Sons of Anarchy, Season 3: Another promo

There's another promo for Season 3 of Sons of Anarchy set to The Crystal Method remix of Roadhouse Blues.  It's intense.  I love the little details like the jingling of Tara's earrings.

Sons of Anarchy - Season 3 Promo Analysis

I've given the Sons of Anarchy Season 3 promo a few more viewings and have some semi-coherent thoughts about it, let me share them with you all three of my dear readers.  Here's an HQ copy of it for you re-viewing pleasure.  Analysis follows after the jump.



First, the centerpiece of the promo is the dialogue between Clay and Jax:

Clay:  We represent the past, present, and future of this club. These men behind us, they respect you and they understand your grief but they're also wondering what you're going to do with it. You gotta make the hard choice, son.

Jax:  And what choice would that be?

Choices indeed.  My guess is that Clay is counseling Jax on how to react to Able's abduction from a club perspective.  We see Jax sulking shirtless on the floor and getting peeled off said floor by Opie and Chibs.  Graveside sulking and nekkid shower sulking also ensue.  (Side note:  Not that I'm complaining but the Jax shower scenes are becoming a bit routine--a trope if you will.  A friend of mine coined the regular showing of Jax's backside as Jaxass)   That's Jax's reaction as a father.  Not as a MC Vice President.  I'm thinking that Clay is encouraging Jax to take action because he needs it, because the club needs a leader, and getting revenge serves the club and the family.  Also notice that as promised/forewarned things are all nicey nicey again with Clay and Jax.  At least for now.

Second, things aren't looking so hot for Jax and Tara but I suspect there is some editing trickery afoot.  The dialogue is The Prince of Charming telling Tara in Able's room that:

You gotta get out of here

This has to be the end.  

There is some kissy-face but Tara trashing the nursery as well.  My guess is that there will be some reconciliation if/when Able is retrieved because Jax needs a nighttime nanny and a warm bed.  However, like most things in the SAMCRO universe, it wouldn't be an uncomplicated reunion.

Third, Gemma. Oh, girl, how I've missed you!  Gemma beats the shit out of a blindfolded woman in a nightgown.  Gemma and Clay are reunited and it feels so good.  Gemma's in disguise in a drab olive cap that isn't fooling anyone.  She tells Tig that "I'm going whether you like it or not."  Going?  Going where? Is this why she needs to start a car with a pocket knife?  To Belfast perhaps. Or perhaps on the raid where we see Happy, Opie, and Jax chase some dude through a house...  which leads me to....

Fourth, all of the major action in the promo appears to revolve around a drive-by shooting (carried out by persons unknown) that seems to occur at a funeral home.  The Bolton Hall Museum is the stand-in for the funeral home.  Anywho...  The best that I can surmise is that there is a drive-by at Half-Sack's funeral, somehow SAMCRO gets a bead on who is responsible and raids the joint.  Raiding/pillaging/revenge scenes occur in a house with a disturbing  number of framed cat pictures and jars of chemicals. Piney, Happy, and Bobby-Elvis open fire on some bearded long-haired dude in a flannel.  This is the same dude who asks  Piney, "Why the hell are you doing this?"  And Piney, bless his heart, gets the best line when he retorts "Because we're the good guys."  It appears that this is the same place where Piney and Clay have words while Bobby-Elvis looks on with concern.  And, at least in my multiple sad fangirl viewings, it seems that the dude being chased by Happy, Opie, and Jax is the same unfortunate chap who is buried up to his mellon in the desert.  WHICH IS FUCKING BRILLIANT AND SICK.
 
Nuts and Bolts:

• Where the fuck is Juice?  For that matter, where the fuck is Tig?  Juice is missing from the entire promo--aside from black and white cut-in shots-- and Tig is only present in the scene with Gemma.  Anyone care to guess where they are?
• Possibly related:  in the opening sequence of SAMCRO riding out en masse from Teller-Morrow Automotive, the guys are not in their usual formation.  Clay is still riding point, but instead of Jax being behind and to Clay's left, BobbyElvis is there in the VP spot.  And instead of Tig being in his Sergeant-at-Arms spot behind and to the right of Clay, Opie is there.  Jax is missing.  Tig is further back in the pack.  It could mean something or it could mean nothing.  
• Happy appears to be wearing a Redwood Original patch on the front of his cut.  Nomad no more?
• Opie appears to have gotten a new hat AND a haircut.  He's going to need it to rescue Lyla from the blowjob-a-thon that seems to be getting underway.
• Jax and Opie appear to be hanging at a dock, don't they?
• There's a car chase through Charming.  Vintage black sedan but I don't think it's Tara's.  
• Jax chases some guy into the oncoming path of Lyla's Prius.  Huh? 

