TVSquad

(S02E09) - "I know the greater devil when I see it." - Deputy Chief Hale to Clay

The great thing about a show like Sons of Anarchy is you never exactly know when you're watching its true boiling point. You might think the situation you're watching is the apex of the conflict, particularly the beef between Clay and Jax, but it always finds an interesting and surprising way of making it worse and makes you forget that it still has more episodes to go.

That's the true sign of a good series. It sucks you in and erases any and all concept of time. Unlike other TV shows that you can just have in the background to break the silence of your lonely place, SOA demands your attention and gets it every time, at least for this season. You can't just leave it on and not not watch it (screw good grammar, if you can think of a better and more entertaining way to say it, be my guest). Anything that can stop and slow time, whether it's a TV show, a flying DeLorean or a hot tub deserves special merit in my book.

• TBS has a marathon of The Office all night.
• At 8, ABC has the series premiere of V, followed by new episodes of Dancing with the Stars and The Forgotten.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, then new episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife.
• NBC has a new, two-hour Biggest Loser, followed by a new Jay Leno Show.
• FOX has a new, two-hour So You Think You Can Dance at 8.
• The CW has new episodes of 90210 and Melrose Place.
• PBS has a new Nova at 8.
• ESPN has a new 30 For 30 at 8, followed by two new episodes of The World Series of Poker.
• At 9, History Channel has a new episode of The Universe.
• Bravo has Kathy Griffin: Balls of Steel at 9, then the season premiere of Tabatha's Salon Makeover.
• Syfy has two new episodes of Scare Tactics at 9, followed by a new ECW.
• BBC America has a new Dragon's Den at 9.
• At 10, FX has a new Sons of Anarchy.
• Food Network has a new Chopped at 10.
• A&E has two new episodes of Parking Wars at 10.
• Also at 10: MTV has a new episode of The Hills, followed by a new episode of The City.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

"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.

(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.

(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.

• At 8, ABC has a new Shark Tank, followed by new episodes of Dancing with the Stars and The Forgotten.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, then new episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife.
• NBC has a new, two-hour Biggest Loser at 8, followed by a new Jay Leno Show.
• FOX has the two-hour season finale of Hell's Kitchen at 8.
• The CW has new episodes of 90210 and Melrose Place.
• PBS has a new Nova at 8, then a new Frontline.
• ESPN has a new 30 For 30 at 8.
• At 9, Syfy has two new episodes of Scare Tactics, then a new ECW.
• Discovery has a new Dirty Jobs at 9, followed by a new Ghost Lab.
• At 10, FX has a new Sons of Anarchy.
• Food Network has a new Chopped at 10.
• A&E has two new episodes of Parking Wars at 10.
• MTV has a new episode of The Hills at 10, followed by a new episode of The City.
• Travel Channel has a new Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World.
• Also at 10: ESPN has a new World Series of Poker at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

(S0205) - "When relationships become a ledger of profit and loss, you have no friends, no loved ones, just pluses and minuses. You are absolutely alone." - John Teller

It's almost the mid-season for Sons of Anarchy and that can only mean one thing: someone, nay anyone, can die. It's precisely the reason I asked Katey Sagal in my last interview if she ever worried about her character being killed off. A show this violent and heavy always carries the air of collateral damage.

And episode five's "Smite" proved it when Chibs, played by Tommy Flanagan, almost got caught dead center of a car bomb planted in the club's garage by the local Aryans and may or may not have croaked in the ensuing explosion.

In the words of Jean Paul Sartre, "It's on, gopher."

• At 8, ABC has a new Shark Tank, followed by new episodes of Dancing with the Stars and The Forgotten.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, then new episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife.
• NBC has a new, two-hour Biggest Loser at 8, followed by a new Jay Leno Show.
• FOX has new episodes of Hell's Kitchen and So You Think You Can Dance.
• There's a new 90210 on The CW at 8, then a new Melrose Place.
• PBS has a new, two-hour Nova at 8.
• At 9, Syfy has two new episodes of Scare Tactics, then a new ECW.
• Discovery has a new Dirty Jobs at 9, followed by a new Ghost Lab.
• History Channel has a new episode of The Universe at 9.
• BBC America has a new Dragon's Den at 9.
• At 10, FX has a new Sons of Anarchy.
• Lifetime has a new Sherri, then a new Rita Rocks at 10.
• A&E has two new episodes of Parking Wars at 10.
• ESPN has a new World Series of Poker at 10.
• Travel Channel has a new Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World at 10.
• Also at 10: Bravo has a new Flipping Out.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

(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.

