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Junior G-man
Sep 15, 2004

Wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma


BrandonGK posted:

So the Sons are once again facing off against a powerful crime boss whose public persona is that of a well-connected businessman who strikes at the club by committing a horrible crime against a female loved one. Only now the difference being is that he's black. I guess so Sutter can say something edgy and provocative about race.

This is going to be a long season.

I can easily (maybe gladly?) handle another season 2. What I'm deathly afraid of is the colossal stupidity of the CIA cocaine plot.

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Cluricaun
Jul 31, 2009

Bang.

cornface posted:

Hopefully Clay buys Piney's old tricycle and then like rides it by Opie's house every night tooting the horn.

I laughed way too hard at this mental image.

But from the previews from last night it looks like the Sons are going to mess up and have to go inside again and that will leave Cliney and Opie to have to join forces to try and save the day, leading to Opie having to give Clay his dad's trike. Clay will find the true meaning of Christmas and Brotherhood again and never go away or get killed or anything because Opie will see that he's not such a bad guy after all after Clay somehow pulls everything together and then everyone will go to Jimmy Smits' gay whorehouse and have a rockin party set to the blistering sounds of a new Nickelback album sponsored by Miller Lite. Roll the Reaper and see you next year!

11b1p
Feb 5, 2008

This picture is worth 20 words or something.

:golfclap:

Kekekela
Oct 28, 2004

Suxpool posted:

The for sale sign was on Piney's trike.

Clay buys it after an unusually tense negotiation with the seller.

Titan
Jan 14, 2002
I never missed an episode of season 1 and 2, lost interest halfway in season three and only barely watched last season. This show has fallen a long ways in terms of bad guys (Zoebelle, Weston) and acting with the main SOA crew. The most powerful acting I have seen in a long time was when Gemma tells Clay and Jax that she was raped just as poo poo is about to boil over

Speaking of Weston No bad guy death will ever top his. Ever.

Aggro
Apr 24, 2003

STRONG as an OX and TWICE as SMART
Hey kids, what's the verdict? Is the show remotely watchable at this point? It takes a lot for me to give up on a TV show, but I shitcanned Dexter after 5 seasons, and this one is on the chopping board. I forgot to set the DVR though, so before I blow money on iTunes, was the premiere decent at all?

Pron on VHS
Nov 14, 2005

Blood Clots
Sweat Dries
Bones Heal
Suck it Up and Keep Wrestling
It's watchable the way Executive Decision is watchable every time it used to air on TNT. Good background poo poo.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

11b1p posted:

I thought there would be more talk about the Goon getting patched in. I saw him with a bottom rocker.

Clay did personally say he was glad that he was patched in (assuming anyone cares about what Clay has to say anymore, that is).

basx
Aug 16, 2004

Sassy old man!
I have an odd request - can someone take browalk.gif and do that magical Photoshop thing that stabilizes part of the image so Jax stays relatively still while the background sways back and forth like waves on the ocean?

Keyser_Soze
May 5, 2009

Pillbug

Aggro posted:

Hey kids, what's the verdict? Is the show remotely watchable at this point? It takes a lot for me to give up on a TV show, but I shitcanned Dexter after 5 seasons, and this one is on the chopping board. I forgot to set the DVR though, so before I blow money on iTunes, was the premiere decent at all?

I just look at it as a biker soap opera and have moderately low expectations but greatly enjoy cameos and season guest villains, that seems to help. :munch:

Fateo McMurray
Mar 22, 2003

cornface posted:

Hopefully Clay buys Piney's old tricycle and then like rides it by Opie's house every night tooting the horn.

Would redeem everything the show has ever done.

smg77
Apr 27, 2007
I think I figured it out. The Nomads are actually KGB who are trying to stop the CIA from getting Irish guns.

Ransom
Jan 8, 2001

JOLLY RAPIST

Aggro posted:

Hey kids, what's the verdict? Is the show remotely watchable at this point? It takes a lot for me to give up on a TV show, but I shitcanned Dexter after 5 seasons, and this one is on the chopping board. I forgot to set the DVR though, so before I blow money on iTunes, was the premiere decent at all?