That is an embarrassingly long recap for a mere 60 seconds of footage.  Dear God, is it September 7th yet?  Also:  Season 3 is apparently going to set the reset button for Season 4.  Sweet Baby Able, I can't even think about that because it nearly sends me into a fangirl panic.  Also-also:  Yes, I have the WWGD t-shirt.  There's more to come on that.  Also-also-also:  Yes, I'm going to finish the questionnaires.  I promise.

Sons of Anarchy - Season 3 Promo

Here it is!  The Sons of Anarchy Season 3 promo that is airing on FX.  More to come on what it entails yeah, I'm a loser who will do a frame-by-frame analysis but in the meantime, enjoy!

True Blood Recap, 3.05 Trouble

Here comes my recap of all things Good, Bad, and Ugly from True Blood, Trouble, just as soon as I'm back from dinner at the Shoney's in Vicksburg with Franklin Mott...  errr..... scratch that.  Just as soon as I'm done discussing Japanese vampire erotica from the 16th Century with Eric. (Photo from Sookie is Mine!)

    

The Good

• Lafayette and Jesus courting:  the writers and the actors really hit their respective marks in conveying the terribly sweet self-consciousness of the time before a first date and first kiss.  And don't you know our boy Lafayette deserves the love too? 
• Jessica glamouring customers so Arlene doesn't get any tips.  Side note: the chemistry between Jessica and Tommy might be his one saving grace.    
• Eric as a viking!  But what would you bet that the crown Eric saw amongst the accumulated tchotchkes of Russell's pillaging was there on purpose?  
• The trap that Russell Edgington set for Bill.  Or should I say his experiment to see if the confrontation could evoke Sookie's magic fingers?
• The whole Russell-Bill-Eric triangle of mutual treachery and scheming. None of these guys trust each other, they all have ulterior motives and it is FANTASTIC! 
• Everything about Franklin Mott.  Everything.  Calling Talbot the cleaning lady, the vampire texting motherfucker, the aforementioned dinner at Shoney's, taking out a church group at the slots in Biloxi because they wouldn't let him have a chance, needing a financial trust, and any time having "a talk" results in him waking up from a blackout with body parts around him.  I love everything about him because he is fucking nuts and James Frain plays him with such zeal.  It's too bad it comes at a high price for Tara (more on that in the Ugly section). 
• Crystal doesn't have a telephone or a bra  but at least she is smarter than Jason.  Let's just hope that Jason gets a piece so he can stop with the wanna-be sheriff shenanigans.  Ryan Kwanten was pretty endearing as Jason.  I just wish the he had better material.    
• Jeebus!  I think we got our first "Suuuuukkeeeehhh" of the season and this was the 5th episode.    

The Bad

• Sookie and Alcide's chemistry.  I'm just not feeling it.  
• Ha-ha.  Jason with ink on his face and paperclip limbo.  I get it.  He is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.   I got it in Season 1.  Make his character do or be something interesting, otherwise why waste precious time repeating old tropes?  Also:  Jason and Andy are bo-ring.    
• Colonel Flood is a scardey cat dog.  
• Kenya, Kevin and red mulch?  Have I ever told you that I my "No Wire Hangers" equivalent is red mulch?   
• Lorena strolling in with the stripper's glittery bra in hand.  
• I just don't give a shit about Sam or his long lost redneck white trashy family. But at least Joe Lee is WEARING PANTS CONSISTENTLY. 

The Ugly

• Tara.  Tara.  Tara.  Let me preface this with saying that I think Rutina Wesley does an amazing job with what she is given.  But let's face it, the writers keep handing her huge piles of shit every episode.  What in the holy hell happened to Season 1 Tara?  You know, the smart fiery girl who was Sookie's BFF and didn't take shit from anyone?  Her character been twisted AGAIN to be some pawn at the whim of what ever supernatural special guest star creature that happens to be cast introduced each season.  The writers have stripped a female character of any semblance of agency she had left.  Having the character who complained about being named after a plantation actually run across a plantation trying to escape while being chased by dogs wolves is beyond reproach.
• Spoiler alert for people who haven't read the books.  I'm about to reveal some serious plot points from the books.  I am so over the whole "True Blood is done in the spirit of the books" line of bullshit.  For me, there are certain things that need to happen and one of them is NOT the softer, gentler let down of Bill.  In the books Bill might have been kidnapped and tortured, but he also did some pretty despicable things -- yeah, I'm talking about the trunk scene.  Yes, Sookie needs to rescue Bill but she also needs to unequivocally reject him.  And Sookie needs to stake Lorena.  Seriously -- I need the "I killed her ass" moment.  This is the only way to open up the door for Sookie's character to grow.  With Eric.  I swear, hand to God, if there is one more fakey-fakey dream scene of the two of them making out, you will hear my screams of frustration.   And if there is some Sookie and Bill reconciliation at the end of this season, I might just have to break up with this show completely.  Maybe.       

