The show held my attention for three, maybe four seasons. It's rare for a TV show to draw me in for longer. Even "The Walking Dead" had disappointed me for the past two seasons. The only exception: "Game of Thrones" has not lost me for one second.
The Irish story lines began in the 3rd year (I believe) and slowly SOA strayed from what was so great about the beginning. However I was dedicated and stayed with the show, mostly to see if the creator's vision of "Hamlet" in leather clad, Harley riding gang members would play out. But also, as morbid as it was, to see Clay and Gemma meet karma in a backalley in Charming. (Though I don't believe in karma that's the only word which comes to mind.)
SOA's final season had some great writing. Probably the best of the entire series. Wow. Back to the roots of the show. Not only was the writing good the guest stars were brilliant. Courtney Love as a preschool teacher? Brilliant. Marlyn Manson as a leader in prison. Pretty much right on. Even the guy who starred in "The Shield" show portraying the truck driver was intriguing from meeting Gemma to becoming the catalyst for the end of Jax. Then there was Juice and Jax. The interactions between those were some of the most profound I've watched on a TV series.
Like "The Walking Dead's", "The Talking Dead", SOA created a talk show which interviewed major characters each week. I don't like discussion type shows. It's one thing to talk about what happened the night before on Social Media or with friends but quite another to listen to the "experts". Coming up with my own theories and discussing those in person with people I know is my preference. But I thought to myself, this is the last year, ever, of SOA so I'd give a follow up talk show a chance. It. Was. Horrible.
The little bit of "The Talking Dead" I'd watched to that point had been ok: good hosting, interesting guests with skill at carrying on conversation. The SOA show? Non-talented host, boring and flat, Kurt Sutter pretty much took over discussions and the stars sat with each other and answered questions about each other in ways which made it look as though they'd never met-on screen or off. I should have never watched as listening to the dullness may have affected my view of the final season.
So with that here are a few things which were disappointing or just plain out confusing to the closure of SOA:
- Knowing that Kurt Sutter based the character and show upon "Hamlet" it was pretty clear how the show would end. Though a large part of me desperately wanted Jax to walk off into the sunset with his two sons the other part knew that couldn't be. After all he had done during his life he could not be absolved of his sin. A day of reckoning had to come. Jax should have died at the hands of his club, the hands of his enemies or behind bars.
- Jax spent the last episode finalizing his life from seeing to the future of his boys to securing a future for the club--his two passions. When Jax passed the gavel to Chibs my mind screamed: Chibs as president?! No! I was shocked and disappointed. For one, Chibs always had been a follower and did not show leadership skills. Two, I really wanted to club charter to die with Jax's death, to end with his bloodline. No Teller blood-no club blood.
- The homeless woman and child. The religious signs, symbols, what have you's, did not fit. Gemma had glimpses of internal struggles of faith but Jax had never shown an ounce. None that I noticed. Was she the angel of death? Seems when she appeared in SOA a character died. But what was the meaning of the bread and wine? How did they relate to Jax? What was their significance in relating to Teller lives? To Jax's death? I'm still lost on that one.....
- The year was a bit predictable. When something happened I'd think, oh year, saw that coming. Except for the death of Chief Unser. I thought he would be the one to survive to tell the story of Jax, never die at Jax's hands.
- Jax's son Able driving off in the car foreshadows (I hate foreshadowing) the possibility of a spin off show. Which if Kurt Sutter writes would probably be a very good show. I'll watch.
- Jax's end. Holding his hands out to his sides on his Harley, closing his eyes, appearing to be making some kind of sacrifice with his life.....well that was pretty stupid. He was no innocent lamb offering himself, and once again we saw bread and wine.
- Jax's end - killing himself by driving into a transfer truck on his Dad's bike. Yep, saw that coming for weeks. Jax was never an innocent. However, the truck driver was. Jax involved an innocent person in his ending his life. One last selfish act of what was mostly a selfish life.
Wow, reading this makes me sound as if I hated SOA with not much positive to write of. Though I was disappointed with a few elements of the ending, the show is on the list of my favorites. The internal struggle of Jax from the pilot being pulled toward questioning his life and father's life. His struggle every year within himself to change and become something else-to become what his father wrote of in the journals-to his realization that he wasn't something else nor ever would be after Tara died. She had been his one link to the possibility of another life. With her death Jax didn't try to fight who he really was, what he had always been, which leaked through at every corner of his life. Jax finally knew who he was and that was clear when he told Wendy that he wanted his boys to hate him. He was an outlaw....
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