Well you can no longer forgive some stupid things to watch awesome characters do awesome things. The stupid poo poo is so intrusive its really hard to get into it. But for me its not quite to the level of a full on hate watch like Dexter and Walking Dead.

Soothing Vapors
Mar 26, 2006

Associate Justice Lena "Kegels" Dunham: An uncool thought to have: 'is that guy walking in the dark behind me a rapist? Never mind, he's Asian.

STAC Goat posted:

The Clay -> Piney transformation is hilarious. Like, nothing should perfectly capture how much Sutter is a writing hack than that. I can only assume Clay not being able to support the bike is directly leading to the Piney three wheeler. Its just so hilarious that I'm pretty sure SOA is turning into a comedy.

You know, if the show hadn't burned an innocent girl alive.

Even that was pretty funny

"Oh, no. No, no. Not my baby. No."

Truther Vandross
Jun 17, 2008

Aggro posted:

Hey kids, what's the verdict? Is the show remotely watchable at this point? It takes a lot for me to give up on a TV show, but I shitcanned Dexter after 5 seasons, and this one is on the chopping board. I forgot to set the DVR though, so before I blow money on iTunes, was the premiere decent at all?

It's watchable to nearly 6 million people because last night was the highest rated episode of the show.

This isnt even close to the most unwatchable stretches of Dexter.

A lot of what we see now is far fetched and lovely but I still feel like the characters are pretty good. The whole is way less than the sum of the parts for some reason.

And don't buy it. Record the replay late Saturday night/Sunday morning assuming they're still doing that.

Armyman25
Sep 6, 2005
Watched the episode and had an epiphany. People keep saying this is a soap opera for bikers, but it finally hit me what that meant. Nothing on soaps ever ends or is resolved, it's always the same poo poo over and over again till it just get so ridiculous that no one could ever have had that much poo poo to deal with in one lifetime.

I'm not sure I can stomach this show from week to week. I suppose I'll stick with it just for completeness, but I'm not really that eager for next week's episode.

I mean, really? Bobby got out of prison that easily? And Jax thinks he has some kind of leverage over the CIA now?

geeves
Sep 16, 2004

Is SoA no longer on Comcast onDemand? I watched last night, but in the background and wanted to rewatch. I only really remember Gemma having a foursome with Miguel Prado and some blond chics and Goon Prospect being patched and then hearing "WALLLLLLLLT"

Truther Vandross
Jun 17, 2008

geeves posted:

Is SoA no longer on Comcast onDemand? I watched last night, but in the background and wanted to rewatch. I only really remember Gemma having a foursome with Miguel Prado and some blond chics and Goon Prospect being patched and then hearing "WALLLLLLLLT"

I don't know how Comcast is, but on Time Warner, they go up a week after.

Loomer
Dec 19, 2007

A Very Special Hell

Soothing Vapors posted:

Even that was pretty funny

"Oh, no. No, no. Not my baby. No."

Oh baby! Oh no! Baby!

I swear to god that is exactly what I'd expect unenthusiastic Tig sex to sound like, which made that scene weird.

Simstim
Mar 16, 2005

You just gave me a great idea buddy.

smg77 posted:

I think I figured it out. The Nomads are actually KGB who are trying to stop the CIA from getting Irish guns.

Not many people know this but Irish guns are what won WW2.

Doobie Keebler
May 9, 2005

cornface posted:

Hopefully Clay buys Piney's old tricycle and then like rides it by Opie's house every night tooting the horn.

In a shocking twist Clay breaks his arm and can't ride. Opie, now a prospect again, has to drive Clay around in a sidecar.

Baronash
Feb 29, 2012

So what do you want to be called?

Armyman25 posted:

And Jax thinks he has some kind of leverage over the CIA now?

