Awful episode topping off a pretty poor season.
Sutter just doesn't know when to end a story and move on. Was abundantly clear when Opie shot Clay but didn't kill him. Leaving Opie with really no where to go as a character. Clay ended up being 'saved' again by the deus ex machina Danny Trejo CIA story, then saved again by the ridiculous Irish story. And for what? It's not like there was some grand plan that played out. He ended up dying in a similar way but as less of a character.
Gemma's character is awful and blatantly only still alive because of who Sagal's married to. All good will for how amazing her performance was in season 2 is gone. She's an annoyance who's only reason for existing is to keep the audience wondering when Jax will finally hear the truth of John Teller.
The more you think about it, the more you realise SoA is a show that relies on its audience having a terrible memory. Because the timeline is so compressed (didn't 3 seasons take place over a year?) compared to its airing, you don't realise how fucked everything really is. If Jax is the character the show pretends he is, he would realise his kids have been kidnapped, threatened, in a car crash and nearly blown up over the span of a couple years. He should have been begging Tara to take them away until at least the club was 'legit' (lol), instead Tara has to fake a miscarriage to drill home just how fucked everything is? Come on.
At least the end of the last season gave the audience a glimmer of hope the writers were a little bit self-aware of how unlikeable almost every character is (Chibs excluded ofc) by setting up Toric as a potential protagonist, a manifestation of all the innocents the club has murdered (directly and indirectly). But nope, couple episodes in and Toric is another crazy antagonist. Would have had so much respect for the show and Sutter if they ended the whole series with Toric killing almost everyone - all because of the incidental death of a nameless nurse.
Ugh, rant over. SoA could have been the next The Shield, if only the writers were a little bit more honest about their characters.
Sutter just doesn't know when to end a story and move on. Was abundantly clear when Opie shot Clay but didn't kill him. Leaving Opie with really no where to go as a character. Clay ended up being 'saved' again by the deus ex machina Danny Trejo CIA story, then saved again by the ridiculous Irish story. And for what? It's not like there was some grand plan that played out. He ended up dying in a similar way but as less of a character.
Gemma's character is awful and blatantly only still alive because of who Sagal's married to. All good will for how amazing her performance was in season 2 is gone. She's an annoyance who's only reason for existing is to keep the audience wondering when Jax will finally hear the truth of John Teller.
The more you think about it, the more you realise SoA is a show that relies on its audience having a terrible memory. Because the timeline is so compressed (didn't 3 seasons take place over a year?) compared to its airing, you don't realise how fucked everything really is. If Jax is the character the show pretends he is, he would realise his kids have been kidnapped, threatened, in a car crash and nearly blown up over the span of a couple years. He should have been begging Tara to take them away until at least the club was 'legit' (lol), instead Tara has to fake a miscarriage to drill home just how fucked everything is? Come on.
At least the end of the last season gave the audience a glimmer of hope the writers were a little bit self-aware of how unlikeable almost every character is (Chibs excluded ofc) by setting up Toric as a potential protagonist, a manifestation of all the innocents the club has murdered (directly and indirectly). But nope, couple episodes in and Toric is another crazy antagonist. Would have had so much respect for the show and Sutter if they ended the whole series with Toric killing almost everyone - all because of the incidental death of a nameless nurse.
Ugh, rant over. SoA could have been the next The Shield, if only the writers were a little bit more honest about their characters.
