Sons of Anarchy Complete Season Two   Starring: Mark Boone Junior, Katey Sagal, Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman, Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment RRP: £24.99 4926501000 Certificate: 15 Available 18 August 2010

SAMCRO is still reeling from the murder of Opie’s Donna at Clay’s bidding, only Jax and Tig know the truth and the truth is tearing SAMCRO apart. Unable to trust Clay's decisions anymore Jax contends with his stepfather at every opportunity. With the club tearing itself apart from the inside out, their supremacy is further threatened by the arrival of Abel Zobelle, whose plans threaten all the gangs futures...

Sons of Anarchy: Complete Season Two (2010) continues the story of The Sons of Anarchy, a chapter of a motorcycle gang who live in the northern Californian town of Charming. The show was created by Kurt Sutter. This four DVD set contains the whole of season two - thirteen episodes - which were originally transmitted between 8 September 2009 and 1 December 2009.

For those of you who missed the first season - shame on you - the story revolves around Jax Teller’s family and is based very loosely on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Jax’s (Charlie Hunnam) father had been one of the original nine founding members of the gang along with its current president Clay (Ron Perlman), but where Clay saw the clubs future in gun running Jax’s father became disenchanted by the warped morality and violence. When he died Clay took the club and Jax’s mother, Gemma Morrow (Katey Sagal).

The first season ended with the death of Opie’s (Ryan Hurst) wife Donna, a terrible hidden secret which puts Clay and Jax’s on a collision course. Zobelle (Adam Arkin) comes to Charming under the guise of ridding the town of corruption, all in the name of white supremacy; however, his methods are far more brutal than the club is used to, including the multiple rape of Gemma, where she is lured to the trap by Polly (Sarah Jones), Zobelle’s own daughter. Gemma refuses to report the rape realising that disclosure would bring a war between the two parties, a war that the club is ill equipped to undertake or win.

She chooses as her confidant both Tara (Maggie Siff) and Chief Unser (Dayton Callie), both help to cover up the rape. Through their shared experience Tara and Gemma grow closer together as the conflict between Zobelle and the Sons escalates. Zobelle, meanwhile cuts off the Sons gun supply, when he makes a separate agreement with the IRA and Johnny O (Titus Welliver).

With their cash supply drying up Jax sees an opportunity for the Sons to get into a legitimate business when Luanne’s porn studio runs into trouble from another producer. But this becomes just another point of conflict between Jax and Clay, a conflict which comes to a head with the destruction of the studio, Jax’s decision to leave the Sons and Gemma’s admission to her husband and son about the rape.

To say that Sons of Anarchy is just about a motorcycle gang is a bit like saying that The Godfather is just a gangster movie. At the heart of both is a story of family, its trials and tribulations, what comes out most is the sacrifice that people will make for their family, a strong theme in the show. Of course, what separates a good drama from a soap opera is the writing and Sons is an extremely well written and well acted show.

The drama is supplied not only by the tensions in the family but also the rivalries that the gang has to contend with. For the sake of this season Zobelle provides almost the perfect villain, whose action even makes the gangs dubious morality seem palatable in comparison. The main characters are more than ably supported by the other reoccurring cast members, including Mark Boone Jr. as Bobby Elvis, Kim Coates as Tig, Tommy Flanagan as Chibs, Johnny Lewis as Kip 'Half Sack' Epps, William Lucking as Piney and Theo Rossi as Juice.

Anyone who read my review of the first seasons will know that I am a big fan of this show from its intelligent writing, through its wonderful character actors to the glorification of both the gun and the bike; it’s the Wild West on motorcycles, which supplies thrills and heartbreaking sorrow, all within the one show.

The four disc set comes with a number of extras including deleted scenes for the majority of the episodes as well as commentaries for Albification and Balm. The last disc also contains a gag reel (3 min, 48 sec), which is actually funny for once, The Morality Code of the Sons of Anarchy (10 min, 08 sec) looks at the moral code and how it grew out of the Vietnam war. Sons of Anarchy Roundtable (38 min, 49 sec) is a forum for the makers of the show and the actors to answer fans questions, an unusual extra for a DVD but a very interesting one.

If anything season two is better than season one and will be a real crowd pleaser for fans. If you haven’t had a chance to catch the show, please do regardless of the morality it’s a great show.

10

Charles Packer