Smallscreen Reviews

FX's 'Sons of Anarchy,' Gemma and Jax's difficult path, Sept. 7

By April MacIntyre Sep 7, 2010, 18:25 GMT

Stand out performances abound. Major praise for Piney (William Lucking) who gives yet another balls out brilliant scene with Jax. He consistently anchors the SOA story with frame stealing moments.

Monsters and Critics strong recommend for Tuesday night: "Sons of Anarchy," at 10 on FX

All matters of family are addressed in season three for FX's excellent drama, "Sons of Anarchy." Showrunner Kurt Sutter centers the entire show on the bonds of blood and brotherhood.

Our central player, Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal) part object of lust, part earth mother, is on the run, framed by another fierce alpha female, Agent June Stahl (Ally Walker) who is hell bent on breaking up the happy family of Charming. Both actresses consistently deliver the best work on television whenever they are in frame. Neither one of their characters is to be trifled with. Both are used to getting what they want and calling the shots.

Even the heart wrenching point when a grown child has to send a parent away to a nursing home, and all the guilt, pain and helplessness that the act invokes in anyone is realistically played out between Gemma and her father, Nate (Hal Holbrook).

Nate's mind flickers in and out of an Alzheimer's imprisonment; one moment fully lucid, remembering everything, then lost again. Their scenes are beautiful, emotional and give this series a respite from the guns blazing action the club finds itself in weekly.

The writers cleverly worked very humorous moments with Tig (Kim Coates, never better) who is assigned to guard Gemma while she is on the lam. Tig's off-kilter interjections and a brilliant cameo by Stephen King as a cleaner type (think Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction) gives the right balance to Gemma's heavy emotional burden.

Gemma's heartache is real, we know she has a bad ticker, and the gut wrenching goodbye to her father leaves her with new worry, now for her grandson Abel.  The child was spirited away by IRA heavy Cameron in a retaliation for what he thinks is payback to SAMCRO and Gemma for killing his son.    But we know that trigger woman was Stahl, whose goal is to destroy the club.   There's only so much Gemma can take anymore, and her health will be an issue this season.

The season sees the fall and then the rise of Jax (Charlie Hunnam), first immobilized by grief, then snapped back into action by his stepfather Clay (Ron Perlman).  Fans of the show know what bad blood has been between the two, but the child's kidnapping has put that to bed for the moment.  

Hunnam and Perlman's work has consistently been spot on, never too much, just the right amount of menace and unspoken intentions that make this show so addictive.

Stand out performances abound. Major praise for Piney (William Lucking) who gives yet another balls out brilliant scene with Jax. He consistently anchors the SOA story with perfect moments.  Opie (Ryan Hurst) Bobby (Mark Boone Junior and Juice (Theo Rossi) are even more intriguing as SAMCRO players this season.  Both Bobby and Juice are thinkers, more cerebral characters, but Opie is a sidewinder, very low key calm energy that belies a really dangerous streak in him.  It's always the quiet ones.

Chief Unser (Dayton Callie), our cancer survivor, who gives hope to anyone out there fighting the disease and is a major player in season three. We fans would be lost without him looking out for our Gemma and the club. Unser is SAMCRO's Jiminy Cricket. 

Kim Coates gets his mojo back and the weight of the Donna hit is lifted.   Sutter paints Tig with his own quirkiness (Hummel dolls are an issue) to make the enforcer of SAMCRO a really unpredictable, highly watchable character, not just the muscle to be feared.

Other than the wee bairn Abel kidnapped in Ireland, the character I am most intrigued in seeing what's in store for is Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff). 
Tara's really pushed to her limits this season.  The straight life (she's a Doctor) mixing it up with the leather and outlaw crowd. 

So no more spoilers my Crow Eaters, I won't do it, but the show has taken on tasty layers of international intrigue, as well as a slew of character actors that give the series depth and a reason to break out the Rosary and say a Novena for Jax's mother and child. Will there be a reunion? We'll see.

The makings are in place for one hell of a season.

Bonus: Here's a great interview that pal Kate O'Hare conducted with SOA's Kim Coates (Tig) at HotCuppaTV.com TIG