Sons of Anarchy

Infobox Television
show_name = Sons of Anarchy


caption = "Sons of Anarchy"
format = Drama
creator = Kurt Sutter
starring = Charlie Hunnam
Ron Perlman
Katey Sagal
country = USA
network = FX
runtime = approx. 45 min.
producer =
executive_producer = Kurt Sutter
picture_format =
first_aired = September 3, 2008
last_aired = present
num_seasons = 1
num_episodes = 11
language = English
imdb_id = 1124373
tv_com_id = 75303
website = http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/

"Sons of Anarchy" is an FX television series starring Charlie Hunnam about lives of a close-knit motorcycle club operating in the fictional town of Charming in Northern California.

tory

The Sons of Anarchy are an international outlaw motorcycle club with many charters, including the Charming local, based out of a clubhouse adjacent to the Teller-Morrow auto mechanic shop. The Sons mostly ride customized Harley-Davidson Dyna Superglide motorcycles. Led by Clay Morrow, the club controls Charming through close community relationships, bribery, and violent intimidation.

The full name of the motorcycle club is Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original Charter; on occasion, the show will abbreviate it as SOA, though more frequently the club is referred to as SAMCRO (a rough acronym of "The Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original Charter" [ [http://www.movieweb.com/news/NEsN4vwz5decvt FX Gets Forever Sam Crow] ] ) or "Sam Crow." This nickname is also reflected in the original title of the show, which was "Forever Sam Crow". [ [http://www.thetvremote.com/fx-greenlights-forever-sam-crow/ FX Greenlights Forever Sam Crow] ]

Club members have "day jobs" in local industries, but they primarily make money by importing illegal weapons and selling them to drug gangs in the East Bay. (The gang that SAMCRO deals with is called the "One-Niners," the same fictional gang that feature prominently in "The Shield", another FX drama on which "Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter wrote and produced for several years).

SAMCRO keeps meth traffickers out of Charming, which puts them at odds with the meth-distributing white supremacist "Nords" gang, headed by Ernest Darby. The SOA also have to deal with a rival Oakland-based MC, the "Mayans", led by Marcus Alvarez. Unlike their rivals, the Sons are relatively diverse and inclusionist, having one Jewish member, a Scottish member, and one Hispanic member, and disdaining the Nords' social perspective. (For example, they are quite happy working with the local sheriff Sam Trammell, who happens to be African-American.)

John Teller and Piermont "Piney" Winston co-founded Sam Crow. Clay Morrow was the youngest of the "Redwood Original 9". Following John's death, his widow Gemma married Clay. John and Gemma's surviving son Jax (another son Tommy died in childhood of the "family flaw", a congenital heart defect) is second in the club's line of succession after co-founder and sitting president Clay. Jax is recently divorced from Wendy, the mother of his son Abel, who is born 10 weeks premature as a result of his mother's meth addiction.

The family drama is loosely based on Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; [http://blog.meevee.com/my_weblog/2008/08/sons-of-anarchy.html "Sons of Anarchy": A motorcycle gang is coming to your house," Joel Brown, Meevee.com, August 22, 2008] ] indeed, star Ron Perlman has said, "I’m sure they’re going to stick to the structure of Hamlet all the way to the end" of the series. [http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp?aid=9017&tcid=1 Ron Perlman Interview - SONS OF ANARCHY] Clay is based on the role of King Claudius and Gemma as a Gertrude figure. Jax stands in for Prince Hamlet himself; his reflective questioning of the SOA culture, brought on by the birth of his son, references Hamlet's melancholy over the death of the king. Additionally, Jax "communicates" with his dead father by way of his late father's unpublished journal/manuscript; Hamlet, of course, literally communicated with the ghost of his father. [http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080903/LIFE/809030301 Hamlet rides a Harley in 'Sons of Anarchy'] Lastly, narratively the Sons are typical antiheroes.

Episode list

eason One

There are 13 episodes in the first season.

eason Two

On October 6, 2008, FX said it had ordered a second 13-episode season of the series. [ [http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/10/fx_picks_up_second_season_of_s.php FX Picks Up Second Season of ‘Sons of Anarchy’] ]

