A Detailed Review Of The American Drama Series, The Son Of Anarchy

A Detailed Review Of The American Drama Series, The Son Of Anarchy When we were given the option to write about any television show we wanted to for this essay I immediately thought of Sons of Anarchy as an automatic go to. I started watching this show back in 2008 and still am tuned into the current and final season this year. I was immediately a fan of this show after hearing about if from my Father. Not really being a fan of many television shows at the time this program stood out to me because of the edgy violence, drug abuse, and gunfights. I think a lot of the being is based upon an outlaw motorcycle gang located in California is enough to pull in any teenage male at the time. As I got older and continued to watch the show I could see that it was more than just a show about action and violence. Especially while taking this class I began to look into the deeper meaning of the episodes and began to watch Youtube videos interviewing the director and cast to get a better understanding of it. I want to present what I believe this program aims to ac hieve and identify itself as, also I want to discuss some of the themes in the show that make it relate to the audience at a personal level. Sure not everybody gets up for work and hops on the motorcycle carrying a pistol for whatever the day may bring. However we all can relate to experiences with family struggles, having a sense of belonging, and standing up against something we might not agree with. These are just a few example of themes that this show presents. There are many more and I could probably write this paper on the entire first season but I will stick to the pilot episode. First, to begin with the technicalities of this show I did some research to learn that this show is shot upon live locations quite a bit however most of the common reoccurring scenes such as the clubhouse, are indeed Hollywood studio sets. This leads me to believe that this show utilizes both single camera and multi camera telefilm studio production techniques. I like how in the beginning of the Pilot episode you are right there on the road with main character Jackson Teller while he rides his bike along the California roads in the early morning. The camera work is all over the place on this show and I think that adds to the action aspect quite a bit as I have noticed since upon watching action shows and films. This show is a product of the convergence era seeing as how it kicked off in 2008, you can stream this show, purchase seasons online, and watch it on your phone if you please. Not only that you can catch previews of the upcoming episodes, aftermath specials with cast, and occa sionally a message from creator Kurt Sutter himself. I think these aspects of the modern era in media really engage the viewer to keep the spirit of the show going after the show is over even. Watching the show for a while you will learn that each episode ties in with the next and there is indeed a set reoccurring cast of the show. I believe it is a episodic serial format for those reasons, I would also like to mention how this show is shot in such a way that you feel that you need to know what happens in the next episode immediately after the current one is over. They leave you with perfectly shot cliff hangers. This also causes me to look at the way this show was shot in its entirety as more of a series of short films. If you put together all of the episodes for each season you could have movies with all of the content covered. Another reason why I absolutely love this show. I think you can enjoy this show really at any age around 16 to 17 and older. Although I would be advised to be 18+ to really understand some of the shows heavy content. When you are watching this show about a gang that deals guns, that are outlaws, that all work at a motorcycle shop you see almost two completely different sides of this family. I call them a family because they are that exactly and some really are related. Clay is the leader of the show, it doesn’t take long that connect him with being the dominant antagonist figure, along with him Gemma is at his side as his lover, she is also the mother of protagonist Jackson Teller. The crew themselves is not clearly defined as good or bad until later episodes reveal alliances towards â€Å"Jax† for short, and Clay. The pilot begins with a conflict that causes other gangs in the area to be involved with the Sons at a business and rivalry revengeful level. They must solve the issue to keep the business of selling guns going but that comes with great costs of risking their lives to do so.Leader of the Sons Clay is considered old school and not afraid to play dirty. Besides all of this going on Jax is expecting a baby boy on the way. Jax presented as a good looking, well-mannered bad boy figure right from the beginning of the pilot, he makes a discovery that changes his outlook on how the club was meant to operate, to keep it short, and this causes him to question the direction of the club. The club is structured as a democracy and there is a President, VP, Treasurer, and so on. They take votes and show respect to the hierarchy of the club. I think it is interesting that despite being outlaws they have order and like Italian mafia for example they show respect to one another until things get dirty! So really there is two stories going on at the same time during the pilot. Both focused on Jax primarily and defiantly and example of hailing him as the good guy. One of more of the gang related lifestyle of Jax and the other more human side of his life with his son being born. I think the reason behind this was to really show the viewer who the main character was as a person in all. Within the episode there are a few example of him standing up and doing the right thing. Jax does not believe in killing people if he doesn’t have to. Clay on the other hand does not think twice about killing of anyone pissed him off. This is just one example. Everyone looks out for each other and family is very important to everyone in the gang, for the most part. The themes he is faces with is what I would like to touch up on next because I find them to be very important to what makes the show able to relate to the audience. The show does reflect the life of badass bikers that drink, smoke, shoot people and deal guns. However these people still face hardships such as family struggles, paying bills, drug abuse, hard justice, and living everyday knowing you could get violently killed. The show clearly presents these people as criminal outlaws however you learn that most of them are good people at heart and have a strong love for family and community. Not many o ther shows present the criminal class of society in this way, nor do they show the concern for family and friends like this show does. What sets this television show aside from others is the mature content it carries yes, but also how values and disclosures are presented to the audience. You begin to see the rise of the good bad guy in a sense with Jax. You feel compassion for him as a young father because of his baby boys struggle for life. You also see him look at things differently to veer away from the gun dealing because he sees the violence it brings and the people involved in it. If I really had to put my finger on one dominant idea expressed by this show it would have to be that there are criminals with hearts that look out for one another, respect their community, and face the same issues normal people face. I think what makes this show great is its sense of identity with the motorcycle gang culture. Everyone looks it and acts it perfectly and does a good job convincing you it is there way of life. You start to establish favorite characters early on and side with them in a sense as things tensions rise. This is why I feel like this show does a great job at connecting to the audience.

