Why So Blu?

Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Fifth Season (Blu-ray Review)

From creator Kurt Sutter comes the adrenaline-charged Sons of Anarchy, featuring exclusive “creator’s cut” episodes and kicking into high gear with its biggest, most explosive season ever! As SAMCRO’s new president, Jax is surrounded by ruthless enemies and gut-wrenching betrayal. With Gemma fighting for control of the family and a bloodthirsty Clay out for revenge, Jax defennds himself haunted by the sins of his past. Alliances are forged, friends are murdered, and loyalties are put to the ultimate test. Now, with the truth in sight, Jax must do whatever it takes to secure the legacy of brotherhood and protect his family-even if it costs him everything. 

The Show 

The boys from Charming have returned in full force on Blu-ray. Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Fifth Season has arrived and picks up after the turbulent events that ended season four’s run. Jax has (Charlie Hunnam) has taken over the club and has to deal with every sort of problem coming his way. Gemma (Katey Sagal) has to keep the familial unit intact while keeping her involvement with Nero (Jimmy Smits) a secret from Clay (Ron Perlman) and the club a secret.

Several new characters come into play and several familiar characters get more time in the limelight. This is another one of those seasons of  “new beginnings” coupled with “endings” and by endings I mean that prominent characters from the very first season will be killed. That’s all I will say on that matter.

Season five of Sons of Anarchy is peculiar in that Jax is now the point man in everything. He’s what Ron Perlman was throughout season 1-4 was. That shift is pretty cool and jarring at the same time, because now we have Clay as a more secondary character who is recovering from his near fatal injuries from season 4. Seeing Clay helpless and as an invalid for the majority of the season was very off-putting. Then again, Clay is what we call a snake in the grass and Perlman delivers a pretty damn great performance. Kevin Spacey and The Usual Suspects came to mind.

In addition to Jax and the club’s business, we’re also taken to he and his wife’s home life and what Tara (Maggie Siff) has to do to recover from her injuries suffered at the hands of the cartel last season. Her character has grown in spades and is a pretty dominating force time out – she can almost come face to face with Gemma when the situation calls for it.

I do like that after finishing this season of SOA I never felt that the show was running out of steam. We’re in year five on Blu-ray and DVD and season 6 starts next week (check your local listings), which is great and serves as a testament to the cleverness of the show’s writing staff and their point man – Kurt Sutter. The man is a genius. He also plays one of the scariest characters you will ever want to meet. Otto. What Otto says and does will blow your mind.

It’s been an almost yearly tradition of reviewing this Sons of Anarchy for WSB and considering that these SOA reviews are almost 1 year to the day apart – I guess I will see you guys next year with my season six review.

Let’s ride!

Episodes

Sovereign

Authority*

Laying Pipe

Stolen Huffy

Orca Shrugged

Small World*

Toad’s Wild Ride

Ablation

Andare Pescare

Crucifixed

To Thine Own Self

Darthy

J’ai Obtenu Cette*

*Creator’s Cut included

Video 

Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Fifth Season is presented in 1080p, 1.78:1. Television shows on Blu-ray don’t get much better than this. Flesh tones look natural , sun baked, and by looking at some of the bikers, you can almost smell the stale beer on their clothing. Charming is a small dirt town and the grit comes through in full 1080p in spades. Black levels are clean and free of crush and I never detected any instances of banding. The color wheel was also very dynamic and there is a lot of rouge brain matter splattered about and the Blu-ray handled it all with grace. Sons looks great on the Blu-ray format.

Audio 

Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Fifth Season is presented in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1. The roar of the custom bikes, lead pipe hits to the cranium, and assorted gunfire are the main attraction on this lossless 5.1 Blu-ray presentation. It’s like you’re riding side by side with the SAMCRO and company. It’s pretty thrilling. Dialogue is clean and crisp and you’ll be able hear every word spoken during those moments of stillness between beat downs and gunfights without any problems. Sons on Blu-ray (past seasons) have always laid it down nice and heavy and the fifth season is no exception.

Extras

Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Fifth Season on Blu-ray has more of the same sort of extras that were present in the last few seasons on the format. There’s an entertaining interview with series creator Kurt Sutter, a fan concert on the set of the show, deleted scenes, gag reel, making-of, select commentary track by Peter Weller on the episode that he directed, which is pretty cool and hysterical at the same time. My favorite of the bunch is the option to play several episodes in their extended cut mode.

• Deleted Scenes from To Thine Own Self and J’ai Obtenu Cette
• Gag Reel
• Opie Winston
• Kurt Sutter: Creating Anarchy
• Fan Concert at The Clubhouse
• Commentary on Darthy by Director Peter Weller

 

 

Summary

The fifth season of Sons of Anarchy, like the rest of the season before it, continues to ramp up the excitement along with the drama. Like Kurt Sutter said in the special features section – we’ve got at least two more seasons left before the show ends, so the level drama will only continue to escalate as the show draws to a close. Season five takes no prisoners and neither does the Blu-ray. If you’ve gotten this far then you know its a no-brainer as to whether you should get the Blu-ray set. Did I mention that the slipcover feels like suede? You know what to do. 😉

 

 Order Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Fifth Season on Blu-ray!