Summary

• Pacing issues in Sons of Anarchy make boring sections stand out on a rewatch.
• Clay's character evolved into a full-blown villain, losing complexity in later seasons.
• Lincoln Potter's unnecessary weirdness detracts from the overall series.

Sons of Anarchy is a great show, chronicling the Shakespearean saga of the eponymous biker gang with both high-octane thrills and nuanced drama, but there are some fatal flaws that stick out on a rewatch today. It’s been a decade since Sons of Anarchy ended its run on FX with its polarizing series finale on December 9, 2014, so it’s the perfect time to revisit the series. But, as with any show, the biggest problems stand out more when viewers go back and revisit each episode for a second (or third or fourth or hundredth) viewing.

There is certainly a lot to love in Sons of Anarchy. Even when the writing got a little shaky, the cast’s performances remained compelling and watchable. The show’s exploration of complex themes like vigilantism and police corruption continue to be just as relevant and fascinating today as they were when the show first aired. But, unfortunately, it’s not all roses. There were a lot of problems in Sons of Anarchy, from broad issues like the show’s uneven pacing to specific issues like Lincoln Potter’s unnecessary weirdness, that hold the series back on a rewatch.

10 Sons Of Anarchy's Pacing Is Uneven

The boring sections stick out on a rewatch

The pacing of Sons of Anarchy is really uneven. There are plenty of exciting story arcs that go from strength to strength, but there are some storylines that really drag. This wasn’t especially noticeable when the show was on the air, releasing one episode a week, but it’s painfully obvious when binge-watching the whole series in a row today. During the boring storylines, a modern rewatch becomes a real slog.

There are some episodes of Sons of Anarchy that move fast from shocking twist to shocking twist, but there are just as many slow, uneventful episodes that just tread water with the plot. When the series was on the air, those episodes would come and go. But they stand out a lot more when they’re scrutinized next to all the other episodes on a back-to-back rewatch.

9 Sons Of Anarchy Eventually Turned Clay Into A Full-Blown Villain

Clay was never a hero, but the writers made him completely unsympathetic

The most exciting part of shows like Sons of Anarchy and The Sopranos and Breaking Bad is that there are no heroes and villains.

The most exciting part of shows like Sons of Anarchy and The Sopranos and Breaking Bad is that there are no heroes and villains; just like in real life, no one is 100% good and no one is 100% bad. But as Sons of Anarchy went on, it eventually shifted into more traditional hero-villain archetypes. Sons of Anarchy initially set itself up as a broad retelling of Hamlet in a biker gang setting, with Jax filling the role of Hamlet and Clay filling the role of Claudius.

In the early days of the series, Jax and Clay’s complicated relationship was one of the most captivating aspects of the show. But on a rewatch today, following that relationship is just a sad reminder that it got oversimplified in the later seasons. By the end of the series, Clay was a straightforward villain.

8 Lincoln Potter Was An Unnecessary Addition To The Cast

The Sons of Anarchy writers made Linc weird for the sake of weirdness

From June Stahl to Ethan Zobelle, there were some really great villains in Sons of Anarchy, but they weren’t all necessary additions to the story. In season 4, Lincoln Potter was added to the cast of Sons of Anarchy. Linc was the Assistant U.S. Attorney sent to investigate the club and hopefully bring them to justice. Thanks to his underhanded tactics and disturbed mind, Linc was one of the most dangerous foes that SAMCRO ever faced.

On a rewatch, it becomes clear that Sons of Anarchy didn’t need Linc. While he was a somewhat interesting character, he wasn’t right for this show. His characterization was a bit too one-note and cartoonish to fit in with the rest of the Sons of Anarchy cast. The writers kept making him weirder and weirder, seemingly just for the sake of weirdness.

7 Sons Of Anarchy's Ireland Arc Jumped The Shark

TV shows go on vacation when they run out of ideas

When a TV show goes overseas for a change of scenery, it’s usually a sign that the writers have officially run out of ideas. This trend was parodied brilliantly with the globetrotting Christmas special episode of the in-universe sitcom When the Whistle Blows in Ricky Gervais’ Extras. Sons of Anarchy jumped the shark with an overseas trip as early as season 3, when the club went to Ireland to visit the Belfast charter.

There are some fun character dynamics in the Ireland episodes of Sons of Anarchy, with the American bikers getting to know their Irish counterparts, but for the most part, it just showed that the writers were running low on ideas. On a rewatch, the Ireland trip arrives as an ominous warning sign of the show’s decline. Maybe the series should’ve stayed in Charming.

6 The Cartel/CIA Twist In Sons Of Anarchy Season 4 Was Totally Unbelievable

The cartel turned out to be working with the CIA to take down other cartels

In the first half of Sons of Anarchy’s run, the storyline all felt organic and relatively realistic. However, as the series went on and the writers were scraping the bottom of the barrel for story ideas, the twists and turns started to feel increasingly contrived. It started to go downhill in season 4 with a twist revealing that the cartel had been secretly working with the CIA to take down other cartels.