Character list

Club members

*Clarence "Clay" Morrow (Ron Perlman) is the president of SAMCRO. He is married to Gemma Teller Morrow and stepfather of Jax Teller.
*Jackson "Jax" Teller (Charlie Hunnam) is SAMCRO's vice-president. His day job is mechanic at Teller-Morrow auto. Having recently discovered several of his father's old journals, laying out the original manifesto for SAMCRO, he finds himself doubting the club's direction.
*Robert "Bobby" Munson (Mark Boone Junior) is SAMCRO's treasurer. He does Elvis impersonations in Lake Tahoe. Munson is Jewish. He is a demolition and explosives expert.
*Alex "Tig" Trager (Kim Coates) is SAMCRO's sergeant-at-arms. He is particularly close to Clay, and is one of the club's more violent members.
*Filip "Chibs" Telford (Tommy Flanagan) is a member of SAMCRO. He is originally from Scotland. [http://soa.blogs.fxnetworks.com Chibs' Bike]
*Piermont "Piney" Winston (William Lucking) is a co-founder of SAMCRO. Opie is his son. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War.
*Harry "Opie" Winston (Ryan Hurst) is a member of SAMCRO. He works at a mill chipping wood and is a demolition and explosives expert. Piney Winston is his father, who is disappointed at his son's inability to make ends meet on his day job and his reluctance to participate in the club's illegal activities following his incarceration.
*Juan Carlos "Juice" Ortiz (Theo Rossi) is the club's hacker and intelligence officer.
*Kip "Half-Sack" Epps (Johnny Lewis) is a prospective member of the club. He is a veteran of the Iraq War. His nickname ("Half-Sack") stems from the fact he lost a testicle during the Iraq War.
*Big Otto (Kurt Sutter) is an member of the club who is currently incarcerated in state prison.

Women

*Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal) is the wife of Clay Morrow and the widow of John Teller. Jax and Abel Teller are her son and grandson, respectively. Is extremely protective of her son and grandson, she longs for the day when Jax will, in her eyes, be ready to assume control over SAMCRO in order to ensure the organization's survival for another generation.
*Dr. Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff) is Jax's one-time high-school sweetheart. She left town when Jax was 19, trying to get away from small-town life and the heavy-handed influence of the club. She lives in her childhood home in Charming, which was left to her by her father when he died. She is a pediatric resident at the local hospital who is now tending to Jax's gravely ill infant son Abel. Is on bad terms with Gemma, over her manipulations over those around her for her own agendas. She has a crow tattoo on her lower back left over from when she was a teenager. She is being stalked by Joshua Kohn, an ex-boyfriend from when she lived in Chicago.
*Wendy Case (Drea de Matteo) is Jax Teller's ex-wife and the mother of Abel Teller. She is a drug addict who did methamphetamine during her pregnancy. Overdosed after Gemma gave her drugs, with the instructions to commit suicide via overdose after Gemma revealed that she would use Wendy's drug addiction to ensure she never have any contact with her son.
*Donna Winston (Sprague Grayden) is Opie's wife and the mother of his children. She does not trust SAMCRO and wishes to separate herself and Opie from the club's grasp.
*Cherry (Taryn Manning) is a "hangaround" and wannabe "old lady" of the Devil's Tribe (a friendly MC). She takes an interest in Half-Sack.
*Luanne (Dendrie Taylor) is a friend of Gemma's. Her occupation involves producing pornography.

Law enforcement

*Wayne Uncer (Dayton Callie) is the Chief of the Charming Police Department. He also owns Uncer Shipping, a trucking company. Corrupt to the core and allies with Clay Morrow, he finds himself suffering from cancer, which is forcing him into retirement, something Clay Morrow does not want to see.
*David Hale (Tayler Sheridan) is the Deputy Chief of the Charming Police Department. He is next in line for the Chief job once Wayne Uncer retires. Unlike Wayne, David is an honest lawman who wishes to purge the town of SAMCRO upon becoming Chief of Police. However, this ultimately costs him his promotion, as Clay Morrow convinces Uncer to continue on as police chief in order to ensure Hale doesn't assume the position and become a threat to SAMCRO and their ally, Uncer.
*Agent Scott Kohn (Jay Karnes) is a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent investigating Samcro. He is Dr. Tara Knowles' ex-boyfriend, who has a restraining order against him.
*Sheriff Vic Trammel (Glenn Plummer) is the local County Sheriff and in addition to being on the payroll of SAMCRO he appears to have a high degree of insider information on their illicit activities.
*ATF Chick (Ally Walker) is a federal investigating the club's illegal weapons business.

Rivals

*Ernest Darby (Mitch Pileggi) is the head of the Nordics (also known as "Nords"), a white supremacist gang, mainly involved in meth trafficking, that is SAMCRO's chief rival.
*Marcus Alvarez (Emilio Rivera) is the head of the Mayans MC, an Oakland-based rival biker club that has allied itself with the Nordics in order to break SAMCRO's iron-fisted control over the town.

International broadcasters

* "Super Channel" - Canada

References

External links

* [http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa "Sons of Anarchy"] at [http://www.fxnetworks.com/ FXNetworks.com]
** [http://soa.blogs.fxnetworks.com/ "Sons of Anarchy" production blog]
*imdb title|1124373
* [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22sons+of+anarchy%22 YouTube] , [http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.channel&ChannelID=83120175 MySpace Video] & [http://www.hulu.com/sons-of-anarchy Hulu]
* [http://sutterink.blogspot.com/ Sutter Ink Blog - official blog of show runner Kurt Sutter]
* [http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/sonsofanarchy Metacritic.com: "Sons of Anarchy"]
* [http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3174788 TWOP Discussion: "Sons of Anarchy"]