Comments on: Of Motorcycles and Melodrama http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/11/28/of-motorcycles-and-melodrama/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Hunter Hargraves http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/11/28/of-motorcycles-and-melodrama/comment-page-1/#comment-144721 Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:06:43 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11419#comment-144721 Hello there —

I too am an avid SOA fan, to the point where I desperately want to lobby for its inclusion in the same category as “The Wire” and “Friday Night Lights” among scholars of television studies. But I always seem to have a hard time doing so, not just to others, but to myself; your comments here seem to capture a lot of my hesitancy.

What interests me about SOA is the inexplicable need to burn through storylines at an amazing pace — which, of course, has its advantages (gripping drama!) and disadvantages (disappointing season finales, such as the one that aired a week ago). Part of what frustrates me about the series is its lack of, well, commitment to a sort of politics that exceeds the family. Yes, the white supremacists were the bad guys of Season 2, but after Juice’s storyline this season, the racial politics of the club has always left me a bit befuddled. It’s not that I want Sutter to take a “stand” as either progressive or not, but rather that I get the impression that the series doesn’t quite have a solid grip on what its stance towards race is. The ties to the Irish (a rather fetishized marker of cultural “whiteness”) best illustrate this, for example. (Maybe next season, with a new African American villain/drug kingpin, will help clarify this.)

Similarly, I find its relationship to questions of gender pretty muddy. Gemma and Tara are badass, no doubt, but I’m not sure the program has found a successful way to explicate what, exactly, being an “old lady” entails; the constant shifting between strong matriarch and supportive “woman” seems to occur at such a schizo pace that it makes it hard for me as a critical viewer to really evaluate. Maybe I’m used to “quality” dramas that move at a rather glacial tempo (a la “Deadwood”), but it seems to me that when SOA attempts to confront these questions of race and gender (and probably sexuality too, though this hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet), it does so rather half-assed.

At any rate, thanks for the post. It certainly is interesting to see how shifting expectations in terms of narrative and plot development raise new issues for acafans!

Hunter

]]> By: Amanda Lotz http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/11/28/of-motorcycles-and-melodrama/comment-page-1/#comment-139962 Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:39:26 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11419#comment-139962 I haven’t thought about it systematically, but the control of information was definitely more central this season than in the past, and I found it stunning how much dramatic tension that could build just from this narrative device. I think Sutter also does a great job creating a storytelling universe where most anything can happen, which heightens the tensions–for example, it seemed possible that Tara might die this season. I think part of what has compelled me toward tonight’s finale has been a curiosity over how the series will continue given the plotlines that are unfolding.

]]> By: Michael L. Wayne http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/11/28/of-motorcycles-and-melodrama/comment-page-1/#comment-139731 Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:52:10 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11419#comment-139731 Professor Lotz,

Thanks for this post. I am a fan of both SOA and your work.

Do you think the series has become more melodramatic over the course of four seasons? In my mind, the fourth season uses traditional melodramatic strategies more frequently than earlier seasons. Perhaps this is related to the stronger influence of Hamlet on seasons one and two.

Again, thanks for the post.

Mike

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