TV Review: SONS OF ANARCHY, 3.3

rating: 3.5

Sons Of Anarchy continued this week, following two great shows with something a little more average. It wasn't a terrible episode; in fact it featured some of the highlights of the season so far. There were just a handful of trite moments that let down an otherwise strong episode. So lets start with the good. I absolutely loved the cameo of horror icon Stephen King as a eccentric cleaner named Bachman; called in by Tig (Kim Coates) after the accidental death of Nate's (Hal Holbrook) carer Amelia (Monique Gabriela Curnen). After riding in on a Harley, we then see him feeling up the corpse and paying particular attention to the breasts. He might not be the world's best actor, but King managed to make his brief scenes the memorable high point of the episode. There was also a significant Creepshow vibe going on, with both King and Holbrook having appeared in the classic George A.Romero horror film. His cameo also led to the most strangely amusing moment of the season so far, with Bachman making up for insufficient funds by silently walking off with a weird gold statue of some hands in prayer. This coupled with a reaction shot of Tig shaking his head really had me laughing hard. It was also good to see SAMCRO working closely together once again. Following a season in which tensions were high within the group, specifically between Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and Clay (Ron Perlman), this episode seemed to have a particular vibe of the good ol' days before problems formed within the group. It'll be interesting to see if this lasts. That is, excluding a few tensions this week over a particular deal the club had formed with Henry Lin (Kenneth Choi). In order to receive a shipment of guns to exchange for information on the Mayans, the Sons agree to provide 'services' to some of Lin's clients through the clubs porn ties. Opie (Ryan Hurst), understandably isn't too happy about this agreement after discovering his ex-pornstar girlfriend Lyla (Winter Ave Zoli) wants to help out the rest of the girls. The Whole operation is ruined when Opie gets an unlucky glance of his darling Lyla about to go down on one of the clients. He flips, bursting into the room and causing a brawl. It results in a great scene with Jax and Opie talking about their relationships and some words of wisdom from John Teller. Elsewhere, Hal Holbrook is again excellent as Gemma's (Katey Segal) father Nate, although the storyline got a lot darker this week. Following the shooting of last weeks episode, Nate is revealed to have disappeared without a trace. We eventually see him sitting alone and contemplating suicide. It was a tragic moment and a testament to his acting in the role that it really did seem like he might actually pull the trigger. The next episode marks Holbrook's final appearance; I hope he receives a solid exit from the show. Once again, Kim Coates deserves praise for his endlessly brilliant performance as Tig, who while not given so much limelight this week, continues to be one of my favorite things about the show. What mostly didn't work for me this week were the scenes in Belfast. While the shifting locations have worked previously, with last week's introduction of Father Ashby being a highlight, this week things felt a little bit off. Case in point, the scene with Maureen (Paula Malcomson) working in a small convenience store. Now this might seem strange, but I found myself questioning the authenticity of the set which to me looked unconvincing. The fact I was paying more attention to the set rather than the characters tells me something is wrong. The storylines involving the ties of the characters in Belfast to SAMCRO seem to be becoming a little convoluted. Thankfully, it's only a matter of time before we see the two storylines clashing together and hopefully relieving some of the issues. I also continued to be disappointed with the thread regarding Amelia's sudden turn on Gemma in the previous episode. It looked like Gemma was gearing up to recreate her favorite scenes from Hostel when Amelia was first shown this week - tied up and blind folded in the basement. When Tara untied her and agreed to hand over the big metal bedpan, frankly she deserved to be hit over the head, it was that idiotic. Things then continued to go a bit 24 when the escaped Amelia confronted Gemma with a knife, only to end up impaling herself and ending up dead. I'll admit, it was interesting to yet again see Gemma having to deal with blood on her hands and taking continually dark turns. We also got to see Tara getting herself further involved with the violent side of the club by helping with the disposal Amelia's body. I've also realized that without this storyline, we'd never have got the Stephen King cameo and therefore I can't complain too much. While Sons Of Anarchy doesn't exactly pride itself on The Wire style ultra-realism, this plot line just felt a little too formulaic. So while this was a weaker episode in general, it certainly wasn't bad. The storylines are just becoming a little over familiar, with SAMCRO continuing to deal with gangs for Intel on Abel's kidnapping and Gemma still in hiding. Thankfully, the episode has paved the way for some big changes to follow for the rest of the season. SAMCRO have finally discovered Abel's true whereabouts and it's not long before the threads are entwined together. The sons are going on a trip. __________________ Best bit: Stephen King as Bachman; the eccentric cleaner. Worst bit: Tara disobeying all logic by handing a dangerous prisoner a heavy metal object. Quote of the week: "I'm in the mood for some music..... 80's" - Bachman requests the perfect soundtrack for body disposal. Sons of Anarchy continues on FiveUS Wednesday nights at 10pm