD’s is that you can mainline television shows and watch episode after episode, which is pretty much what I did with this set, and totally enjoyed following the lives of Jax, Clay Marrow and the shows matriarch, the lovely Katey Sagal who plays Gemma Teller, and will be a ‘Featured’ interview on this site in a few weeks.

The downside for me is how the UK Division of 20th Century Fox have packaged this.

For me if am paying out for a two season box set, I expect a little extra, and its in the extras that us European consumers have been given short shrift YET AGAIN!

You don’t get anything special added on to the combined box set other than a very cheaply produced cardboard slip box with the SOA Logo on it, which contains the individual series box sets for seasons one and two.

Nothing to commemorate it being both seasons. Zilch, which is shoddy and not the greatest way to treat us European customers to be honest, but hey we don’t call it Rip Off Britain for nothing!

For some reason producers of DVD television Box sets in the UK seem to be of the opinion that we are not as good or as deserving of some extra bang for out buck than our American cousins.

For example a few years back when they released all of the Planet Of The Ape’s movies onto Blue Ray. The UK version lacked a big book commemorating all the movies, which US customers got, and what’s more with the difference in currency the American version was slightly cheaper than the UK version, which was light a nice collectable book.

Another example is on the UK release of the season three Battlestar Galactica box set. American Customers had the addition of the webisodes, which were released online, but were region encoded, which prevented the less savvy UK fan from being able to see them. Of course these webisodes were included as part of the package for the American release of season three on DVD, but were not included in the UK release.

For an SOA season one and two box set, which combined the two. I would have expected a little extra for my money. Maybe an iTunes voucher to download some of the great tunes from the show, or even a nice little slip book. But there is nothing in this set aside from the slip case to differentiate it between what fans got when they purchased the box sets individually.

Was this package value for money?

If your a bit hardcore and like to have an all singing and dancing box set. Then no, not really.

You’d be best served just buying the box sets individually, and you can probably do that cheaper as well.

Extras Include: Featurettes: The Making Of Sons Of Anarchy Season 1, Casting Sons Of Anarchy, The Ink (Nice little feature about the tattoos), The Bikes, Moral Code of Sons Of Anarchy, Sons Of Anarchy Round Table (Half hour discussion between Kurt Sutter and cast in which they answer fan questions.), Commentary on six episodes across both seasons, Deleted Scenes and Gag Reels.