Movie Review of Revolution Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Of Revolution - Movie Review Example The film focuses on their battles and struggles in this war over the next several years such as the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. During the course of the film, Dobbs son is both sheltered by the local Indians as well as captured by the British, only to be rescued by his father. Donald Sutherland appears as Sergeant Major Peasy, a harsh archetype of a British soldier. During his travels Dobbs meets and falls in love with Daisy McConnahay, played by Nastassja Kinski. Daisy comes from a wealthy Torry family, yet she rejects the hypocrisy of the status quo in favor of the revolutionary cause. Along his journey, Tom Dobbs appears at Valley Forge as well as The Battle of Yorktown and its subsequent surrender, which concludes the movie. Revolution creates the character of Tom Dobbs as a microcosm for the real American colonists that were forced by circumstance to fight against British rule. While his character is fictional, the battles he encounters actually were waged. The Battle of Brooklyn christened the Declaration of Independence, and it did result in both the occupation of New York by the British Army for the entire war along with the execution of Nathan Hale (Gallager 1995). Of course, odds are that an individual soldier would have never actually experienced as many significant battles as Tom Dobbs; however, it is his travels that allow the audience the scope of these battles. Furthermore, the film does include the Huron and Iroquois tribes presenting the Indian presence of New York as both friend and foe. Even though the two tribes were enemies, and even though colonists had alliances with the Huron, it is interesting to note that the Hurons also sided with the British during the revolutionary war (www.tola tsga.org). Still by making a fur trapper the protagonist, the film takes on a specific reality, the reality of the common man that fought the Revolutionary War. Other war movies about other wars often focus on the plight of the common man such as Saving Private Ryan. But Revolutionary War movies are unique in that they almost always focus on the reality of a Washington, Adams, or Jefferson. Maybe this is because the reality of the time was that for the most part only wealthy educated individuals documented their experiences. There is in fact a scene in which Tom Dobbs cannot read a list of names in his quest to find Daisy. Thus, the reality was that the majority of the individuals responsible for battling the British were exactly common men, just like the character of Tom Dobbs. The settings in Revolution are a mixed blessing. Sometimes the shots of the English countryside stand in well for the forests of 18th century America. Other times, especially with some of the scenes shot in Norway, the foreign coastline indeed appears foreign and unlike the East Coast of the United States. Nevertheless, some scenes do ring true such as the shot of the British Army staking out their claim of superiority through the use of tents on a hillside only to see their stake washed away by the reality of a morning downpour. The costumes in the movie also seem to reflect quite an attention to detail, especially in the opening scenes of the 18th Century New York citizenry as well as the uniforms

Exam 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Exam 3 - Essay Example These persons wish to be alpha male and would value physical aggression and machismos. They would pose as the authority figures for the victims that they would meet in meeting places. They rarely have a specific target and do not intend to kill their victims, but often humiliate and traumatize them. On the other hand would be the power reassurance rapists who do not value physical aggression; are socially deficient; are averagely intelligent; and do not excel in developing romantic or interpersonal relationships. Termed as the least violent, these rapists, accounting for 27.5% of rape crimes, would select and stalk their victim before attacking them, thus are people known to the victims (Atkinson & Bailey, 2008). Other than power, anger shapes up anger retaliation rapists, often substance abusers, exuding anger related pathologies and impulsive behavior. Not being specific on any target, these rapists, accounting for about 28% of the rapes, would have animosity against the gender to be attacked (Gayle, 2009). Low on intelligence, anger retaliatory rapists are spontaneous and often brutal and even though they do not intend to kill, they could beat dead their victims. As such, they leave behind evidence. Finally, the most dangerous yet so elusive type of rapists referred to as anger excitation rapists account for about 4.5% of rape cases (Atkinson & Bailey, 2008). These, often sadistic rapists, could or could not select their victims, often murdering to avoid being identified by the victim or just for self-gratification. To rehabilitate these rapists, this paper borrows recommendations by Hedlund and GÃ ¶thberg (2005) to implement the best approach. Power assertive and power reassurance rapists seek to resolve their insufficiencies through rape; they commit the crime, not as a solution, but rather in search for a solution that