Of all of the absurdities of this show, I felt that this one was surprisingly grounded. Remember the whole Fast and Furious debacle, or the Iran-Contra affair? Imagine a violent biker gang comes out and says that they brokered gun deals and smuggled coke into the States for one of the most powerful cartels in North America, who just happened to be supported by the CIA. There is no telling what kind of poo poo storm that would unleash.

Doobie Keebler posted:

In a shocking twist Clay breaks his arm and can't ride. Opie, now a prospect again, has to drive Clay around in a sidecar.

Opie would honestly just drive off a cliff.

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

Armyman25 posted:

And Jax thinks he has some kind of leverage over the CIA now?

Not over the CIA, but Danny Trejo specifically and the galindo. The cartel doesn't know Trejo's CIA ties, so if jax reveals that, galindo/trejo are super hosed. I'm sure the CIA would also be pissed, but it was aimed directly at trejo. The CIA could easy throw the SOA in jail forever/have them killed and wash their hands of the situation i'm pretty sure if those two dudes are the only ties between them and the galindo cartel.

Orange Carlisle
Jul 14, 2007

I wanted to feel bad for Tig in that scene but like a few others have pointed out it was some terrible direction or something because a normally great actor was just really off there. It was pretty bad. The entire episode just gave me that dreaded feeling of 'well here we go again for another season of more of the same'.

With that being said I'm sure one or two really entertaining things will happen along the way to characters we're already invested in for better or worse so I'm sure I'll stick around till the end.

Seams
Feb 3, 2005

ROCK HARD
The scene would have been much more effective if had been given reasons to care about Tig's daughter. The fact I only know of her as "Tig's daughter" (and it took me a while to realise who she was while watching) pretty much says it all. Also I still believe the structure of the episode was all off - it turned that whole scene into Just Another Thing That Happens.

Donny Brook
Jul 23, 2007

Hello Ladies

Rest In Peace
Dave
(aka Donny Brook)
1963-2013
Goonspeed, friend
At least it was Dawn instead of Fawn. Dawn (aka Margeaux (with an X)) is the one that scammed Tig out of some money last season, so therefore is a worthless bitch, while Fawn is apparantly the good twin.

I'm gonna give Tig a pass on that scene. Who knows how they would react to a loved one dying? The most obvious thing would be to rage and/or lose their poo poo, and he did do that to an extent before Pope lit her up. Once she was on fire, there's no saving her, so maybe he just accepted the fact it was over. What I do know is he got his rage on pretty quick when the cleaner showed up. I also know that I was both relieved and disappointed that it wasn't Stephen King.

Also pretty sure that Tig is gonna burn Augustus Hill before the end of the season. Just like Opie got his revenge for his wife and father... oh wait.

sos
Dec 9, 2004
So are the Irish selling the guns or buying the guns? Why would Americans need to import weapons from Ireland?

Armyman25
Sep 6, 2005

sos posted:

So are the Irish selling the guns or buying the guns? Why would Americans need to import weapons from Ireland?

SAMCRO is the IRA's gun distribution arm in the USA. The Irish get guns from their terrorists contacts, then make money selling them to Americans. It really doesn't make any sense except that gun running is more acceptable to the average SoA viewer than having the protagonists be drug dealers.

Junkenstein
Oct 22, 2003

Armyman25 posted:

SAMCRO is the IRA's gun distribution arm in the USA. The Irish get guns from their terrorists contacts, then make money selling them to Americans.

Who then made money selling them to Russians. Irish selling guns to Americans selling guns to Russians. If anything you'd think it would be completely the other way round.

So I think my question of what the gently caress Trejo actually is was answered last night. He's the actual head of the cartel who's been given a CIA badge and has carte blanche to use any CIA resources he wants and can stop FBI RICO investigations on a whim.

basx
Aug 16, 2004

Sassy old man!
Tig: Jax, the Niners handcuffed me to a pipe and burned my daughter alive while I watched! Oh. Baby. No.
Jax: I'm gonna find out who did this, bro!
Tig: ...

