With “The Shield” entering its final season and “Nip/Tuck” heading to a conclusion in 2010, it’s high time that FX found itself a new signature drama or two…and given that “Dirt” has been cancelled, “The Riches” hasn’t gotten a third-season pick-up, and “Damages” is more popular among TV critics than actual viewers, they really to step up their game and hunt up a new series that can be embraced by a larger audience.
Enter “Sons of Anarchy,” a show which is somewhat Shakespearean in spirit but ultimately comes off more like “The Sopranos” if members of the Mafia were replaced with motorcycle-straddling toughs. Not that that’s a bad thing…especially not when Drea de Matteo’s in the cast of this show, too.
I was able to check out the first episode of the series when I was out in L.A. at the TCA Press Tour, but it was late and I was exhausted, so although I walked away from it feeling that it was too dark for its own good, I also felt like I wasn’t giving it my all as a critic, so I vowed to watch it again when it made its formal debut on FX. Now that I’ve done so, I admit that I found myself enjoying it a little more this time around…but it’s still pretty damned dark.
Not that the darkness is all that surprising. After all, “Sons of Anarchy” is the creation of Kurt Sutter, who’s done just about everything there is to do on “The Shield,” having produced, directed, written, and story-edited on that series, not to mention the fact that he played the role of Margos Dezerian. So, basically, the guy knows dark.
Setting aside the darkness, however, the bigger concern is whether or not the saga of a biker gang can be made into a series that the average viewer can latch onto.
