Wednesday, January 21, 2015

"We have got to get ourselves out of guns" - Sons of Anarchy (The Bad)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 2014

This is the continuation of the year in television following one of the worst shows of the season.

The Bad - The year in Television


Sons of Anarchy

The year 2014 witnessed the end of several series and one of the most mediocre series finales was Sons of Anarchy. In the beginning, the series was interesting with storylines that made you care about what happened to these characters. Kurt Sutter was hailed as a television genius that helped further dramatic television on basic cable. Then somewhere around the end of season four the wheels fell off. Sure, it was mildly entertaining but from week to week every episode was the same.

Jax would complain that they had to get out of guns by taking the club further into running guns. This made for some great riffing for Hawk and I but made for some frustrating television.  By the final season, the show was incoherent and chock full of goPro footage to heavy metal instrumentals. Whoo! Then if you couple the lack of story elements with the bloated run time (episodes were between 45 minutes to an hour plus without commercials) and it was obvious that the season was nothing more than a Kurt Sutter ego stroke.

In defense of the writing staff, final seasons are difficult to execute even when a plan exists. This season by all accounts had no plan other than to satisfy the ego of one, Kurt Sutter. There were points during this season where he admitted that scenes or characters were added because he simply thought they were "cool" (See homeless lady in the finale) and coupled with inexplicable actions taken by characters made for an unsatisfying season of television. Every aspect of this season should have ended up on the cutting room floor as they added very little to either the plot or closing out storylines. Sutter and company abandoned characters and plot for the bulk of the season only to rush their conclusion during the deification of Jackson Teller. Ultimately, the final season of Sons should be a masters class in how not to make a television show whether it is the first season or the last. Thanks for the memories Kurt and making a final season as bad as Dexter.

Honorable Mentions: Gotham

Parting Thought: So, FX gave them the budget to film bloated episodes but cut their special FX budget, resulting in horrible looking CG blood and explosions. I hope that was worth it.

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