Thursday, November 5, 2009

I <3 Sons of Anarchy.

An Open Letter to Kurt Sutter (writer, creator and EP of Sons Of Anarchy): You are my FUCKING hero, dude. Not since Deadwood season two (where I had to go to the video store midway through to hire the last discs so I never had to stop watching) have I watched such brilliant writing, such wonderfully crafted characters, embodied by such an eclectic and talented cast of actors. Fucking brilliant.


Extraordinarily courageous, finely nuanced, complex people, whose extensive back stories build upon and create total believability in the woven tales you tell. Yet by no means does this group, which has grown and flourished from your minds eye, represent the moral compass of "normative" society. Quite the opposite really, which is just the fucking bomb. I can empathise, sympathise, and relate to them, because I too, would consider myself a fringe dweller, (I'm not really into bikes though).


So, for all you people who think you are part of a counter culture, subculture, fringe dwelling, anarchists, raging against 'the man'. Yes, and for you also…you, the arbitrary fetishists who get a "muff chubby" for men who wear leather and ride big bikes. For film lovers, well told story admirers, acting junkies, who are starved for good content, which, lets all admit, is fucknuck hard to come by these days. For any one who doesn't consider themselves part of a standard, day to day, 9 to 5, seven eleven suburbanite, The Sons of Anarchy is for you. And probably for a few others too, particularly for those of you who love your god given right to bear arms.


Each actor, and therefore character has a crystal clear objective, action, activity, and obstacle they play throughout the story arc. The art direction is detailed, poignant, and well thought out. The writing is exquisite, and if you read Sutter's blog, which details the biker community's response to the show, they say - "It might be a soap, but it's our soap". Unlike most soaps (I've seen soaps, and it's not something I would call a soap), it's far from soporific though. The show is addictive.


It's made on a lean budget, with what Sutter calls "Guerilla film making techniques". They have seven day shoots, focusing on being totally filmic in style. I imagine the locations and plot lines will widen and diversify, once viewership grows, giving them money to play around. But they really work with what they have.


For me, watching SAM CROW (you too will know what this means when the obsession overtakes) is like eating an insanely delicious feast, where the table fare is so delectable, you can't help but inhale the food with the help of your grubby little fingers, shoveling it into your greedy little pie hole. At the end, as you crave for more, your tongue smears the plate, your extremely provincial and uncultured self licking every bit of food remnant off, for your entire dinner party to see, but just not give a shit.


If you live in a country where you can either buy DVD's of series, or get cable, I urge you to be one of the viewers who sits through advertising, or buys the actual series outright. This is purely selfish reasoning though, as mainly I want to see all of the seven seasons it has been contracted for, being made.