Are we really running out of oil Research Paper

Are we really running out of oil - Research Paper Example The OECD is made up of about 28 countries as of 2010, including countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Korea, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, and Australia. The European Commission also â€Å"participates† in the work of the IEA as written or reflected in the IEA documents. From the perspective of the IEA, the summary situation is that â€Å"global production will peak one day, but that peak will be determined by factors affecting both supply and demand† (IEA, World Energy Outlook 2010 Executive Summary, 6). IEA data and forecasts indicate that oil demand (excludes demand for biofuels as opposed to fossil fuels), will continue to grow steadily to reach 99 million barrels per day (mb/d) by 2035 or 15 mb/d higher from 2009. In the IEA estimate, all of the net growth will come from non-member of the OECD, about half from China alone. The rise in demand from non-OECD member countries will be mainly driven by demand for transport fuels (IEA, World Energy Outloo k 2010 Executive Summary, 6). Given the estimated rise in demand to 99 million barrels per day by 2035, global oil production will only reach 96 million barrels per day (mb/day), 3 mb/d of which will come from gains in processing efficiency (IEA, World Energy Outlook 2010 Executive Summary, 6). ... ation of Petroleum Exporting (OPEC) countries to rise continuously up to 2035 under the â€Å"New Policies Scenario† (IEA, World Energy Outlook 2010 Executive Summary, 6). The increasing production from OPEC will boost OPEC’s share in total world oil production by about one-half (IEA, World Energy Outlook 2010 Executive Summary, 6). Iraq will account for the largest share in the increase of OPEC oil output, â€Å"commensurate with its large resource base† (IEA, World Energy Outlook 2010 Executive Summary, 6). The statements from the IEA suggest that the immediate decreases in output in oil production will be coming from the non-OPEC countries rather than from the OPEC countries. In clarifying what it means by â€Å"global production will peak one day, but that peak will be determined by factors affecting both supply and demand,† the IEA clarified that in the â€Å"New Policies† scenario, total world production does not peak before 2035 (although it will be â€Å"close to doing so†). However, according to the IEA, production can peak at 86 mb/d just before 2020 because of weaker demand that falls briskly thereafter because of lower prices (World Energy Outlook 2010 Executive Summary, 6). The scenario of a weak demand can come about because of environmental concerns related to global warming. In summary, the IEA said that â€Å"if governments act more vigorously than currently planned to encourage more efficient use of oil and development of alternatives, then demand for oil might begin to ease soon and, as a result, we might see a fairly early peak in oil production† (World Energy Outlook 2010 Executive Summary, 6). The IEA strongly emphasized that the early peak in this scenario will not be caused by resource constraints but by dwindling demand and price realignments

MGR #6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MGR #6 - Essay Example A prayer is a religious expression of thanks or a request for help addressed to God or an object. According to this MGR prayers are not only concerned off wellbeing of the one praying, but the will of God to be done according to his wishes. Prayers are a communication between a human being and God. It is through this communication that human have  faith that their wishes will be answered. People pray for different reasons which include blessings, healing, and guidance. My second takeaway is confession. Confessions are statements made by a group of people or a person acknowledging personal facts that the group or the person would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. Confession is one way of repentance. The main thing that leads to confessions is when a person sin. A sin is anything that come  between  the right ways of God and a person. One of the major drives to confession is fear. It keeps us away from enjoying our freedom until we confess our sins. Another reason for confession is to seek forgiveness. A human can feel guilty after a sin and, as a result, we tend to look for forgiveness from God or other people by confessing our

