BRL, where are you at in the show now? I was seriously hooked during the first few seasons and it became a slog for me around season three and beyond. I'm spoiling nothing at all for you by saying that I just got tired of the show trying to make me feel pity or empathy for horrible, awful people who do nothing but horrible, awful things.

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Originally posted by doc45:

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Originally posted by BRL:
^^^^ Grrr... thanks for the spoiler

So Sorry, I figured with it ending in 2014 I figured there weren't any surprises left. Oh, in "Titanic" the boat sinks. .

That's a funny way of apologizing for not reading the man's post and then doing exactly what he politely asked everyone not to do.

Yes, mea culpa, I misread the original post and tried to make things right in a lighthearted manner. I believe the viewing can continue without ruin.

In addition to my public apology to BRL I've sent an email apology as well.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: doc45,

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
BRL, where are you at in the show now? I was seriously hooked during the first few seasons and it became a slog for me around season three and beyond. I'm spoiling nothing at all for you by saying that I just got tired of the show trying to make me feel pity or empathy for horrible, awful people who do nothing but horrible, awful things.
)

I'm just about in the middle of season five (Jimmy Smits era). I think it's as good as ever right now. Sure, there are some moments where I showed out and "aw come on man, give me a fucking break"

One thing, after years of reading SIGforum, I've realized that California can't be all that bad. Gunshots and shooting in public on a daily basis with rarely any intervention from the police.

Watched the first two seasons. Hard for me to enjoy a series when the main characters are all scum bags. I have to relate to, or like the players to enjoy a movie or show.

Then we have the totally unbelievable body count. They are killing off people all over the place and higher up authorities don't ever seem to intervene.

Liked season one...it went south from there for me.

The one character I really liked was Taylor Sheridan's Dep. Chief David Hale. He wasn't perfect but a good guy.

By the way, Sheridan wrote "Hell Or High Water", he grew up in West Texas and drew on a lot of that. He's been concentrating on writing/producing since SOA.

The way the show is written it's hard to actually like any of the characters. My favorite of the club members was Opie. Loyal, confused, and one hardcore badass.

Yeah, out of the whole series, Opie was the character I honestly liked.

BRL, you're getting there. You're gonna follow up with us when you finish it, right? Curious to get your reaction to the finale.

Just finished season 6. Now I'm just pissed

Told you. It ended in the van at the end of season 3. MAYBE after the first episode of Season 4. Everything else is a bad dream and can be ignored. Nope. Never happened. That shark never got jumped.

And if you think THAT pissed you off, wait till you see what's coming.

Didn't say I'm not enjoying it... Pissed at the characters.

I will say the weekly body count on this show is higher than real life Chicago.

Oh, I watched it all the way to the bitter end the first time through. My gripes were that as the show went on the writing got lazy and the characters changed. Gemma went from ultra capable Machiavellian schemer to insanely incompetent. Jax goes from wanting to think things through and take the club legitimate to being power mad and bloodthirsty. Honestly, he's a worse president than Clay ever was. Bobby Elvis goes from being the voice of reason to...well...not much really. And Juice. Poor Juice.

The episodes kept getting longer, the stories kept meandering around, and the characters kept making more and more decisions that only make logical sense from the perspective of a lazy writer trying to fit in his end game, not from the perspective of the characters themselves.

Don't get me wrong, it was and remains one of my favorite shows. I don't share the hate of it several other folk on the forum seem to express. I just think the quality falls off sharply as it goes on. I'll still watch the new spin off series when it starts up though.

Finished this up yesterday.

Spoilers below -

2nd to last episode, when Jax, Gemma and Unser were at her Dad's house - that might be the worst scene of television I've ever seen. When he shot Unser (first hard to believe he would do that) and then he and Gemma just picked up their conversation as if Unser had just walked out the door? Come on, give me a F'in break. I actually said that to my wife.

Then the final scene - Now I know it's got to be hard to wrap up a series like this but really? Here's what I think. The show had three writers, one inspired by Thelma and Louise, one by Smokey and the Bandit (or maybe the OJ chase) and another by The Crow. Rather than settling on one they compromised on working all three into the end. Even if they had Jax go out the same way, It could have been done in a shorter, faster chase scene.

The other thing that never came to be that I kept waiting for was the pages that Gemma pulled out of the letters from the Gal in Belfast, presumably that had evidence proving Gemma was complicit in Clay killing JT. I expected that to be revealed after Jax learned of Gemma offing Tara and that would seal the deal with him on how to handle Gemma.

Overall, an entertaining series with a lot of "Oh come on" moments, usually having to do with a trail of bodies that would normally make the national news.

Now I'm looking for another series to watch. Already done Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Mad Men and Clifornication (I like that). I'm watching a bit of Longmire now. It's ok but not sucked into it yet. It helps when my wife get's into them which she hasn't with Longmire. She wouldn't watch SOA.

Highly recommend Justified if you haven't seen it. It's actually very well written and acted. The bad guys are evil and hysterical.

Thanks Doc. I've heard good things about it.

+1 on Justified. I also really liked the Battlestar Gallactic reboot. I also liked Lost. Just a couple of shows you can binge on.

I liked SOA. Gemma was a great role for Peggy Bundy. I also thought Kimmy Smits was surprisingly decent.

SOA was good the first couple of seasons, after that it was just went downhill with characters constantly making stupidly bad decisions.

Toward the end I was just watching to see it to the conclusion.

Now Justified was damn excellent.

Actually, I was alright with the house scene. Neither Jax nor Gemma REALLY cared about Unser. He was a tool to be used. Would Jax have preferred not to shoot him? Sure. He wasn't going to spare any time mourning it if he had to though. Unser's end was the most tragic of all the characters in the show. He'd loved Gemma all his life, sacrificed everything for her, and in the end she wouldn't even chose to be with him in death.

My gripe is how was SAMCRO going to try to sell that "we tried to whack our beloved President like you asked, but he slightly winged one of us and got away clean" to the rest of the Club? If Jax hadn't gotten pancaked by Vic Mackey in that 18 wheeler Mr. Mayhem was going to be real busy in Charming.

And a big Plus One on Justified. It's awesome and stays that way pretty much all the way through. Give it a couple episodes to adjust your suspension of disbelief.

Ive got season 1-6 of Justified on Amazon Prime. Watched the first few minutes of Episode 1. I see Venus is in this episode I think I'll like this. Now I've got to figure out how to get season 7-12.

Thanks to a karma from cslinger, I've finished bing watching all 7 seasons.

I thought it was Game of Thrones on Motorsickles.

I think the popularity of shows like this is that the characters aren't black or white, good or bad but, rather, a mixture of all things.

I enjoyed the ending plus the juice prison scenes.

I enjoyed the first two seasons of SOA greatly. The Henry Rollins character in season two made the entire season, in my opinion.



After my favorite character died, (I won't say which one) it tailed off pretty quickly, but I still watched it. At the end, it was just because I was wanting to see it end.

After that OP, look at Justified if you want a great show with well written characters and stories. One of the best shows ever, I believe. Deadwood was awesome, but too short. Breaking Bad was amazing as well.