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Sons of Anarchy, Ep. 7.13, “Papa’s Goods” brings Jax’s ride to a fitting end

Some of the strongest and most wrenching material in Sons of Anarchy’s history came in the early seasons when Jax was actively, and believably, attempting to reroute the aims of the club towards a direction to match his father’s vision. From Jax sitting on the roof of the club reading the elder Teller’s parting manuscript to his frequent visits to the cemetery to gain strength at the foot of his father and brother’s tombstones, the importance of the club’s overarching goals not only supplied some of the best story arcs but the best Charlie Hunnam performances as well. The pre-credits sequence of this week’s episode, the end of a show that has long overstayed its welcome, mirrors those potent early scenes in interesting ways, allowing Jax to once again revisit his earlier choices as the audience follows along. The burning of his father’s papers isn’t overwrought enough to pull the audience out of the moment, and his gentle placement of his rings on Opie and Tara’s graves is true to character and a genuinely tear-worthy moment. In advance of an assumed mayhem vote by the club, Jax’s goodbyes to the symbols of the ones he loved is an important piece of his final journey and the show nails it.

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Sons of Anarchy, Ep. 7.11, “Suits of Woe”: Jax comes to grips with a disturbing truth

For an episode that has so many scenes that could all individually be described as great, this episode continues to not have enough happen in order to properly justify the run time. The majority of the action is important, but letting every scene breathe and take as much time as possible to play out undercuts the levity of the scenes where the drawn out nature of an interaction instills everything with increased emotion. Having a conversation between Gemma and Nero be the same length as one between Althea and Unser, or close to it, attempts to place them on the same level and this doesn’t make any sense. There are few transitional scenes this week, only increasingly long and drawn out exchanges as Gemma’s actions in relation to Tara’s death come into focus and get passed around the club. In an episode where long-awaited fireworks are expected, the sudden refusal to put Jax and Gemma in the same room is a disappointment and one that is not tempered by the prison murder of Lin or the semi-pointless car chase Jax takes part in. Finding the emotional heart of the show again this close to the finale after so many seasons of blood and guts is a good thing, but with over an hour of screen time filled with lots of tell and not a lot of show, the emotional heart isn’t balanced with anything else.

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Sons of Anarchy, Ep. 7.01, “Black Widower”: The Sons return to business as usual

Coming off a bloody and shocking season finale, the final stretch of Sons of Anarchy kicks things off with nothing less than a bloody and shocking premiere. The actual action takes up less than a third of the episode, with most of the super-sized premiere ending up as time spent watching various gangs and family members talk in circles about last season’s events. With only a handful of episodes to iron out all of the conflicts from last year’s denouement, set up a proper season arc, and tie everything up in a satisfying manner, one would think Sutter and co. would have a sense of urgency when it comes to moving the plot along. Instead, a small number pieces on the chessboard are shifted a few spaces while everybody else stands around and observes the events unfolding.

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Sons of Anarchy, Ep. 6.09: “John 8:32” begins bringing the season together

Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Episode 9 – “John 8:32” Written by Kem Nunn and Kurt Sutter Directed by Guy Ferland Airs Tuesday nights at 10 on FX After finally managing to craft something kind of interesting out of Tara’s fake pregnancy plot last week, Sons of Anarchy is beginning to make the exponential climb to …

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Sons of Anarchy, Ep. 6.01: “Straw” welcomes viewers back to Charming

While Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter tends to favor the music montage sequence for beginnings and/or ends of episodes, this season six premiere – “Straw,” which may also be the penultimate season premiere for this series, since it is only planned to run through seven seasons – opens with a montage set to Jax’s narration as he reads from a journal entry he is writing for his sons.

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‘Pacific Rim’ a sometimes thrilling fever-dream mishmash of summer movie tropes

If Calvin and Hobbes, those most delightful and beloved comic-strip characters, made a monster movie out of one of their fever-dream playtime japes, it would probably look a great deal like Pacific Rim. The sweaty, breathless determination with which the film’s main concept plays out, as well as how frequently it aims to top itself, is both charming and a mild hindrance. (Cartoonist Bill Watterson was able to get away with such boyhood tomfoolery because he was working with a much shorter amount of space and time.) Co-writer and director Guillermo del Toro has broken free of his almost quaint, homemade style in Pacific Rim, delivering, in many ways, the ultimate summer movie, for good and ill.

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Sons of Anarchy, S4: Potentially unsatisfying year promises great things to come

Sons of Anarchy, Season 4 Recap Created by Kurt Sutter Airs on FX If getting out was that easy, this would simply be a different show; so while highly predictable, this season‘s ending brought the Shakespearean step-father-son relationship finally to the peak season one had already laid out: Jax stepping up to the gavel. Hopefully …

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