The coolest blog known to man: Media Blog #2: "Sons of Anarchy"

Our show that we chose for this week’s blog was Sons of Anarchy. Sons of Anarchy is an American television drama series which airs on the FX cable network. It premiered in 2008, and in show's first season had 5.4 million regular viewers. 'Sons of Anarchy' was created by the producer of 'The Shield,' Kurt Sutter.

The series follows a notorious motorcycle gang which is the founding chapter of the Sons of Anarchy, located in Charming, California. They are called the Redwood Chapter. The main character is Jax Teller, vice president of the club. He begins to question himself and the club, which is the key drama in the story line. We watched it on DVR from last season airing on Jan 30th, 2011. It was Season 6, Episode 1.

This episode is about Jax (the main character) going to Belfast to find his son that the Irish took. They fly a friend’s plane over and borrow bikes while they are there. After they arrive, they meet up with the local Sons of Anarchy chapter (Dublin) and start the search. The entire episode is full of excitement and you never know what’s coming next. They randomly get stopped on a back road by the Irish police, and the Sons end up beating all the cops, and even holding a few hostages to get some juicy information out of them and then going on their way. All the time they are in search of finding Jacks son Able. I have to say that Jax, Able, The priest, Jema (Jax mom) and Clay are all noteworthy!

Sons of Anarchy in comparison to other Prime time network shows, in similar in ways, but also very different in others. It shows the family aspect, with loyalty, respect, and drama. Then on the other side, it shows the bad side of it all with violence and death. The process of watching the show was interesting. During the show we were looking for anything to be advertised; Shirts, cigarettes, beer, just about anything really. We were very shocked to see that every beer label was turned or blurred out so we couldn’t see it. It was like this on almost anything that could have a brand label or so on. On some of them, for example, the beer bottles, it was very easy to tell that it was a popular brand, but thanks to some very well placed bottles and blurs, we are not able to tell the brand. In the commercials, it was pretty apparent that they were targeting men. Some of these commercials included Beer, WWE(pro wrestling), New action/shoot em' up movies, and obviously, Motorcycles. They advertised with a stereotype that would be watching this kind of show. I also wanted to see how much commercials change with the show. So we pulled up an episode of House to see what kind of commercials are in that. I was amazed at how different they were. More towards an everyday housewife and definitely family friendly, some of the advertisements included cars, IPods, and phone services like Verizon or T-Mobile.

I do believe that Sons of Anarchy is geared towards Men, but also they throw in the Women bikers and the family aspect to bring in women. They are your stereotypical hardcore biker dudes surrounded with drugs, sex, and violence. This particular episode was filmed in Belfast and I think they do not only a wonderful job on taping but the editing is done perfectly. I would have to say that Sons is not much like other shows that I have seen, maybe some movies about being poor and a part of a bad world. I think what makes this show unique is that they take you all over the world and show a brother hood in a sense. I think it’s just a drama yes, But it always keep you interested! At one point they kill off a main character! We are not used to seeing that!

In Conclusion, Sons of Anarchy is an awesome show....if you are into that type of show. Critics love the show because it’s edgy and it crosses borders. It is a show that will keep you on your toes, and make your jaw hit the floor. Anna is a diehard viewer and Jordan says if he had more time, he would be a die hard. I think that this show reflects a lot of what the US culture wants in TV. It’s using a real life motorcycle gang and showing the in’s, the out's and the all-around of living that type of life. Its nitty, It’s gritty, but it’s damn good TV.