'Sons of Anarchy' takes a dark turn in fourth season premiere

The fourth season of "Sons of Anarchy" on FX takes the storytelling a little further into territory more familiar on show creator Kurt Sutter's canceled FX cop drama "The Shield."

The epic drama of a motorcycle club based in Charming, Calif. - the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original, or SAMCRO - has up until now managed to pull a veneer of respectability across its violent and occasionally murderous methods.

Sure, they traffic in illegal arms, but they funnel them to the Irish Republican Army, so a case could be made that they're aiding freedom fighters. And all the shenanigans they pull are either in response to some injury inflicted by outside gangs or honorable in their intent if not always in their outcomes. They attack other gangs, but usually nasties like drug dealers and white supremacists who invade their territory or do something pretty bad to them.

Characterwise, it feels like the show has all but come out and said club president Clay Morrow, played by Ron Perlman, killed his closest friend, John Tanner, before marrying John's widow, Gemma, played by Katey Sagal. But as of season three it seems John was faithless himself and fathered an illegitimate daughter in Ireland with a shopkeeper named Maureen, whose old love letters are surfacing to cause new problems.

And either way, Clay did target fellow biker Opie for death, which in fact resulted in the death of Opie's wife, Donna, so ... there's that.

Disillusioned

All of this has thoroughly disillusioned Charlie Hunnam as Jax - John and Gemma's son (maybe), adopted by Clay and named SAMCRO vice president. In a rift with long-time girlfriend Tara, Jax nearly slept with his half-sister on an extended visit to Ireland last season, and ever since the pilot episode he's been influenced by his father's vision for SAMCRO, laid out in a typewritten journal. John's express distaste for Clay's lawlessness has maintained a division in the uneasy peace between Clay and Jax, but beyond that there's always something just beneath the surface Jax can't trust about Clay.

In Tuesday's premiere, Jax decided he's tired of all of it. Released with a half-dozen other members of SAMCRO following a 14-month prison sentence for arms trafficking, Jax reunited with Tara and his sons and proposed to her, promising to leave the club after he can put some money together for a new life.

But more has changed for the Sons of Anarchy than Jax's resolve to leave them. Jax has taken nomad status before, after all. Apart from the celebration of Opie taking a new wife and the club's plans leading up to that, the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department has taken over law enforcement in Charming, so there's a little power struggle there. The new sheriff is taken into confidence by this swinging U.S. Attorney who looks like he walked directly out of 1977, who is compiling a racketeering case against the club, much to the delight of new mayor and property developer Jacob Hale.

More crimes?

The concern I had was the expansion of the club's activities into heavier firepower and possibly narcotics if I understood correctly. Whereas before the club's activities could be seen as sort of clever and maybe even a little "Robin Hood"-like, post prison, the club members seem bent on further entrenching themselves in criminal activity - starting with the slaughter of their former business partners, the Russians, and dumping the bodies on Hale's development.

The other concern I've got is without Jax, will this show turn into an unrelatable catalog of criminal mischief? I mostly care about all of these relatively well-drawn characters right now, but if their only goal for season four is staying a step ahead of a well-resourced law-enforcement operation bent on bringing them down while doing increasingly nastier stuff, it could just become part two of Sutter's other work, "The Shield," as told from the point of view of the criminals.

That said, my guess is this show, having explored plenty of violence in its 90-minute fourth season opener - including a shootout at a wedding and a jailhouse assassination - will move to temper those violent tendencies with the kind of humanity we witnessed in Jax's care for his sons, his love for Tara, his beautiful proposal to her and his willingness to leave behind all he's known his entire life. Not to mention Clay and Gemma's obvious concern for Chief Wayne Unser, former law enforcement officer before San Joaquin came in, following his assistance in keeping Gemma out of jail and their own history together in the face of his current health issues.

"Sons of Anarchy" airs new episodes 10/9c Tuesdays on FX.