Smallscreen News
FX 'Sons of Anarchy' Wednesday finale poised to be ratings smasher
By April MacIntyre Nov 25, 2008, 15:03 GMT
Brilliant work- Katey Sagal and Kurt Sutter -FX Sons of Anarchy- Westwood, CA, USA © Glenn Harris / PR Photos
The finale for FX’s new series “Sons of Anarchy" will air Wednesday night at its normal time. The episode came to me yesterday and I stopped everything I was doing to watch it. Just couldn't wait.
No spoilers will be revealed here; I wouldn’t do that to fans that have found this show and love it as much as I do. The finale was powerfully satisfying, emotional and sets up the next season perfectly.
"Sons of Anarchy" airs Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET on the FX network, is a crime drama created by Kurt Sutter, former writer-producer of "The Shield," about an outlaw motorcycle gang set in Charming, a fictional town in Northern California.
Sutter has taken his showrunning skill and writing to another level with this series which has me convinced he is the David Chase of a younger generation. His story is so richly splayed out, woven with incredible performances by a superb cast who all get their moments to show off what they bring individually to the story of the late John Teller’s bike club.
SAMCRO Heir apparent Jax (Charlie Hunnam) is conflicted; a paradox of brutal outlaw and righteous citizen. The true power behind the chopper, Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal) who made her bed with Teller’s more ambitious number two man: Clay (Ron Perlman) should absolutely get the Emmy for her performance; a fine gift of a role her husband Sutter has written just for her.
The actors who inhabit the secondary roles are astoundingly good. Ron Perlman’s Clay is a study of heart and murderous detachment, he and Sagal have chemistry on screen that is hard to come by.
Piney (William Lucking) who comes to an epiphany about the future of the club is a fantastic character, as he shepherds his troubled son Opie (Ryan Hurst) through his darkest days in SAMCRO.
Diamond sharp, embittered Fed Agent Stahl (Ally Walker) brings a tightly wound energy to Charming and is flat-out brilliant as a woman scorned in her zeal to bring down SAMCRO.
The morality and ethics play within Charming’s police department is beautifully rendered with heart, pragmatism and regret by Chief Unser (Dayton Callie) and his underling who grew up with SAMCRO’s younger generation, Deputy Hale (Taylor Sheridan), who begins to understand why his alliances are best kept close to home. Also turning in a great performance is Glenn Plummer as Sheriff Vic Trammel, who joins Charming’s cabal of cops who look the other way.
The standout player for me in SAMCRO has been Tig (Kim Coates), also deserving of an Emmy nod. Coates has been cast in a role that shows his character’s psychotic ability to remain steady, loyal and kill at the drop of a hat. He is Clay’s enigmatic hatchet man. Coates’ Tig is always simmering under the skin; his performances that practically upstage everyone around him.
Mitch Pileggi’s clever Darby, the white supremacist, also is a scene stealer. Drea de Matteo and Maggie Siff’s characters of Jax’s wife and lover, Junkie Wendy and Doctor Tara, will continue to another season for sure.
Mark Boone Junior as Robert 'Bobby' Munson and Tommy Flanagan as Filip 'Chibs' Telford too shine in their character’s distinct personalities and are wild cards in the Jax and Clay power struggle that awaits them all.
FX will rerun this series and hopefully release it as a DVD collection prior to the sophomore season. If you loved "Sopranos," "The Shield", "Deadwood" and gritty dramas that were layered with complex sub-stories, and you missed this particular series, do everything in your power to catch it.
