Sons of Anarchy California
The sixth season of the motorcycle-drama Sons of Anarchy premiered on Aussie television screens last week and it was an episode no one saw coming.
According to Nielsen, the controversial episode delivered 5.9 million viewers – the largest audience in the history of the series.
Running express on Wednesday afternoons on the Foxtel channel Showcase, viewers were shocked in the opening minutes.
A few of the episode’s eye-closers and gut-churners ranged from prison rape, torture porn, a drowning which involved a bath full of urine, drug abuse and lead male Jax Teller, played by Charlie Hunnam, cheating on imprisoned wife Tara (Maggie Siff) with brothel Madame, Colette (Kim Dickens).
However, the scene that left audiences picking their jaws up from the lounge room floor was the school shooting carried out by an 11-year-old boy.
At the end of the episode it is revealed that the boy is in fact connected to the club’s affiliation with Nero Padilla (Jimmy Smits), the high-class escort agency owner.
This connection wasn’t coincidental, as creator Kurt Sutter describes to blog, Entertainment Weekly it’s “organic to the world” and the overall purpose of the show.
“These guys deal guns, and there’s a certain amount of disconnect once you put those guns out on the street not really knowing whose hands they’re gonna end up in and what violence that they create,” Sutter said.
“I waited because I knew that ultimately the emotional and social impact would be great, that it would be hard to have that story (school shooting) happen and then move on to a couple of seasons where these guys are selling guns and just livin’ their life. I knew if we did it, it would really have to be at the end and, ultimately, I realised it was a good way to take us to the end.”
One of the reasons behind the use of the 11-year-old shooter has much to do with the fact that bikie president, Jax Teller, who is also a father, has been questioning the violence of his life and the environment he is bringing his boys up in.
To harshen the blow the gun used was given to Nero and his men, in a good-will gesture from Jax and the club.
Although the camera doesn’t follow the young boy into the classroom, the audience sees disturbing images from his notebook, while kids screams and shots of the automatic rifle erupt in the background.
This scene ultimately becomes the final straw in their relationship with the gun business and impacts all the relationships the club holds with; the IRA, local law enforcement, other charters but, most importantly, their hometown, Charming.
Without a doubt, the final scene of the season premiere provoked outrage from offended viewers, as it has aired just nine months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newton, Connecticut.
In response, Sutter took to his YouTube channel WTF Sutter to both defend himself and apologise.
“I’m a story teller, that’s what I do. I’m not a social guru. I am not a guy with an agenda politically, socially, morally, financially. I’m a fucking story teller, that’s what I do,” Sutter said.
He then offered sympathy and compassion to those who have personally suffered real loss from similar events.
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