I was initially intrigued by this show when it began, and had usually had success with the FX original series, ie Nip/Tuck, The Shield, and of course, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but never made it around to watching this show. After about a year of my brother telling me to watch it repeatedly, he finally sat me down 2 nights ago and had me watch the first two episodes of the first season. Let me just preface this review by extrapolating upon that time frame. Two nights Thirteen Episodes. If I hadn't life to attend to or could stay awake past 6am, this most likely would have been finished in one night.
The show overall walks the line perfectly between family drama (which I am a sucker for, enjoying shows such as Six Feet Under) and kick-ass biker show. The characters are hard-hearted enough, but still show through their humane sides to make them believable characters. This show could easily have made a bunch of unrealistic, constantly in kick ass mode bikers, but luckily stayed away from that, except for Tig of course who is some kind of messed up. This line was walked particularly well through Jax's story line as he combats his loyalty to Clay and the Club with what he is reading from his father.
Now that I've made this show seem like some kind of touchy-feely we <3 each other biker family drama, let me tell you this show has some of the most violent and insane sequences. The one that sticks out the most would have to be Episode 5: Giving Back when Kyle Hobart, played by Brian Van Holt, is offered knife or fire to remove his SoA tattoo he was supposed to have had black out after being excommunicated from the Club. Fucked up as this sequence is, it shows the extent to which men will go to enforce the rules of their club and their loyalty to those rules, setting precedent for later events. There is also plenty of ass kicking, guns, shooting, etc, enough to make any action show junkie enjoy this show.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this first season and will quickly be immersing myself into season two. I have my worries, but I think the impending conflict between Jax and Clay will hopefully come to a head in the next season.
Final Score: 9.5/10
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