Audiences are expected to suspend their disbelief with almost any fictional story, but there’s a limit – especially for a show that purports to have a sense of realism like Sons of Anarchy. The revelation that the cartel was really an offshoot of the CIA is totally unbelievable. It’s a perfect example of a show asking audiences to suspend their disbelief a little too much.

5 Unser's Cancer Diagnosis Went Nowhere

Unser left his job due to a cancer diagnosis, but then his cancer went unmentioned for years

After being diagnosed with cancer and told he had just a few months left to live, Wayne Unser stepped down from his position as Chief of the Charming Police Department. This seemed to set up a heartbreaking emotional storyline for Unser, showing that a lawman can do everything right in the face of imminent danger and still get struck down by a terminal illness. But after the initial diagnosis, Unser’s cancer rarely ever came up again.

Towards the end of the series, Sons of Anarchy’s writers stopped bothering to even acknowledge Unser’s cancer at all as his ever-growing alliance with Gemma became the defining trait of his character.

Years after he was told he had months to live, Unser was still alive and well. Towards the end of the series, Sons of Anarchy’s writers stopped bothering to even acknowledge Unser’s cancer at all as his ever-growing alliance with Gemma became the defining trait of his character. In the end, Unser is killed by a bullet, not by his cancer.

4 Sons Of Anarchy's Final Season Relied Too Much On Character Deaths

Yes, character deaths are shocking, but not if someone is killed off every five minutes

In its final season, Sons of Anarchy began to rely too much on character deaths to keep the audience interested. The show had killed off plenty of major characters before – this was around the time that The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones made killing off major characters the norm – but it had always spaced them out. Previous seasons gave the audience and the other characters a chance to grieve whenever someone got killed off, which allowed each death to really sink in.

In season 7, Bobby was shot in the head by August Marks to mess with Jax. Juice was stabbed repeatedly in the neck by Ron Tully as revenge. Gemma and Unser were both shot by Jax to avenge Tara. There were way too many deaths in Sons of Anarchy’s final season. Eventually, they stopped having the same emotional impact they used to.

3 Tara Was An Interesting Character But She Was Poorly Written

The Sons of Anarchy writers focused more on Tara's backstabbing than the reasons for it

From Breaking Bad’s Skyler White to Barry’s Sally Reed, TV viewers have a long history of unjustly hating the female romantic partner of their favorite criminal antiheroes. Sons of Anarchy had its own instance of this phenomenon with Jax’s main love interest, Tara Knowles. The tragic thing with Tara is that the character had a lot of interesting potential – and Maggie Siff was prepared to deftly handle whatever material she was given – but the writing let her down.

On paper, Tara is a really intriguing character. She was raised by a violent man before falling in love with a violent man and becoming violent herself, so she wanted to do everything in her power to break that cycle of violence and protect her sons from going down the wrong path. But she was never upfront about it; she always went about it in manipulative, backhanded ways that needlessly sabotaged Jax.

2 Jax Never Found Out What Happened To J.T.

Jax never knew Gemma was involved in his dad's death

The hook at the beginning of Sons of Anarchy’s run was Jax’s discovery of a manifesto that his father J.T., the co-founder of SAMCRO, had written for the club before his death. Through this manifesto and the journals his dad left behind, Jax got to know his late father better. As the series went on, more details were revealed about J.T.’s death, including the shocking revelation that Gemma was involved.

Since this was the conflict that kicked off the series, it would’ve made sense for the final season to bring the storyline full circle with Jax learning the truth about his dad’s death. But that never happened. When the series ended, Jax was still in the dark about how his dad died. This loose end that never got tied up is glaringly apparent on a rewatch today.

1 The Sons Of Anarchy Finale Is Massively Underwhelming

The out-of-left-field final scene doesn't satisfy as the culmination of this epic saga

While Sons of Anarchy’s final episode is never included alongside Lost, Dexter, and How I Met Your Mother on lists of the worst, most notorious series finales ever made, it’s far from a satisfying conclusion to the series. Sons of Anarchy’s series finale – season 7, episode 13, “Papa’s Goods” – starts out as a standard finale episode, tying up all the loose ends. Jax is excommunicated from the club, kills a couple of enemies he still has outstanding, and escapes execution.

Sons of Anarchy is streaming on Prime Video.

It’s the final scene where Sons of Anarchy’s ending falls apart. Jax takes the cops on a long chase across the interstate, then randomly decides to embrace death by veering in front of an oncoming semi-truck. This final scene comes out of the left field for a baffling, hugely underwhelming conclusion to Sons of Anarchy.