Sons of Anarchy - We have an air date!

Alert! Alert!  Sons of Anarchy is set to premier on Tuesday, September 7th at 10 p.m. Just like I predicted waaaaaay back in March. So make sure you still have a season pass on your DVR, hire a babysitter, and tell your boss that you need to take the night off.  Do It.  Now.  Also:  FX is sponsoring a Sons of Anarchy sweepstakes to send 7 lucky fans out to LA to a private showing of the premier, webcast with Kurt Sutter, and a bit of pocket change.  

The Sons of Anarchy panel at Comic-Con is coming up on Sunday, July 25th at 2:45 --with appearances by Kurt Sutter, Katey Sagal, Ron Perlman, and Charlie Hunnam.  Is anyone going to Comic-Con?  I'd be interested to hear about the experience from the perspective of an SOA fan.  You know, rather than the perspective an Avengers fanboy.

The Sons of Anarchy Emmy snub happened.  In full effect.  Sons of Anarchy got a big fat goose egg by way of nominations.  I've kind of held off on blogging about it because, frankly there were enough people expressing outrage about the omission that it was overwhelming.  But to round things up: Michael Ausiello pointed out that Katey Sagal was screwed, the LA Times paid notice to the snub, Mo Ryan was astounded, and The Boob Tube Dude noticed the slight as well, BuddyTV listed it as #1 on its top 10 of Emmy snubs, and TV By The Numbers has the HOLY FUCKING SHIT reaction without actually saying the words.

And then there was the so-called media's reaction to the SOA snub--particularly Kurt Sutter's blog post.  My dear three readers, the media reacted in the most irritating, sub-human, salivating-to-create-controversy-so-it-becomes-a-story sort of way.  (I'm not linking to any of that because I don't want to give those bastards the page hits).  In my opinion, Kurt Sutter's initial reaction was not some angry screed, it was just an assessment of the situation as he saw it.  Sons of Anarchy is an outsider show and that's how they like it, creatively speaking.

My take on the media debacle is that anything other than gracious losing must translate to FUCK THE HOLLYWOOD ESTABLISHMENT MOTHERFUCKERS in some entertainment media code speak.  Sort of like a dog whistle.  Either that or everyone in Hollywood loves the shit out of Mariska Hargitay who must be Mother Theresa or something.  But then, the "media" had the same irrational reaction when Kurt Sutter published a clarifying blog post.   And I swear, hand to God, I was thisclose to pulling one of these:

Just without the eyeliner.  And the tears.  And the screaming.

There was a great interview with Kurt Sutter with insights into Season 3 and some great new set pic by Monsters and Critics that is worth a look-see.  Finally, there were a couple of spoilers that came out about the Belfast story line.  I'm going to put these after the jump because frankly, they are very spoilery and I had mixed feelings about them after I'd read them.  Ah, the things I do for the blog.    

True Blood Recap, 3.04 9 Crimes

This week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly recap of True Blood, 9 Crimes just as soon as I'm done grilling hot dogs in the parking lot at Merlotte's.  Overall, it was a good episode and it is nice to see some semblance of a cohesive story coming together.  And the bright red thread tying most of the disparate story lines together is V.

