4) Sons of Anarchy

All good things must come to an end. After seven seasons on the air, Sons of Anarchy took its final ride, and what a ride it was. Although last year SOA was my pick for number one, this season admittedly fell a little on the short side. There were several episodes in the middle that clocked in at well over the normal run-time and did little to move the narrative forward. Even taking that into consideration, Kurt Sutter and his team once again proved that they know no bounds in a refreshing showing of go big or go home.

The final season of Sons of Anarchy weaved a tangled web of mayhem and deceit as Jax’s (Charlie Hunnam) grief over losing his wife outweighed any sense of rational thinking. Taking Gemma’s (Katey Sagal) convenient scapegoat as fact, he declared war on anyone that stood in the way of his revenge in a half-hearted attempt to patch his broken heart. In the end, he took his club down a road with no obvious exit and the price was steep for all parties involved.

As the series rolled the credits on a breathtaking adventure, so many familiar faces were missing from the line up. The culmination of SAMCRO’s journey led the characters to a dark place. It forced them to make decisions and reap the consequences of loyalty at an elevated level. Fans of this beloved show were left stunned, but probably not surprised, at where the story ended. Sons of Anarchy may have shied away from the happy ending that viewers desired, but it gave them the only ending worthy of the outlaw world they chose to embrace.