When we left Jax (Charlie Hunnam) at the end of Sons of Anarchy: Season One (2008), his loyalty to SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Originals) was in question. Dealing in “unnecessary” violence and back stabbing, the intentions upon which his late father co-founded the group were no longer being honored. Season Two (2009) picks up with Jax drawing a line in the sand against his step father Clay (Ron Perlman), also co-founder and current leader of the club, and in the process declaring civil war.
While I enjoyed the first season due to the superb acting and dense narrative threads, it was drug down by “been there, done that” cliches of organized crime and loss of focus in trying to balance too many characters and subplots. I’m happy to say creator/producer Kurt Sutter amends my concerns in his sophomore outing. The outlaw doings of SAMCRO are still present but now integrated for support rather than being singularly highlighted, and the scripts do not feel stretched thin juggling the abundant characters but rather let them come and go as necessary.
The narrative tightens up with the addition of the League of American Nationalists, a white supremacist group that opens shop in Charming. Ethan Zoebelle (Adam Arkin) deceitfully portrays himself as a mild mannered business owner but has ulterior motives in wanting to destroy SAMCRO due to the “racially impure” folks the club does business with. Henry Rollins plays AJ Weston, Ethan’s less refined and overtly menacing lackey, revealing in the premiere just how vile and treacherous his character is by setting up Jax’s mom Gemma (Katey Seagal) in a quite disgusting manner I won’t detail.
The League provides Clay and the boys a vicious antagonist to regroup their energies being expended with infighting against Jax and plays as a foil to help define how we should feel about the club’s morally questionable ways. This is the same conflict that Tara (Maggie Siff) has to come to terms with as Jax’s returning love interest where she is not disturbed just by the recent direction SAMCRO is taking but the outlaw ethics its members have followed since inception. Her soul searching adds further context to balance out the violence, debauchery and crime the gang members engage in with the strict moral code that ultimately defines their “family.”
What keeps season two from reaching perfection is the finale feels just ever so anticlimactic after the build-up of so much momentum over the initial 12 episodes. Without divulging particulars, things come to a head between the League and SAMCRO, and while expecting all out war, the deliciously pent up energy is diffused in a more subtle and, for my tastes, less satisfying manner (though the cast commentary makes me appreciate the plot choices made). With this caveat aside, Sons of Anarchy maintains its strengths (impeccable acting, dark humor, tense violence and precise dialog) and gains cohesion in its second season making it edgy, compelling viewing. I’ll definitely be checking out season three on FX.
High-Def Presentation
Fox’s 3 disc Blu-ray set for Season Two continues the quality we received in Sons S1 with the native 1080p 1.78:1 image delivering natural lighting and skin tones, a slightly subdued color palette, noticeable depth and impressive detail (you can count facial pores and almost feel the creases on the leather jackets). My nitpick is this implementation of high-def shooting (like many we get these days) comes up lacking in darker/night-time shots with less than inky blacks and digital noise. I’m slowly coming around to this aesthetic choice, which is the only aspect I would call a defect in this superlative Blu-ray video.
While some studio’s skimp on audio quality for their Blu-ray TV series (I’m looking at you Warner), Fox gives us really nice 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. I recall the initial season’s soundtrack being not so well balanced but found no such deficiency for this second outing with “outlaw themed” tunes filling your surround setup, clear dialog (ranging from whispers to shouting matches), sub-rumbling hogs, hard hitting punches and gunshots. Compared to over-the-top action movies, this lossless audio isn’t as showy but does everything this exciting series needs with satisfying results.
Beyond the Feature
Mirroring the Season 1 BD set, we get three Commentaries, one on the premiere, a middle episode and the finale. Creator Kirk Sutter heads up each with the first two having three and six actors respectively join in and eleven participants on the finale which thankfully includes a Picture-in-Picture option to ease the pain of trying to keep track of who is talking at any moment. The amount of informative talk delivered is directly related to the number of voices vying for attention, but all tracks contain great anecdotes and humor.
Further supplements include 13 Deleted Scenes (~40 min, HD) spread across all three discs, a hilarious Gag Reel (3:57, HD) with actors cracking up at the most inopportune moments and The Moral Code of Sons of Anarchy (10:33, HD) briefly detailing how veterans returning from war founded the original motorcycle clubs to offset their displacement from everyday society. The final extra is Sons of Anarchy Roundtable (40:29, HD) where Sutter and eleven main cast members answer questions submitted by fans mixing the actor’s good humor with discussion about their character and acting decisions. Well worth checking out.
Maybe the pacing could have better integrated the tumultuous events of the finale, but that doesn’t take away from the strengths of Sons of Anarchy’s second season which delivers in spades for quality acting, writing and tense use of violence. Kurt Sutter proves that his success with FX’s gritty crime drama the Shield was no fluke and continues the best outlaw series currently on cable. Fox does Sons justice on Blu-ray with impressive high-def video and audio and a nice set of supplements. I’m pumped for season three.
– Robert Searle
Shop for Sons of Anarchy: Season Two on Blu-ray for a discounted price at Amazon.com.