Sonoco HR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Sonoco HR - Essay Example The packaging industry as a whole have began to alter the landscape of the industry, a change towards â€Å"packaging end-to-end solutions† instead of individual packaging services have become the norm (Sand, 2009). Sonoco’s leadership for its part have at the onset implemented strategies to control cost that is in-line with its target of generating growth by stimulating sales and its capacity (Gase, 2007). The plan involved modernizing its commercial packaging division to enable it to respond to the demands of clients with dynamic requirements due to these clients’ need to respond to consumer tastes. However, the changes only granted autonomy to the General Manager of each division in managing his own personnel contrary to the required cross functional cooperation to meet the changing customer needs (Heinecke, 2011). Sonoco has been known to encourage a family-oriented, paternalistic, collaborative, and team oriented corporate culture amongst its employees. Unde rperformance and indolence are often times overlooked if it does not affect the bottom line too much. Cindy Hartley was hired to align Sonoco with the ever changing requirements of the packaging industry. ... There is a need to ensure that the performance is reflective of the actual contribution of the employee to the company (Neal, 2009). Sonoco’s employee training should not be limited to hard skills training but also on soft skills training to ensure that employees are developed overtime that will satisfy the third focus area of Cindy which is succession planning (Brinkerhoff & Mulder, 1995). Succession planning is ensuring that any position in the company can be replaced by individuals easily to prevent down time (Sims & Gay, 2007). Sonoco’s existence has been marked with several acquisitions of small companies mainly for its customer base if not additional capacity it will bring to the organization. The strategy is not only sound but it makes more sense, since instead of acquiring new equipment and getting fresh employees to be trained at considerable cost while spending on marketing to acquire new clients, buying companies will accomplish all in a much shorter time fra me (Clemente & Greenspan, 1998). The strategy while sound similarly created specialization amongst and between the employees of the acquired company (Prof Jarillo & Straub, 2012). It should be noted that the acquisition of the different companies equally resulted to the acquisition of employees with unique skill set that is applicable to the acquired company’s operation (Stahl & Mendenhall, 2005). However, the best scenario is to have employees that are multi skilled if not ambidextrous (Kortmann, 2012). The expanding employee base and the expanding customer base did not bode well for leaders within Sonoco and the companies it integrated due to its acquisition. Leaders were not trained to

Critque essay Essay Example for Free

Critque essay Essay In the story â€Å"The Operation,† by Pensri Kiengsiri , a story that has a third persons’ point of view. The reader learns that Kamjorn, the father of the kid, don’t have much affection to Danu because Danu is a victim of polio which made Danu a crippled kid. Its conspiracy leads the reader into having a feeling of sympathy for the boy. And the story’s setting, contributes well to the growing sympathy of the readers to Danu, as Kiengsiri’s treatment of timing cause the readers to anticipate a shocking things that’s to unfold. The time at which â€Å"The Operation† is set introduces an element of tension between the parents. Kamjorn informed the readers that when he taught about going to Bangkok he first wanted to see his best friend, rather to go to the hospital which is his main reason of going to Bangkok; it is â€Å"his mind strayed to other days in Bangkok, student days and to the old school mates, he would have a chance to look up. † As the reader already knows that Kamjorn intends to catch up with his old friends, the very mention of â€Å"strayed to other days† evokes the sense of a plan that will certainly make sadness to the boy’s feelings. The added suggestion of â€Å"chance to look up† introduces an atmosphere of uncertainty: that planted to the reader’s mind is the notion that all is not normal and right to the world. The sense of uncertainty to Kamjorn that he will not go to his son and doesn’t show to his son it is a big factor to his son operation. Just as the time in which â€Å"The Operation† is set infuses the story with an atmosphere of sadness, so do the physical surrounding in which the bulk of plot unfolds. â€Å"When Kamjorn reached Bangkok, he went to meet his friend and to actually catch up with them. When his daughter haven’t seen any sign that either one of their parents arrived, she was worried and called to their house and somehow convinced her mother to travel. † Both things added to the reader’s sense that there’s something is not right and that something imminent is about to occur. This atmosphere of imminence increases as their mother went to the train and hasn’t heard anything from her until the operation is almost finished â€Å"an accident on an express train†¦fatalities†Ã‚  that’s the only words Kamjorn’s mind ever digested before he fainted. For it is only in the final conversation of the story. The imminence that happened to Kamjorn’s wife that caused him to faint. It has successfully concealed the true sense of Kamjorn tears last before he fainted. Hence, the manner Kiengsiri described the time and setting of â€Å"The Operation† serves to greatly enhance the effect of this tale upon the reader. In accompanying the story’s characters into a world thet grows steadily more gruesome at every turn, the reader’s feeling of sadness and foreboding increases, the reader is doubly troubled the disturbing revelation made in the story’s final conversation. Kiengsiri’s use of setting and timing in this story mirrors the special effects employed in dramatic movies-effects that have the viewers wiping their tears, totally absorbed in plot and atmosphere. It is good that a 6 page short story can evoke with words the same response that movie makers use millions of dollars, efforts and truckloads of technology to create.