Donny Brook
Jul 23, 2007

Hello Ladies

Rest In Peace
Dave
(aka Donny Brook)
1963-2013
Goonspeed, friend

Keyser S0ze posted:

I wish you were Kurt Sutter

If I was Kurt Sutter, I'd make sure that every time you saw Jax's rear end, you'd see Tara's rear end.

It's only fair.

Dead Snoopy
Mar 23, 2005

Loomer posted:

Oh baby! Oh no! Baby!

I swear to god that is exactly what I'd expect unenthusiastic Tig sex to sound like, which made that scene weird.

Entertainment Weekly & Kim Coates posted:


ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did Kurt Sutter tell you that Pope would retaliate for Tig killing his daughter by setting Tig’s daughter Dawn (Rachel Miner) on fire while Tig was forced to watch, or did you find out reading it in the script?

KIM COATES: I was at the Upfronts in New York with him and a bunch of the fellas and Katey [last March], and he just took me aside and said, ‘Get ready.’ I said, ‘You can’t do that. You gotta give me a little bit more than that.’ I honestly had goosebumps and got very emotional just from him telling me what the first episode was gonna be for Tig, let alone thinking about where I’d go with the whole thing.


Tell me how you prepare for a scene like that.


Listen, I’ve been acting a long time. When I read that scene, I can honestly say that I can’t quite remember ever having that feeling. I was scared, I was excited. I’ve never had to do anything quite like that before. One of the first things I did was I went and talked to a really good buddy of mine, Sam Alibrando, who lives across the street from me. He’s a therapist. We do this all the time with certain parts. He really helps me figure out where a person’s mind goes. Because you and I would never have been in a situation like this before. So he really broke it down. See, what I don’t like listening to is when writers go, “And then the person cries.” “Or the person does this.” It’s there [in the script], but it’s not the Bible. I wait and see what happens to me on the day. But I have to say, the way Kurt mentally had thought out Tig’s emotions during the duress of that night happened to be exactly what Sam across the street told me would probably happen to a human being.

So I’m chained up. I can’t get off the chain. I’m going to die. Then to see and feel what they were doing to my little baby in that dumpster. I want to die for her. I don’t die for her. They go ahead with it. I watch them pour gasoline on her. It was unbelievable. When Sutter wrote down after I wipe out the cop and the cleaner “He just finally breaks down,” I can’t tell you how easy that was for me, Kim, to just completely lose it. It was at the end of the night. We did it two or three times. And every time, it just was a release that I never quite felt before as an actor. I’ve gotta give it up for the props guys as well: I’ve had handcuffs on (coughs) as certain characters in a play, let’s keep it at that. And they hurt. Had those boys not figured out a rig to save my wrists, I think I would have ripped my hands right off. They found this rig of this incredible arm-looking material that we put underneath the cuffs so that I could writhe around.



It’s interesting to hear you talk about “He just finally breaks down,” because that was the moment I wanted to ask you about. It seemed purposeful, like that’s when Tig would allow himself to break down.

It really was. Sam went over the things in the mind — with the adrenaline, to the fear, to the numbness, and then to the release. That’s really what the human body would go through in this fight or flight pattern. So it made sense. After we had that great discussion, I didn’t think about it anymore. I just let whatever happened that night happen. We shot it over two nights. Paris Barclay, the director, was very conscious of how to make it as easy physically for Tig as he possibly could. Because we were going there two nights in a row, I didn’t really shower after the first night. I just came home, kept to myself, and slept. The second night turned out to be almost as emotional [filming scenes for episode 2] when the boys come and they see me there at the pit, looking down at my daughter, and I have to explain what happened. I really did clean myself off a lot when that part of the story was finally over for me. Because things happen really fast on this show. I’m in a comatose state. Gemma tries to help me out, but then something happens that just rocks our world, and Kurt just keeps moving forward. There’s no time to reflect, so that’s up to me as Tig to never forget what happened with Dawn. But you gotta keep going. I think that actually helps Tig…. It was tough, man. All the boys on the set were going, “Wow, I can’t wait to see this” or “Take it easy.” And Rachel Miner was phenomenal. It’s just so sad. Jesus Christ.

