Sons of Anarchy: Season 4

It's been a long time since I've posted about Sons of Anarchy, and in the interim I've seen Seasons 4-6 in real time and then gone back to watch Seasons 1-4 again with the wife. I went back and read some of my posts from Seasons 1-3, and while it's always cringe-inducing to read old writing, some of my glowing praise for this show back then was particularly hard to stomach: "It's certainly one of the best dramas I've seen and warrants consideration for placement in that elite tier that includes Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and perhaps Boardwalk Empire." Blech. It's safe to say that at this point I have a much better understanding of just what this show is, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. "An elite drama" it ain't, and we'll leave it at that.

But Sons of Anarchy is still a very solid show, and one I've probably soured on too much. This very fourth season is when I recall turning on the show; after raising stakes on half a dozen different fronts all season long and building toward an inevitable explosive showdown, the show coasted into hibernation mode for Season 5 without really resolving anything, and it did so in the form of a cop out of sorts, when some of the major players involved in this season's biggest arc turned out to be working for the CIA undercover. Elsewhere, hatchets were buried and a few key characters were left dangling between various rocks and hard places, unable to bring long-brewing conflicts to their conclusions in favor of maintaining the status quo. The ending cheapened the otherwise fantastic season that had come before it, and the show's inability to kill off or otherwise write out some of its favorite characters felt like a fatal flaw.

That's what it felt like at the time, at least, to the extent where I found it hard to get excited for Season 5 at all and don't honestly remember much of what happened in that one. But, with the benefit of hindsight, knowing how this season would end - or maybe it was the foresight of what Season 5 and 6 look like - I was much happier this time around with Season 4. Yeah, it was a clumsy landing with more than one cop-out, but it also sets in motion - or maybe just keeps in motion - some more compelling stuff that comes in Seasons 5 and 6, and that I anticipate will come in Season 7. I look forward to re-watching Season 5 next, and hopefully walking away from that one with an improved opinion, too.