Guest commentary: "Sons of Anarchy"

TV is the New Reading: So, fourth season premiere, whadja think of that?

Bryan: Sort of business as usual from one standpoint. They don’t want anything to change and they’re doing everything they can do, even fighting a housing development. But I think for them it’s business as usual … in a sudden, violent way at the end of the first episode there. … I think it’ll get back to like you alluded to in your column the interpersonal relationships because it has to. They introduced so much other stuff, Clay thinking about stepping down, Jax thinking about leaving again, all that kind of stuff. They’re going to have to spend a bunch of time dealing with those issues.

TVNR: Then the retaliation hit in prison there ...

Bryan: Yeah, I was hoping when they first showed that guy lying there that Sutter didn’t write himself out of the show, but no fear, he just had to do that to get some retaliation for Jax’s sake.

TVNR: That got him into the position to do it, but that was a very cool way to tell that story, I thought.

Bryan: Seems like there might have been an easier way.

TVNR: It may have been the best way … well, he had a lot of help from the guards, too.

Bryan: Comes in handy. I also don’t, for some reason, I don’t trust that lady Opie married (Lyla). Something’s up with her.

TVNR: It’s maybe a vibe I’m getting from “True Blood,” the Debbie character, she just reminds me or her, but …

Bryan: Didn’t she have … I mean, he alluded to the fact of wanting a family, didn’t she have an abortion last year? She just always has a funny look about her like she’s up to something.

TVNR: His comment, “It’s never too late to run,” seemed very pointed.

Bryan: You never know what’s going on with her. I think there’ll be more coming with her, seems like to me.

TVNR: Of course, the main Her, Gemma, what did you think of Jax’s comment she’s just another old lady?

Bryan: I’m not sure what to make of that. I think that all maybe goes back to the whole Clay and Jax’s dad and … I think he knows more about that whole situation than he’s letting on. They’ve always sort of danced around the fact of is that guy really Jax’s dad or is Clay his dad, who his real dad is.

TVNR: Gemma doesn’t seem like the kind of person who gets written off that easily.

Bryan: No, but Gemma also seems like the kind of person where if Clay suddenly disappeared or did something else she might have to find another old man to keep her status.

TVNR: He was talking pretty seriously about stepping down, and I don’t know where that leaves her.

Bryan: I don’t know where that leaves him, either, the whole motorcycle club etiquette, what that means for him, if he just becomes Piney and he’s an old guy hanging around offering advice.

TVNR: It looks like it’s going to be a good season. Do you think they’re building to some kind of close?

Bryan: They’ve got a lot of stuff to deal with and a lot of stuff to figure out.

TVNR: It always feels like they’re fighting against some encroaching power, like the White Supremacists coming in, Hale’s bringing a bunch of money in, building houses in Charming no one in Charming can afford.

Bryan: That guy’s always been kind of a weasel.

TVNR: But is it just a fight against what, progress? I mean, they themselves were talking about expanding into stuff that before now they decided they …

Bryan: They sort of alluded about the upcoming shows about running drugs and some of that stuff, and that would be an expansion. Running guns is one thing, and hookers and the other, that’s one thing, but drugs is a whole other thing. But they want to make sure Charming doesn’t change unless they say it changes, and I don’t know how successful they can be in that.

TVNR: And then they’ve got that guy who came in from 1977 to try to bring ’em down …

Bryan: Yeah, I thought he drove into the wrong town from the set of “Easy Rider.” I was expecting him to have fringe on his jacket.

TVNR: Who is this guy? Oh, you’re the new …

Bryan: You’re the new head cop. But then, all the other cops and ATF agents and all of those have met with untimely and horrible deaths.

TVNR: Yeah, Clay always seems to manage them, whatever power structure, he …

Bryan: And Jax messing with Agent Stahl, he … it was a roundabout way, took a whole season but he got rid of her, and then 14 months in prison is nothing, I guess.

TVNR: She’d built up some really complicated legal attacks on them and they managed to get rid of her.

Bryan: Killed her partner – in more ways than one her partner – she was quite a complicated character.

TVNR: And within a year she’s a memory and they’re still going – well, 14 months, but yeah.

Bryan: It took awhile for me to figure out which kid is that, which baby is that, that can’t be Abel, I mean, look how big he is. But then 14 months, I guess it could be him.

TVNR: They’re kind of rebuilding the whole storyline anyway from scratch because 14 months away, they’ve coming back into a situation that’s completely changed.

Bryan: And with Tara, we went from “I’m pregnant” to “Here’s my six-month old,” or however old he is. To me that’s a pretty big jump in the show -- all the questions you can have, who ran the business. It’s not like a three-month term in prison. Fourteen months is a significant time away.

TVNR: It feels like they were OK with leaving some parts vague and they’ll return to them and fill in some backstory later.

Bryan: I think there’ll be some backstory they’ll have to fill in, and what happened in prison.

TVNR: It felt like at the beginning of Season 3 that we were going to get a lot of new information about John and when we did it was sort of disappointing because he’d been kind of a hero but a hero off screen, and we find he’s flawed …

Bryan: Yeah, like he’s just another guy who made mistakes …

TVNR: …which probably contributes to Jax’s disillusionment about Clay and the club and wanting to get out.

Bryan: Yeah, I think before he was just disillusioned with Clay, but now knowing that his dad, if that really is his dad, John isn’t the hero everyone made him out to be, he’s just another guy who cheated on his wife and had another kid somewhere, so now (he’s) disillusioned with both of his father-type figures, so to speak. ... But I enjoyed it, I think it’s off to a good start, and it’ll be a good season.