Sons of Anarchy: Season 2 [Blu-Ray]

There's one thing required to enjoy Sons of Anarchy: you have to be able to root for a bad guy, to choose the lesser among many evils. The Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club rules over Charming, California with an iron fist, but if you can attach yourself to their human sides, the young new father and the struggles of his premature son, or the moral choices they constantly juggle, then you'll no doubt fall in love with the violent and brutally just Sons of Anarchy. Season two presents a much more immediate threat to the Sons' rural domain in the form of a well-organized white supremacist group who move into Charming with the hopes of taking over and bringing a wealth of drugs and prostitution into the town. Motorcycle gangs aren't known to back down, so the Sons prepare for war, readying themselves to show these intruders just whose town they've decided to make a move on.

Of course, drugs and white-power assholes aren't their only enemy. Heavy pressure from the FBI in the form of one Agent Stahl constantly threatens the club's well-being and causes sidecar-loads of dissension within the Sons themselves. After many episodes that see the Sons so divided that the show's lead, Jackson Teller -- played with heart and fervor by Charlie Hunnam -- considers leaving the group, a uniting event brings the club back together into a tighter-knit unit than ever were before, and it's amazing to watch.

The second season Sons of Anarchy takes every element of action and drama from season one and cranks it up to 11. The explosions are bigger, the guns are louder, the emotions are thicker; there's not one thing that this series didn't improve upon between its first two seasons. Even the monstrous Ron Perlman has to spread his acting wings beyond playing the lumbering oaf, and he does it with a grace rarely achieved by someone so immensely intimidating. TV veteran Katey Sagal is Jackson's lovable and shamelessly honest mother, proving that her connection to Peggy Buddy has long since dissolved. Everyone on screen, including this season’s antagonist extraordinaire Henry Rollins, delivers award-worthy performances.

The story is a lot of fun to watch unfold, even the more dramatic stuff. The period when Jackson is split off from the main group gets a little tedious as fans really just want to see the club together kicking ass-loads of ass, but all in all there’s never a dull moment.

Sons of Anarchy is a supremely entertaining show, and season two is no exception. It’s the ultimate man’s show: guns, bikes, babes, swear words -- it has everything you could need and more. That’s not to say the show is just those things; it’s also packed with emotion and heart. Sons is not for everyone, but most people looking for a good time will be able to sit down with it and fall in love. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the Sons of Anarchy Blu-ray is packed with special features, but you won't be feeling any buyer’s remorse after spending the $50 on the set.

As long as you like hearing the actors talk -- and presumably you do if you’re into the show -- you’ll be all about this Blu-ray set. Select members of the cast and writer/creator Kurt Sutter do commentary for one episode on each of the three disks and stick around for a picture-in-picture sort of deal. They aren’t overtly insightful, but it’s a lot of fun to hear them reminisce about their experiences on set and on location.

However, if you’re really looking to hear about what life is like during production of Sons of Anarchy, there’s a really entertaining roundtable discussion hosted by Kurt Sutter. The vast majority of the main cast is on hand to answer viewer-submitted questions, most of which are actually fairly interesting. There are a few points where there’s not really enough participation from the whole gang, but that never lasts very long.

The set also includes a 10-minute documentary called "The Moral Code of Sons of Anarchy" which deeply investigates the roots of motorcycle clubs and their unwritten code of honor. Presumably, if you’re a fan of the show then you’re at least a little bit interested in the idea of rebel MCs, and this featurette will help you better understand how it is that someone could murder a rival gang member and then go home and eat dinner with their family. Of all the features, this one is the real gem.

The disk also comes with the standard mega-set of deleted scenes that were deleted with good reason. As per usual, these aren’t really worth watching, especially if you’re going back after the fact and not just watching them right away after each episode. The final special feature is a short-but-sweet gag reel showing that, even in the deepest of emotional scenes, these actors still are having a really good time doing what they do, and that is the crux of a good production for the big screen or the small.

The Sons of Anarchy season two Blu-ray is a must-buy for fans. Reliving your favorite scenes in glorious hi-def is worth the price of admission alone, and the enjoyable and mostly worthwhile features are just icing on the cake. If you’ve never seen the show before, but are interested after reading this review, seasons one and two are available now. You won’t be disappointed.