Smallscreen News

'Sons of Anarchy' uses element of fire in 'Sovereign,' some thoughts

By April MacIntyre Sep 12, 2012, 14:35 GMT

In this new season, Jimmy Smits and Harold Perrineau have dressed up the cast of FX\'s \'Sons of Anarchy\' as gangsters of different stripes.

SPOILERS

In this new season, Jimmy Smits and Harold Perrineau have dressed up the cast of FX's 'Sons of Anarchy' as gangsters of different stripes.

Perrineau's steeled performance hearkens a bit of Anthony Hopkins' precision in 'Silence of the Lambs.' Psychopathic fail-safes that allow him to burn alive a young woman in front of her father for payback purposes, then treating kids to ice cream in perhaps a bid to balance out the day's visceral imagery, so he can sleep.

With the coolness that Harold brings to this role, we can only imagine how far he will extract his pound of flesh for daughter Veronica's death.

There's a lot of Fire in the premiere episode of this family drama, and it has a cleansing effect. Fire drove Darby (Mitch Pileggi) to a softening on his Jew-hating bigotry. Fire got Jax away from the porn girls of Cara Cara, and Fire burns inside Gemma (Katey Sagal), whose vitality and sexuality makes the men with Madonna/Whore complexes uncomfortable as she luxuriates in all the sins of the flesh and releases her unhappiness with a man who can't believe his good  fortune at finding such a woman.  Gemma hasn't been laid properly in a long damn time. The Kracken is unleashed, and Smits' earthy Nero Padilla was the Spic Pimp she needed to make that siren call.  He's never been better and I'm happy to see him flexing his stuff in this juicy role.

The Clay issue has not resolved, as the old broken lion is on a back burner, but Perlman's Clay is a thinker, albeit transparent at times, but his masterful mendacious ways will keep Jax on his toes as he monitors what exactly the rest of SAMCRO finds out (or not) on the real story about Piney, and dad John Teller. Gemma too plays her hand on a need to know basis, and the one SAMCRO member who smells the rotten in Denmark stench is Bobby Elvis (Mark Boone Junior) a character I feel is underplayed in the series at times. He's no looker like Hunnam, but Boone is a clever thespian who has taken this consigliere role to the club and made great strides with it. 

For me the storyline of Tara is the most intriguing. She's a Cheshire cat, a sullen vixen with an ego and enough moxie to dish it like Gemma, but wars with her own enlightenment. She quietly feels superior to her immediate peers in Charming, but has the sense to keep it on the down low. You don't endure medical school and all that it demands of you without a different perspective on life and how you want to live it. Doctors have a God complex for a reason, and Tara is deeply angry she was compromised. Her love for Jax and the kids will soften this, but time will chip away, and she will act out perhaps, but exactly how remains to be seen.

Unser (Dayton Callie) has allegiance to both Gemma and Clay.  He was a victim in the closer scene to a home invasion (plaguing Charming now) and the flash of a prosthetic lower leg tips that Greg "the Peg" (Kurt Yaeger) - one of the trio of new Sons recruits - maybe living a side life the club is unaware of. 

Chucky (Michael Marisi Ornstein) continues to be the valve of pressure relief dishing lines like "I feel incredibly awkward" as Gemma and Clay cross paths in front of him.  Chucky is wide-eyed and filterless, thinking on his feet. He is endearing to the club and to the cast overall. He balances the sullenness of Opie (Ryan Hurst), the two dimensional natures of the new SAMCRO guys (weakest part of the series for me) and the big hearted Celtic wise-ass Chibs, a sentimental soul who has plenty of Fire in his nature too.

The classic Kurt Sutter gut punch came as Damon Pope does his homework and finds Tig's daughter Dawn (Rachel Miner) and sets her ablaze, burning her alive while Tig is chained up and helpless to do anything.

Let's talk about Kim Coates. His Tig was always on the edge of sanity to begin with, but if you watched his face and actions, you could literally see his mind break in that scene. Tig is now without any conscience. He will kill and exact revenge and his lack of self preservation is now the biggest threat to Damon Pope, if I read this scene correctly. Tig's fearlessness will keep him alive.  Coates is a gifted actor and gives Tig that true outlaw biker energy and vibe the series needs to bring the noise. Hopefully he will have a Machete-like arc (Danny Trejo tip of the hat) and lay waste all sorts of underworld types.

Sutter tipped his hat to TCA member and Entertainment Weekly's West Coast editor Lynette Rice by naming her as one of the crow eaters. Nice touch.

See you next week.