TVSquad

(S02E11) "If Gemma had gotten raped on John's watch, he'd have written a whole different book." - Jax

Forgiveness can be a funny thing. Assuming you're on the receiving end of something awful, It's not always easy to determine if you'd even be willing to forgive. That's the beauty of forgiveness though -- the act that led you to it might have been sincere, but that doesn't mean your capacity to forgive has to be. Unlike quietly accepting a situation, forgiving a situation has the power to pacify the parties at fault.

As we learned with Opie last night on Sons of Anarchy, his capacity to forgive is huge, but that doesn't mean he ain't lying through his teeth when it comes to his true intentions.

"Pull the trigger man. That's the only way this leather is coming off my back." - Jax to Alvarez, the head of the Mayans who orders him to give up his club jacket

Jax is supposed to be the hero of this little modern day Shakesperian epic, but he's starting to look more and more like the enemy in each episode.

I don't mean that he'll be the one in the end who has been scheming the whole time behind SAMCRO's back with the white power. This is a well-crafted, slow paced, high caliber drama, not a badly written Schwarzenegger movie with a thrown together twist ending (cough, Total Recall, cough).

Jax is more of an enemy of himself. He might have good intentions at heart, but his moves are nowhere near his brain. Maybe his loyalty to his family runs deeper than he ever imagined. Logic and family hardly make a decent cocktail. Anyone with a brother-in-law can tell you that.

This week, we're going to take a bit of a departure from the shows we normally cover. It's very rare that a show that puts out 76 episodes could be considered by anyone to be gone too soon, and yet I make the argument that 8 Simple Rules (for Dating My Teenage Daughter) is that show.

I'm also not going to try and convince you that 8 Simple Rules was one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, because it simply wasn't. It was a fairly standard, solid series headlined by a brilliant comic actor... and then it became something else.

(S02E06) "It's not your time yet, man. This is Clay's club. You either back down or get in line, before somebody gets hurt." - Opie to Jax

It was really hard to find a good quote for this week's episode. I watched the bastard four times before I found the one I did and I'm not entirely thrilled with it.

That's because this week's show was all action and little talk.

The tension between SAMCRO and the Aryans got turned up to 11 when they planted a car bomb in the shop that almost turned Chibs into a fried fish filet that would need a gallon of malt vinegar to be edible. This not only made for a perfect set-up against the club but also within it, driving an even deeper wedge between Clay, Jax and each of their alliances.

(S02E01) - "I'm not going to swap one outlaw for another one."

How do you turn a group of gruff biker outlaws who deal potent drugs to street trash and hardcore hardware to ruthless killers into a likable group of huggable stud muffins?

That's easy. You make a group of radical white supremacists into their enemies. It's the old "lovable by association" tactic of TV writing. Is the audience not buying your childhood version of Darth Vader? Then throw in a wise-cracking alien that sounds like Pee Wee Herman with Down's Syndrome.

However, in the case of the second season of Sons of Anarchy, it's a pretty sweet power play for a show that already packed more punch than an Absinthe smoothie.

The level that FX's Sons of Anarchy's second season has to reach to top their outrageous first might seem unfathomable. But the man helming this ship is writer, creator and executive producer Kurt Sutter - the man who helped steer The Shield through seven strange and unpredictable seasons of treacherous waters that were once deemed unchartable for the likes of basic cable.

It's tight control on what appears to be complete chaos. Sutter and company are a fleet of reckless Sledge Hammers who are willing to blow up whole buildings to get the job done. Trust him. He knows what he's doing.

FX's white hot biker drama kicks off Tuesday and it brings all of the blood, guts, bullets and glory that the first season did in buckets. And that's just in the first five episodes.

I've been hearing about an awesome new show on FX since it aired last year, and finally got around to watching season one of Sons of Anarchy this week for Jane After Dark. Being a motorcycle babe myself, I love any show where bikes or gangs are the central focus.

But even if you've never mounted a bad chopper, there are plenty of reasons to love this badass show about the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Originals (SAMCRO). They run a legal automotive business while dealing arms, battling rival gangs, and working with the cops (sometimes) to keep their town of Charming, California a pleasant place to live. You can see all the irony at work here.

FX announced their fall premiere dates today and it turns out that they've got quite the schedule lined up for the autumn months.

With Rescue Me set to end it's 22 episode fifth season on Tuesday, September 1st, it comes as no surprise that Sons of Anarchy has been scheduled to fill the Tuesday 10PM ET time-slot starting the very next week on September 8th. The motorcycle drama's sophomore season is generating a lot of buzz ever since the announcement of Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin joining the cast.

But wait - there's more!

With Rescue Me plowing through it's massive 22 episode fifth season, it's a little weird to think that we'll be tuning into Denis Leary's FDNY hijnks until September 8th - especially since we're used to having the show be over after about three months.

I'm not really sure what my point is mentioning that, because all I'm doing is piling good news on top of more good news - once Rescue Me ends, Sons of Anarchy is back.

The FX motorcycle drama began filming it's second season recently, with two notable cast additions - Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin. At the time of Rollins casting, nothing was known about his character other than his role as a "new antagonist." Now, according to Fancast, it turns out that both Rollins and Arkin will be playing neo-nazis. If you recall Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and Clay's tumultuous relationship with Darby (Mitch Pileggi) and the Nords, then you know they ain't gonna get along with these two.

If you feel like being spoiled beyond that, pictures and more character info after the jump...

"What's this stuff?"
"Some TV show...supposed to be good for ya."
"Did you try it?"
"I'm not gonna try it, you try it."
"I'm not gonna try it."
"Hey, let's get Mikey..."
"Yeah."
"He won't watch it...he hates everything!"

We give a lot of depressing news here at TV Squad. News about shows being canceled, shows put on hiatus, shows delayed, episode orders on shows cut, shows moved to a bad time slot, characters killed off of shows, etc. So it's good when we actually have some good news about a show, especially one that isn't a huge hit.

NBC has given a full season order to Life, the quirky detective show that seems to be on a different night each week. It started the season on Mondays at 10, and we've seen it on both Fridays and Wednesdays. But the Peacock Network seems to have faith in the show and wants a full 22 from Charlie Crews and crew.

This is good news. One, the show isn't a reality show. And two, it's a good show.

(S01E06) Well, this was an interesting episode of Life. Rather than having the focus on Charlie and many of his day-to-day activities, we were treated to the life of Detective Dani Reese. I was a bit concerned about this when I saw the previews because this show is really still in its infancy and a shift in focus for just one episode can throw viewers off. However, as the episode progressed I felt more and more comfortable about the whole setup.

(S01E01) After posting my early look at this new NBC procedural crime drama, reading your comments, and thinking about Charlie Crews in general, I have come to the belief that Life may actually have a chance this season. Not because of the crimes he and Detective Dani Reese solve -- hey, a murder is a murder is a murder. Not because of Charlie's mix of innocence and quirkiness. I think what is going to keep people tuning into the program is the whole sub-plot of the series: trying to find out who the heck framed Charlie for the murder of three people.

It had to happen sooner or later: Quizno's has given the boot to Baby Bob.

The talking baby has been doing commercials for the sub chain for a number of years now, never aging in that Simpsons-characters never age sort of way (though creepier because it's a human and not a cartoon). This article at Adfreak actually reminded me exactly how long this ad had been running. Bob started online, as the mascot for Freeinternet.com, then he got his own TV sitcom (remember?). Then he was brought back as the spokesman spokesperson spokesbaby for Quizno's.

So now they have a new direction they're going in. Regardless of who's in the ads, I really love their Chicken Milano sub. I think I'll get one tonight. In honor of Bob.