I came into the first episode of Sons of Anarchy (FX channel) with prejudices, and left with a few minor complaints, but upon second viewing I liked it much better, and my husband, who also used to know a bunch of outlaw bikers, thought it was good.

I found two things a little weird, such as the nonstop series of murders by the SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original) guys. It ain’t the way I found it to be while riding with one of the top 4 outlaw gang in the 1970s, and a friend who rode with another of the top 4 clubs thinks the same thing. He says it more resembles the Sopranos on bikes.

The other thing was trying to figure out why three supposedly notorious gangs would be fighting over the not-so-small town of Charming, CA. First, why would a gang even want to be there? Second, why would three gangs want to be there enough to want to kill their rivals? What gives? 

All in all, it ain’t half bad, and the Jax character ain’t half bad to look at either - dirt, grease, sweat, two day growth of beard, and all.... 

The female doctor’s role is played as though female doctors are bimbos, but I’m hoping she’ll get killed off sometime (soon?) in the future. So far she has about as much depth as a bowl of water, which makes me wonder why Jax would have gotten involved with her in the first place.

I read that there is a dark undercurrent of humor running through the series, but truthfully, outlaw biker humor is much funnier, with a hell of lot more wisecracking. Usually more tongue-in-cheek than dark. I can’t figure out if the producers are going for serious, camp or soap opera, but I can still find a lot of redeeming qualities in this show.

And any outlaw I ever met would be laughed out of the club if he rode in colors and brand new white sneakers. What gives with that? It ain’t smart, and it ain’t in keeping with the image. The rest of the look is fairly authentic, although my friend pointed out that no one wears colors all the time, and definitely not while in cars. However, scenes like where they’re having a chapter meeting or where Jax is kicking ass are close to real life. And the scene where a group of young girls turn to give Jax admiring looks as he rides past them feels very real. 

I’ll let you know what I think again, after I dig into a few more episodes. At any rate, this is one show I would like to see developed... but the writers have to commit to building characters, not just charactures. 

My rating is a 3.8 upon viewing 3 episodes...