Analysis Of Sons Of Anarchy

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Sons of Anarchy: The Club We All Want To Be A Part Of

Little did we know until September 3, 2008, how badly we all wanted to be a part of a motorcycle club. FX premiered a new crime drama called Sons of Anarchy and much to the viewers surprise the show focuses on the people on the other side of the law than what is normally seen in the genre of crime dramas. Audiences across America began to align themselves with the murderous and violent gun-runners know as the Sons of Anarchy. This show in particular went on to be one of the most popular crime dramas on television, but how is that possible when the characters we know and love are violent criminals and do everything we are told is wrong. Since the premiere Sons of Anarchy has gone on with six seasons each one more popular than the last, with a seventh season expected to air in fall of this year. But what has created such a demand for a show like this? Are Americans becoming more violent and therefore want to watch violence on television? Or are Americans using Sons of Anarchy to escape their own lives?
The television show Sons of Anarchy is based on a fictional motorcycle gang but none of the characters would be caught dead using that term, they prefer the more modest term of a motorcycle “club” instead. The show focuses on Jackson “Jax” Teller the leading anti-hero who is the Vice President of the club, which was founded by his father and eight other Vietnam War veterans upon their return. The club takes up residence in a fictional northern California town called Charming, of which they gain control of by blackmailing the local law enforcement officials including the town’s sheriff. All seems well until Jax finds his deceased fathers memoir explaining that gun-running wa...

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...framing people for murders that the officers themselves have committed. The line between good and evil is so blurry that we often see the police and the club going back and forth between the two.
The abundance of cultural issues portrayed in the show makes it apparent that the show is a reflection of American popular culture; supported by the rating the show is about to begin its seventh season. The evolution of the crime drama genre from the noble cop defending justice and locking away criminals has come a long way. American audiences can now side with the murdering Vice President of a notorious motorcycle gang and not feel bad about it. The Sons of Anarchy offers the American people an escape from a society that does not trusts their own government, is debt-crippled, and jobless. The popularity of Sons of Anarchy shows how Americas need for an escape from reality.

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