As a viewer, it’s even more painful to watch the scene a second time, when you know what’s coming.

That’s the epic thing of Kurt and this world. [With Kurt having said he's plotting the show to go seven seasons], we are definitely on the other side of the mountain now. We’re coming down now. And so Kurt’s just not pulling any punches now. It’s just all in. We’re all in. We’re all f—ed. We’re all trying to continue this club brotherhood, but it’s just breaking up everywhere. Gemma’s a mess. Clay’s a mess. (Laughs) So it’s gonna be really interesting to see how people take to this season for sure.

What do you think Pope brings to the show as a villain? I think the premiere establishes what Kurt’s said all along: he’s a level of gangster they’ve never dealt with before.

We’ve never run into someone quite like this. Adam Arkin’s character Zobelle in season 2 had this incredible twisted KKK s— that we had to deal with, and he had the brains to go along with it, which was kind of off-setting. But Pope is also street, more street than we’ve ever encountered on the other side of the fence. I think what Harold brings to that is this incredible charisma and suit. (Laughs) And I think he smoked about 42 cigars the first night that we met, because he smokes a cigar in that scene. He pulls up in this Lincoln Continental, and you just know Pope’s a different guy.

Harold’s a pro. He was phenomenal as Mercutio in [Baz Luhrmann's] Romeo + Juliet. I’m a Shakespeare guy. I was the youngest Macbeth ever at 27 when John Neville directed me at Stratford. So Shakespeare means a lot to me, and obviously Sons is very Shakespearian too, right, with the whole Hamlet metaphor. So Harold’s great. I have to say though that I don’t work much with him because I think it’s probably safer for both [our characters] not to be in the same room with each other. When he and I met the first time… There are certain times when you don’t want to see or talk to someone before acting certain moments because it really does add to whatever it is you’re trying to create. I think Harold and I both went there without even intentionally doing so. In the van driving to set, I didn’t want to look at him and he didn’t want to look at me. We stayed away from each other on the set. Then we just let the emotions come out.

Let’s talk about the scene between Tig and Clay. I loved how calm you and Ron Perlman played it. I assume that was purposeful as well.

It was. I think the way Kurt wrote that, it’s sad. It’s /like, what happened to us? From the lie that he told me last season, I went off the hook and accidentally killed the wrong girl again — Tig’s pretty good at that. So can you imagine how Tig must feel now that his daughter’s gone from this lie? It doesn’t bode well for Clay and Tig, I’m sure.

Kurt has teased that Jax is the one who’s gonna have to build Tig back up after this. What can you tease about that looking ahead?

At the beginning of this season, Tig’s off the leash. Jax puts me back on the leash. I’m just gonna leave it at that. He pulls me back in. There are a couple of reasons why he does this, but I can’t say what they are.

SaviourX
Sep 30, 2003

The only true Catwoman is Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, or Eartha Kitt.

basx posted:

Tig: Jax, the Niners handcuffed me to a pipe and burned my daughter alive while I watched! Oh. Baby. No.
Hamlet: I'm gonna find out who did this, bro!
Tig: ...


If it wasn't obvious.



Also, seven seasons. Sutter really just wants this to be the Shield again. (although that show worked in reverse for me - bland to great, Sons the opposite [actually more a sine wave, but yeah])

rejutka
May 28, 2004

by zen death robot
I realised this show wants to be Nip/Tuck now.

Ghostpilot
Jun 22, 2007

"As a rule, I never touch anything more sophisticated and delicate than myself."

Simstim posted:

Jimmy Smits agrees to harbor murder suspects for a woman he just met, putting his business in the middle of a gang war? Sure why not.

I also love how the CIA has gang contacts.

And who lied about her identity, pulled a gun on him and called him a racial slur - that Jemma's a keeper. :allears:

I wonder if Kurt has a provision in his contracts for his guest stars get to have sex scenes with his wife.