Some shows are really creative with their use of music, and one that stands out for me is Mad Men. In last night's episode (read Bob's review here), the song that played over the end credits was "Sixteen Tons," and they couldn't have picked a better song. After signing that contract, Don Draper did indeed owe his soul not only "to the company store," but also to Betty and to a life he doesn't seem all that happy about leading.

Another show with great use of music is Sons of Anarchy. In his review of "Tears," Danny noted, "Letting Katey Sagal sing a solemn cover of the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" was really a great move on whomever made that call." I couldn't agree more. The song just washed all of the sadness and weight of her rape over us in a big way.

(S02E03) - "I'm talking about creating a temporary problem that allows you to flush out the permanent one." - Ethan Zobelle

The thing that surprised me most about this week's episode are the number of times it made me laugh. That's hard to do for a show that cracks more skulls per episode than a plastic surgeon.

It doesn't do so by sacrificing the things that make it great. It's still just as hard-edged, emotional and violent as before. You're just chuckling for all the right reasons, this time.

• At 8, ABC has a new, two-hour Dancing with the Stars, followed by the series premiere of The Forgotten.
• CBS has the season premiere of NCIS at 8, then the series premieres of NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife.
• NBC has a new, two-hour Biggest Loser at 8, followed by a new Jay Leno Show.
• FOX has a new, two-hour Hell's Kitchen at 8.
• There's a new 90210 on The CW at 8, then a new Melrose Place.
• ESPN has two new episodes of The World Series of Poker at 8.
• Biography has The Star Trek 25th Anniversary at 8, followed by Star Trek: A Captain's Log.
• G4 has a new Web Soup at 8.
• TCM has North By Northwest at 8, then Psycho.
• At 8:30, ABC Family has a new Ruby & The Rockits.
• At 9, Syfy has the season finale of Warehouse 13, then a new ECW.
• At 10, FX has a new Sons of Anarchy.
• Food Network has a new Chopped at 10.
• Bravo has a new Flipping Out at 10.
• Sundance has a new Brick City at 10.
• HBO has a new Joe Buck Live at 10.
• Also at 10: Travel Channel has a new Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

Here's an observation TV fans wouldn't expect: If you know your Shakespeare, you might have a good idea where Sons of Anarchy is headed in its second season.

I paid a visit to the show's sweltering North Hollywood set last week as series creator Kurt Sutter (The Shield) and his cast were putting the finishing touches on the show's second season.

In fact, the show's writers were so close to revealing its final secrets to the cast that my PA and FX PR tour guides slammed a door in my face lest I wander into the writer's conference room and see the white dry erase board full of plot points for season two's final episode.

Evidently, if I'd have seen the final, bottom-right panel on that wall-wide white board, I'd have been chained to show star Tommy Flanagan's motorcycle and taken for a drag around St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank.

(S02E02) - "Unraveling the matriarch will destabilize them. They're all little boys who need a strong mommy."

The thing I'm starting to love about this show is the way it switches gears on just about any incline. They are so swift and sudden that the law should go totally "nanny state" and require me to wear a helmet during each week's episode.

For example: in this week's chapter, we see the aftermath of Gemma's rape and the toll it takes on her as she tries to keep it from the club. Then the very next shot is of Tig, played by Kim Coates and some random fishnet whore slowly waking up with hangovers that could stun an elephant, together in a spent 69.

And I ain't talking about a broken down '69 Chevy.

• At 8, NBC has the two-hour season premiere of The Biggest Loser, then a new Jay Leno Show.
  
• FOX has the two-hour season finale of More To Love.
• The CW has a new 90210 at 8, then a new Melrose Place.
  
• At 9, CBS has the two-hour season finale of Big Brother.
• ABC has a new Shaq Vs. at 9, followed by Barbara Walters: Patrick Swayze.
• Syfy has a new Warehouse 13 at 9, then a new ECW.
• History Channel has a new episode of The Universe at 9.
• BBC America has a new Dragon's Den at 9.
• Also at 9: ESPN has a new World Series of Poker.
• At 10, A&E has a new episode of The Cleaner.
• FX has a new Sons of Anarchy at 10.
• Food Network has a new Chopped at 10.
• There's a new Flipping Out on Bravo at 10.
• Travel Channel has a new Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World at 10.
• HBO has a new Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.