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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Sons of Anarchy - Season 1 in TV

Jul 21, 2017  
Sons of Anarchy - Season 1
Sons of Anarchy - Season 1
2008 | Drama
8
8.0 (12 Ratings)
TV Season Rating
Clever Writing (0 more)
The Sins of The Father Are Visited On The Sons…
When this show initially premiered I dismissed it entirely. I instantly assumed that it was just some manly, cheesy rubbish that wasn’t worth my time. How small minded of me. It was only after the caretaker in my work recommended that I give it a go that I went back to it. For the first few episodes, it seemed as though I was right. A bunch of leather clad manly bikers shooting up rival gangs and blowing stuff up, but stick with this show and you will see just how deep the rabbit hole really goes. The writing here is phenomenal, the show was created and co-written by Kurt Sutter, who also plays Otto in the show. He is clearly a literary genius, as he also penned The Shield, as well as the recent, brilliantly written Jake Gyllenhall boxing movie, Southpaw. The show follows a gang of bikers called SAMCRO, (the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original,) loosely based on the real life biker gang, The Hell’s Angels, (a few of which’s members actually have cameo roles in the show,) our protagonist is a young man named Jackson Teller, he is the son of John Teller, the original founder of the biker gang. Soon after Jax was born, his father was killed in a traffic collision, although it is suspected that there is more to his death than just that. Since then his mother Gemma has remarried to the current President of the gang, a man called Clay Morrow, who was also John Teller’s best friend and who co-founded the gang along with JT. When the show begins Jax is Clay’s Vice president, or VP and when Clay begins to lead the club on what Jax sees as a more violent, destructive path, he opposes him and he seeks a way to maintain the club, without having to kill anyone or take part in any shady business. Clay sees Jax as an idealist and tells him so, but Jax is persistent in his ideals, as he believes that this is the way that his Father would have wanted the club to be ran. The supporting cast of characters also add a lot to the overarching plot and each have their own respective back stories. There is Tara, Jax’s ex girlfriend, whom he falls back in love with, Gemma, who is Jax’s mother and the matriarch of the club, then there is Tig, Clay’s triggerman initially, but as the show goes on we see that he has a softer side, then there is Opie, Jax’s best friend from a young age who initially wants to leave the biker life behind, but after certain events in the first season of the show unfold, circumstances force him to stay by Jax’s side. There is also Chibs, the Scotsman who doesn’t mess about when it comes to dealing with a problem, there is also Happy, an emotional psychopath who is also played brilliantly by a real life ex Hell’s Angel member. Then there is Juice, a young Latino man who struggles with his personal demons throughout the show and lastly there is Bobby Elvis, another older member of the group who may be a big softie on the cover, but can also handle himself if anyone tries to cross him. From after the first season, the plot begins to twist and turn as we witness several double crosses and multiple agendas come into play and one of my favourite things about this show is that even though Jax is clearly the protagonist, he isn’t always the good guy and he makes some questionable decisions when he is put under pressure. I don’t want to say much else as I’m worried that I will spoil the show, but it definitely is worth your time and I would definitely recommend this show to anyone who is interested in a good crime saga.
  
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Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated The Forgetting in Books

Jan 23, 2020  
TF
The Forgetting
Nicole Maggi | 2015
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Here's a terrible way to approach a review: have almost nothing to say but few words (and here I thought I finally got over that little reviewing brain freeze I got early last year. This is going to become a bad habit, yes?). Nothing really negative, as I enjoyed reading The Forgetting, but saying, "I enjoyed the book" and leaving it at that just doesn't qualify. Someone would then most likely ask, "But why did you enjoy the book?"

I am, by no means, a fan of books that involve sex trafficking. It's a terrible thing and I really don't want to bother reading about the subject (if book club chooses a certain book from the Gateway Readers Award Nominees that's related to trafficking, I'm tucking my tail between my legs and running away).

Then again, I figured Nicole Maggi's The Forgetting would be something pretty different from other thrillers, seeing as a girl goes through a heart transplant and then suddenly starts losing some of her memories while gaining some memories of the heart's original owner. In order for Georgie to actually return back to her normal life from what she calls the "Catch" though, Georgie has to unravel how her new heart's owner really died before she loses all of her memories.
<blockquote>How could I have memories that didn’t belong to me? But they were there, as crystal clear as other memories I knew were mine.</blockquote>
The Forgetting faintly reminds me of a mystery show I once watched every Sunday on CBS (to which I forgot the name of, but it was always before the 10pm news), only this is just a one time thing and everything is back to normal completely (plus, I don't think that detective actually went through a transplant. More like a gut feeling. Either that, or he's a genius). It also reminded me a little of If I Stay and Where She Went, as Georgie spends a good part of the book panicking about not making into Julliard because its been her dream to go Julliard since she was a kid.
<blockquote>Would I graduate on time? Ace my Juilliard audition and start there in the fall?</blockquote>
But while Georgie seems to emphasize stressing and eventually questioning her decision to play the oboe for a lifetime after going (IF) to Julliard, it's very evenly balanced out and doesn't overshadow the overall plot of the book. (Though suddenly doing all the good stuff and whatnot is really odd unless Georgie does this on a daily basis... before the transplant.)

It is, however, pretty obvious that "Jane Doe" has unfinished business from early on in the book with the way the story plays out and how it was written (not that I mind). Some of the characters' actions do seem a little questionable – how does one not go after a person that's taking a file... and not leaving a print out? Or at least go on the hunt for the file? I mean, it's a government building! Seems a little odd they would actually let a file out and don't even try to get it back, unless it's in the future and therefore not part of the book (because what happens to Georgie after doesn't matter too much after she solves the mystery of Jane Doe's death).

Though The Forgetting is a little on the paranormal side (I haven't actually heard anything similar to Georgie's situation in real life), Maggi does convey the realities and horrors of trafficking through her latest book.
---------------
Advanced copy provided by the publisher for review
Original Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Review originally posted at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/arc-review-the-forgetting-by-nicole-maggi.html">http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/arc-review-the-forgetting-by-nicole-maggi.html</a>;
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