So, when you need to have a cutting edge subject to formulate a drama around, who do you think of? I know that one of the most public of street gangs, the motorcycle club, didn’t spring to the top of the list. But with great writing and excellent casting, Fox has pulled it off with Sons of Anarchy.

Sons of Anarchy centers on the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, their business, and relationships both personal and within the club. Jackson ‘Jax’ Teller (Charlie Hunnam – Cold Mountain) Vice-President of the club, is in a precarious position, both in his personal life and within the club. His junkie ex-wife Wendy (Drea de Matteo – The Sopranos) has just given birth, prematurely, to their son, who’s in an incubator at the moment. While Jax is in the family storage unit he finds a manuscript written by his deceased father, one of the Sons of Anarchy Original 9, outlining his hopes and plans for the club. Clarence “Clay” Morrow (Ron Perlman – Hellboy) is another of the Original 9 and current president of the club. He’s also married to Jaxs’ mother Gemma (Katie Sagal – Married with Children). Add to his problems the return of Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff – Life on Mars) the ex-girlfriend who left the gang and town to become a doctor. Tara has her own problems. Besides over protective mother, Gemma, she brought a stalker with her in the form of F.B.I. Agent Scott Kohn (Jay Karnes – The Shield) who tries to win Tara back by making trouble for the Sons of Anarchy.

And then there’s the rest of the club. The Sons main business is gun running, but a run of bad luck and sabotage has forced them to branch out into other activities. Not only do they deal with dwindling cash flow but also rival gangs, witness silencing, blackmail, women, and, of course, law enforcement. Add in the central club members “Juice” Ortiz (Theo Rossi – Cloverfield), “Chibs” Telford (Tommy Flannigan – Alien vs. Predator), “Trig” Trager (Kim Coates – Prison Break), “Opie “ Winston (Ryan Hurst – Chasing the Green), Bobby Munson (Mark Boone Junior – 30 Days of Night), and Original 9 member “Piney” Winston (William Lucking – Slipstream). Local law enforcement consists of police Chief Wayne Unser (Dayton Callie – Halloween II) who is owned by the club, and Deputy Chief David Hale (Taylor Sheridan – Veronica Mars) who is not owned and is waiting for the chief to retire so he can clean his town up. But throughout everything the Sons go through, the constant is Jax dealing with the content of his fathers’ mystery manuscript.

So how close to reality is Sons of Anarchy? I can’t attest to how close to reality this is, never having been in a club myself, but a message board, evaluating the show, had posts indicating that this is a watered down version of the gangs, and that they are not close to the 1%’ers they portray. This seems to coincide with the documentaries about gangs. Close, but no cigar.
But how close can you get on network T.V.? While the show doesn’t portray the club as dedicated enough to be a 1%’er, they have traits indicative to a motorcycle club. In episode 5, "Giving Back", former member Kyle (Brian Van Holt – Threshold) returns to Charming to see his son. Kyle had been banned for causing Opie to go to prison, but when he is allowed to visit his son, it’s found that he never had the club tattoo removed from his back. So the club confronts him and gives him two choices – knife or fire. Cue screams as camera pulls away. Next scene is a body being dumped outside the emergency room.
So while not graphic in nature Sons of Anarchy is brutal in its’ intent, and Fox is pushing the network T.V. envelope.

Sons of Anarchy Special Features include;
– Audio commentary on selected episodes
– The making of Sons of Anarchy Season 1 fearurette
– Casting Sons of Anarchy
– The Ink
– The Bikes
– Deleted Scenes
– Anarchy on the set

So, you may be asking yourself why you should watch Sons of Anarchy Season 1. They’re not very nice people, they don’t do nice things for anyone who’s not in the club, and even the good guys have serious flaws. The reason you should watch is that this is a truly good, compelling series. The characters are well developed and interesting, the stories fresh and unexpected, and you hope that the characters will change as events unfold. And Season 2 starts soon and you don’t want to go into it uninformed. If you did watch the series you’ll want this set for reference material.

ComicsOnline gives Sons of Anarchy Season 1 5 Bikes, Booze, and Broads out of 5