For the past eight or nine days, I have been neck deep in watching six seasons of FX network's Sons of Anarchy (SOA). Watching these eighty episodes has proven to be a richly rewarding but all-consuming endeavor that has begun to wear on me like Clay Morrow attempting a cross-country Harley ride. SOA fans will hopefully appreciate the reference.
Watching SOA has basically been the equivalent of a second full time job that has made movie and other television viewing close to impossible. A wise choice to make at this juncture in my summer--especially in light of the fact that I need to be watching at least one movie per day? Of course not, but SOA is a compulsively watchable program, and I am nothing if not captive to my compulsive behaviors. Summer of 100 Movies is my attempt to marry a passion area of my life to a developmental endeavor of forcing myself to practice consistent self-discipline. And right now, I am very aware that I am not demonstrating the necessary discipline to complete the Summer of 100 Movies self-challenge. But stick with me--I might just surprise you with how far along I am by the end of June.
As for the experience of SERIOUSLY binge watching Sons of Anarchy, I wouldn't recommend doing it in the course of ten days like I am. First of all, I am nearly psychotic from not sleeping much at night. But more importantly, I think SOA is the kind of show that is ideally ingested in smaller portions over a longer period. Do it in twenty or thirty days, three or four episodes at a time. It will make resurfacing from your binge viewing into the "civilized" world where people are not obsessed with revenge killings and objectifying women a little bit easier. I swear, this SOA experience is making me paranoid about people's loyalty; I am now evaluating each individual I interact with during my day job as to: whether or not they would qualify to wear my MC's cut, would I would need to use them for some nefarious purpose and finally, what is the likelihood that I would need to kill them for being a rat. That's just not a healthy head space to live in over the course of ten days. Come up for some air. For instance, I have convinced myself--over the course of spending sixty-some hours in the fictitious world of Charming, California--that all my problems would be solved if I could own and ride a Harley. If you know me, it's okay to guffaw at the ludicrous mental image of me attempting to operate a motorcycle.
Humor aside, there's also the unintended consequence of watching the development of the lead characters of SOA within a tightly-condensed timeframe. It makes one love these irascible outlaws a little less, once one witnesses the speed at which their personalities devolve. Dustin Rowles of the website UPROXX wrote of the lead character, "...but Jax — who began the series as the charismatic prince of SAMCRO [Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original], dutifully waiting his turn to take a seat at the head of the table, has increasingly become drunk with power over the course of the series. He’s now in that grey area between anti-hero and full-blown villain." I completely agree with Rowles, and feel that had I not seen this progression over the course of several days, it would feel much less pronounced and painfully disappointing. But these are the newly identified side effects of binge consuming television that media scholars and show runners will need to study for years to come and they should constitute a separate blog entry.
This is all a very long-winded way of establishing that:
1. I have temporarily stepped away from the Summer of 100 Movies Challenge (but will soon be back);
2. Sons of Anarchy is an excellent show and you should watch it--just not all eighty episodes of the ongoing series (there's at least one more season yet to air) over the course of ten days. Or you are going to start thinking and acting like an outlaw. You might even stop being self-disciplined. And we all know where that leads...
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