Sons
of Anarchy wasn’t a show I ever thought I’d watch. Believe me. I even
remember walking through the TV room when my friends were watching it and
blatantly disapproving. I’m more into the whole The Vampire Diaries and
Pretty Little Liars sort of thing. However, last Christmas break my
mother’s colleague insisted that she watch it, and I was in need of a new show
to marathon-watch. Alas, I was found sitting next to my mom on the couch,
watching episode after episode, season after season, until we watched the show
in its entirety. What about this show of out-law motorcycle gangsters is so
intriguing? Why, in a show like this, are we constantly rooting for the bad
guys? “The bad guys” are often portrayed these days as, not necessarily the
good guys, but the people that – even despite their malevolence – are human
beings just like us. I believe that the narrative structure and character
development that takes place throughout the show contributes to the way in
which we as audience members can make sense of the program, as well as
contributing to its overall success.
Despite the fact that the characters in this
show are motorcycle gang members, they are quite relatable. The reason anyone
continues to watch a television series is more often than not relatability.
Jax, the main character and son of deceased John Teller, the man who founded
the sons, it undoubtedly the most relatable character. His late father founded
the sons on a set of ideologies that consisted of fighting for freedom and
kindness for one another. The manifesto of John Teller has been long pushed to
the wayside by the sons for more violent and criminal actions that or nothing
but self-serving.
As an audience, we follow the story
of Jax and are constantly rooting for him as he continuously tries to follow in
his father’s footsteps. The fact that he has a crack baby with a washed up
druggie, or kills members of various gangs somehow doesn’t have the strong
effect on our minds that the fact that he’s sort of just like us does. Why is
it that we forgive these seemingly unforgiving actions? Those of murder,
bastard children, and drug trafficking? It’s because he’s still human. We are innately born with a sense of hope for the
human race. We root for these so-called bad guys or underdogs because deep down
we know that they are good people. The creator of the show, Kurt Sutter,
states:
“You know, here’s how I describe all this:
It’s a heavy world, it’s a dark world but as heavy and violent as it is, I like
to think that ultimately there is some sense of hope. So that it’s sad and
heavy, but there is always some sense of hope. Will it be a happy ending? No,
but I do think that there will be something hopeful about the way it ends”
(Sutter).
In terms of character
development, this show is designed to make us love these characters. If we take
a step back and look at the big picture vaguely, it’s easy to see that these
men are some of the most dislikeable people of all time; but they’re not
dislikeable characters. As is any other television series, Sons of Anarchy is set up aesthetically and narratively in a way
that we only see one side of the story; the side of the sons. As an audience,
we are so engrossed in the happenings of their lives that it doesn’t make a
difference to us what the story of the other gangs happens to be. In fact, we’d
rather not know. That sort of conflict would inevitably confuse audience
members to the point where they a) couldn’t follow one set story line or b)
give the audience members mixed signals, thus leaving them confused on how to
feel about which characters.
In this case, since our
good guys are depicted as bad guys to the general public, it’s harder to create
that line of conflict between hero and villain. However, in a violent, mob-like
show like Sons of Anarchy, making
someone appear worse than the sons put an interesting plot twist on things. For
instance, Gemma, Jax’s mother and wife of the new President of the motorcycle
club, gets brutally raped by members of a rival party of the sons. During the
rape she is told to tell Clay that it would happen again if he didn’t do what
they asked. Now, when one of the two lead females is raped and used as
leverage, you almost want this guy dead. Better yet, you want the sons to be
the ones to kill him. Sutter makes the actual bad guys even worse than you
could imagine so as to have you as an audience member rooting for the sons to
do whatever it takes to get justice for Gemma. Alas, the line between hero and villain
is drawn.
All of these things
together help us make sense of the program and gives us a look into the lives
of these characters that aren’t quite like us, but we’re still able to relate
to them because of the human condition. We all do things we aren’t proud of,
and at the same time we’re all trying to be better versions of ourselves the
best that we can. We want to see justice served for people like Gemma; we also
want to see confused and perplexed characters like Jax make changes for the
good of others. Whether you’re in a motorcycle club trafficking guns and drugs,
or you’re just a plain Jane viewing these types of people from the comfort of
your own couch, aren’t we all kind of the same?
References:
http://www.mibba.com/Articles/People/3789/Why-Do-We-Root-For-The-Villains/
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