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Posted Dec 2nd 2009 8:30AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Sons of Anarchy
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(S02E13) "Any idea where we're headed?" /"No." - Chief Unser to Gemma
If you're looking for someone to yak to at the office tomorrow about the second season closer of
Sons of Anarchy but don't want to open your meathole to someone who has no idea what you're talking about, there's one sure-fire way to tell without having to say a word: check their fingernails. They will be bitten right down to the bone.
The 90-minute episode was a real tension builder from beginning to end and it not only managed to solve some of the protagonists' problems in very creative and interesting ways, but it also created new ones that just made me hungrier for season three. It couldn't come soon enough if I had a time machine.
Continue reading Review: Sons of Anarchy - Na Triobloidi (season finale)
Posted Nov 25th 2009 11:16PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Sons of Anarchy
(S02E12) "Either you or me goes home in a bag." - Jax to A.J.
The showdown we've been waiting all season to see finally happened tonight and even though it didn't end the way the antagonists deserved (i.e. heads removed where the shoulder meets the neck, placed on a stick and paraded around town on a substandard Japanese import), it still had my head spinning.
The show opens with SAMCRO preparing for their big, inevitable smackdown with the League by keeping all of their loved ones under lock and key at the clubhouse. But instead of just jumping into the fray head first with baseball bats twisted in barb-wire and all, they do what they should have done from the beginning: they plotted and planned. They turned the tables on the League and by doing so, turned the League on each other.
Continue reading Review: Sons of Anarchy - Culling
Posted Nov 11th 2009 4:21AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Sons of Anarchy
(S02E10) I'm filling in for Danny, who experienced a DVR malfunction, so be gentle with me, as I've been a bit here and there with
Sons of Anarchy this season. Last winter, I raced through season one for
Jane After Dark, and fell in love with the gritty characters and edgy storyline. But to tell you the truth, I had trouble watching it after Gemma's rape this season. It was really disturbing, and I wasn't sure I wanted all of that in my head all the time.
But the fact is that
Sons of Anarchy is a great show and -- like many other FX shows -- unlike most of what you see on TV these days. So I'm happy to have this chance to get caught up a little bit with season two.
Continue reading Review: Sons of Anarchy - Balm
Posted Oct 21st 2009 1:55AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Sons of Anarchy
(S0207) - "This club needs a healing brother, and you got to be the one to deliver it." - Bobby to Jax
The tension between Jax and Clay has never been thicker. You could make a birthday cake with it ... a big, tasty birthday cake of hate.
Tonight, it finally came to a head, and who knew that Agent Stahl would be the one to cut them down to slices? It looks like she finally got them ... or did she?
Kurt Sutter's episodes are always deeply complex and very clever, and last Tuesday's episode really put Jax and Clay in a corner. He should write every episode, if he were superhuman and incapable of suffering from total exhaustion.
Continue reading Review: Sons of Anarchy - Gilead
Posted Oct 15th 2009 4:18AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Sons of Anarchy
(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.
Continue reading Sons of Anarchy: Falx Cerebri
Posted Sep 29th 2009 11:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Reality-Free, Sons of Anarchy
(S02E04) - "If you come across something that don't make you miserable, enjoy it." - Chief Unser to Tara
Was I the only human being on the planet who was completely snowed by the BS claim that SAMCRO was headed out of town to do a charity blood drive for Charming? The thought of any shady dealings never crossed my mind for a second. I probably wouldn't even have any doubts if they devised a charity scheme that's more their speed like a "Ride Joust for Diabetes" or a "100-Yard Coke Line Snort for Macular Degeneration."
It's not a sign of my stupidity. Believe me, I've got much more convincing signs of that. For instance, I drive a Pontiac, a brand new Pontiac ... with a 30,000 mile warranty.
It's a sign that the characters are becoming more endearing and real and they play on your emotions more than if they were just flat images on a high definition television screen. They are flesh and blood and bone, and all the little synapses and thoughts that make them human beings are connecting. They have made the audience, or at least the audience that sits in my living room each week, part of their family.
Continue reading Sons of Anarchy: Eureka
Posted Sep 8th 2009 11:26PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Episode Recaps
(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.
Continue reading Sons of Anarchy: Albification (season premiere)
Posted Sep 8th 2009 11:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Interviews, Reality-Free
I haven't been here from the beginning, so I don't know the exact number of times actress and singer Katey Sagal has sat down to talk to someone from our humble site. But within the last year, someone Squadder has either called her up on the phone or bumped into her in person to chat her up about
the return of Futurama or her more serious but equally kick-ass role on
Sons of Anarchy.
I'm seriously thinking that we need to institute some kind of frequent visitor punch card that rewards stars with a free pizza, a round of drinks or half off a new muffler (not including labor) for their 10th interview.
Sagal was nice enough to talk to us yet again in anticipation of the new season of
Sons of Anarachy that premieres this tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern/9 p.m. Central on FX. We talked about her character Gemma's place in SAMCRO and what she has to endure for the club, and why women are such big fans of the show.
Continue reading Sons of Anarchy's Katey Sagal talks to TV Squad...again
Posted Sep 6th 2009 2:00PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Reality-Free, Press Kits Unwrapped
Normally, TV press kits come with more useless junk than an IKEA furniture kit. They usually come with T-shirts that are too small for the average TV critic's billowy build, toys that can turn the brightest human beings into easily-amused cats, and other assorted paraphernalia.
FX's press kit for the forthcoming second season of
Sons of Anarchy has none of these things. There are no bloody brass knuckle sets, fake handlebar mustaches or even a lousy T-shirt that reads "The bitch fell off" on the back, perfect for that upcoming christening or bar-mitzvah.
That doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, it's one of the most bitching press kits to ever grace my cold, ink-stained hands.
Continue reading Press Kits Unwrapped: Sons of Anarchy Season 2
Posted Jul 17th 2009 12:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
Television is a vast alien landscape of shows, programs and other watchables. So the odds of a really good show not getting special recognition are about as good as Michael Chiklis' chances of his noggin being mistaken for a shiny, beige Brunswick in a bowling alley.
The Emmys also tend to favor younger shows rather than the oldies that have had their chance to win some awards because the best stuff on television is always fresher out of the gate. It's just the beast of the cycle. Great movies age like a fine cheese. Great TV shows age like spray cheese.
The Shield, however, got totally snubbed from this year's nomination list. And is that something the Academy really wants to do to a guy with a hair trigger anger who considers a Smith and Wesson as his "backup piece"? (I should ask myself the same thing after that bowling ball noggin joke.)
Continue reading The Shield gets the big ol' cold shoulder from the Emmy collective
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