That said, the sort of budding romance between Gemma and Nero is :3:.

JohnSherman posted:

I would watch this show until the end of time if they brought in Donal Logue as a Nomad.

KidDynamite posted:

Wait where was Frank???

Nick was on Lights Out

They should just slowly replace the cast of this show with the cast of Lights Out and Terriers


If this happened. :aaaaa: I wasn't the biggest fan of Lights Out just because it seemed to meander a lot and, having an essentially a sports movie premise, made the trajectory extremely predictable. It was kind of in the same boat with SoA where the actors were better than the material.

That and I had some misdirected :argh: towards it for coming on the heels of the announcement that Terriers would only be getting one season (seriously if you haven't watched it on Netflix yet, do so - it's crazy how good that show was from the theme song on down).


sportsgenius86 posted:

This isnt even close to the most unwatchable stretches of Dexter.

I'm half-expecting this season of Dexter to be animated. It's saying something when a show can make SoA looked grounded.


cornface posted:

Hopefully Clay buys Piney's old tricycle and then like rides it by Opie's house every night tooting the horn.

The crazy part is that I can -honestly- see Clay buying it. Last season I mentioned that Clay himself was absolutely desperate to catch a bullet. I've never seen anyone work so hard to get themselves killed and still have a pulse; just another of Clay's failures, I suppose.


BrandonGK posted:

So the Sons are once again facing off against a powerful crime boss whose public persona is that of a well-connected businessman who strikes at the club by committing a horrible crime against a female loved one. Only now the difference being is that he's black. I guess so Sutter can say something edgy and provocative about race.

This is going to be a long season.

Huh, good catch. :golfclap: Well, if its going to cannibalize itself, it may as well be from its best season.

And the other difference being that Tig has long, long, since had something like this coming to him. I'm honestly rather surprised it's taken this long.

As for Kim's acting during the :supaburn: scene, I honestly thought it was fine. I think it was just that things tend to be so over-the-top in SoA that anything short of Tig hulking out of the chains would've been considered subdued. His :gonk: reaction upon realizing that it was Pope stepping out of the car was absolutely great.


Pron on VHS posted:

I can't wait for Louis CK to appear in this world

As the head of the Mexican cartels. :v:

And if you know Louis, this is far more plausible than you'd think.



Edit: I almost forgot to mention: what the hell is up with Unser? Remember way back when he was retiring due to terminal cancer? It hasn't gone into remissions, he was stuck in a trailer in the middle of nowhere due to medical bills all while working him like a Probie; yet he looks like he could take out Clay with one arm tied being his back.

Ghostpilot fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Sep 14, 2012

Junkenstein
Oct 22, 2003

I think Sutter realised he needed to keep Unser around as a get-out-of-jail free card. See this episode where he somehow knows that the cops are about to come and arrest Jax.

Truther Vandross
Jun 17, 2008

Junkenstein posted:

I think Sutter realised he needed to keep Unser around as a get-out-of-jail free card. See this episode where he somehow knows that the cops are about to come and arrest Jax.

I don't understand why it's farfetched for a longtime sheriff to know something like that.

Junkenstein
Oct 22, 2003

sportsgenius86 posted:

I don't understand why it's farfetched for a longtime sheriff to know something like that.

Not saying it's far-fetched, just that Sutter seems to rely heavily on the all knowing Unser to keep the gang one step ahead.

Grandmaster.flv
Jun 24, 2011

Ghostpilot posted:


As the head of the Mexican cartels. :v:

And if you know Louis, this is far more plausible than you'd think.





Aside from being Mexican-American how is it plausible for Louis CK to play the head of a Mexican cartel?

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Truther Vandross
Jun 17, 2008

origami posted:

Aside from being Mexican-American how is it plausible for Louis CK to play the head of a Mexican cartel?

A) when has plausibility mattered on this show

B) it's Louis loving CK so who cares

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