The Good

• Oh, Sookie, you dirty little hooka -- and I mean that as a compliment.  Sookie nearly jumps Alcide to the point where he feels uncomfortable and goes to put a shirt on.  Damnit.  And the near-jumping happens immediately after Bill breaks up with the Sookster over the phone -- the shock! the horror!  Can you imagine if he dumped her by text?  She would've fucked Alcide straight away.  But Sookie was at her endearing, earnest, fierce, naive best in the episode -- from being convinced that Bill needs to break up with her in person, to knocking back shots in the bad girl leathers, to confronting Debbie Pelt.  She might be downright fucking annoying sometimes, but she is never insincere and 9 Crimes put all of that front and center.  
• Bill's seemingly complete turn to the dark vampy side.  Is he doing it to protect Sookie?  Is he doing it because it's his nature and he can't resist any more?  Or to save his own skin? Or is there some bigger diabolical plan in place?  Who the hell knows, but Bill's simmering constipation anger from Seasons 1 and 2 finally have some context and it makes him a much more interesting character.  And hotter!  Sweet Jeebus, give that man long sleeved black t shirts for the rest of the show.  Maybe it's because I just finished "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" but I can't help thinking that there are going to be some long-term consequences that Bill isn't considering at the moment.  Like letting it get out that he was sent to procure a certain waitress from Bon Temps.                
• Eric, Lafayette, Pam, and the V trade. Possibly one of the best moments in the episode was Eric flying in to back Lafayette up and close the deal out in Hot Shot.  The "Let's go, Ru Paul," line was funny but it led to a bit of brilliance with Eric tutoring Lafayette in how to make friends and influence lower level drug pushers. Obviously Bill's little bit of intel about the Queen making Eric sell V went directly from Russell to the Magister.  Eric and Pam's quick thinking to cover their asses with the Queen, set up Bill and buy time was still more brilliance -- and consistent with their relationship.  Speaking of The Magister, how is he for a frightening villain and and indication of things to come later in the season?  Not too shabby.  Kind of makes Maryanne look like child's play. 
• Lorena's neck crack after the best sex she's had in decades!  
• Flying Eric FTW!        

The Bad

• Russell Edgington is the great Nazi-werewolf-vampire-master of yore!  While this whole story line certainly isn't boring there are some cheese-heavy elements involved in this story line:  the V in communion cups, religious music, and general white trash stereotypes are a bit heavy-handed. 
• Franklin Mott went from a short stack of sexy sinew to a fucking scary freak.
• Jason thinking that he is smart enough to blackmail Andy into becoming a cop.  Jesus, get this man a piece of ass before he goes any further.  Seriously.  
• Eric's daydream about Sookie.  Yes, it was hot.  Incredibly hot.  But I'm tired of seeing these two dream about getting it on.  Something has to happen.  
• There wasn't nearly enough Jessica.
• I'm warming to Sam's story line only because he was so compelling at describing his struggles as the motivation for helping Tommy.  But, I'm also increasingly convinced that the Mickens are running a long con on Sam.  
• Alcide could've let that robe open up a little bit while he was cooking that steak for breakfast.  

The Ugly

• Tara duct-taped to a toilet.  At least she struggles.  That suggests some agency, I suppose.  Or at least a desire not to get a raging case of hemorrhoids.    
• Debbie Pelt's hair and makeup.  There's playing the white trash card and then there is playing the 1980's white trash card.  Second runner up:  Debbie Pelt's underwear clad crowd surfing.  Third runner up:  Coot licking Debbie's fresh brand. Gr-o-ss.       
• I'm getting tired of the Gomer Pile-esque, slack-jawed yokels of Bon Temps.  Like the dude who gave Bud Dearborn his new dancing boots shoes.  Or the football dude.  I'm over it.   

WWGD - The T-Shirt!

So I was sitting here in my insomnia induced madness wondering What Would Gemma Do tonight?  Gemma probably would have gone to bed and taken an Ambien an 90 minutes ago, you know because the beautiful queen of bikers needs her beauty sleep, ya'll.  But if the WWGD code wasn't engrained in your psyche already, the FX shop is finally, finally selling its first piece of What Would Gemma Do merchandise.  And it's about damn time because the feminist in me would rather have a root canal with no pain meds than wear a Property of SAMCRO t-shirt.  So here she is:    

Isn't she pretty?  I love the tattoo-like detailing in the background.  She is even my color, or at least the color I wear when I'm not in my black top and skinny jeans uniform.  Go buy one.  Now.  In fact, buy two.  (Perhaps FX will make more WWGD merchandise if there is enough demand and I know there are plenty of women who are Sons of Anarchy fans.)  I've got a minor concern about how this shirt will look on someone with boobs -- where that top banner hits could be cute and flirty OR obscene.  I'll only know for sure once I get it on.  

Also:  Brace yourselves, the Emmy nominations come out this week.  If Katey Sagal isn't nominated......  well..... it won't be pretty.  It makes me wonder, what would Gemma do if an entire fandom erupts in fury over another year of being overlooked?