Sons of Anarchy Season 4 - Blu-ray

Content: After Jax (Charlie Hunnam), Clay (Ron Pearlman) and other members of Sons of Anarchy wandered behind bars at the end of Season 3, the prison gates open again at the start of Season 4. That doesn't mean all is right with the world now, though. Because all signs point to change in Charming. A new housing development is expected to bring new wealth to the town - and especially to Mayor Hale (Jeff Kober). But a gang like SAMCRO is a thorn in the side of the financially strong investors. The new sheriff Eli Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar) has to make sure that Charming becomes a town worthy of its name. He also gets support from the DA's office, which is preparing a devastating strike against Clay and his men with a team from the FBI, ATF and other federal agencies.

That's not all: the Sons of Anarchy cancel the deal they had negotiated with the Russians in very leaden fashion and form a new partnership with Mexican Romeo (Danny Trejo), who also unceremoniously saves them from Russian mob revenge. But the new partnership could be dangerous for SAMCRO, as it includes running guns as well as transporting drugs - something the gang really wanted nothing to do with. Also, letters from Jax's father found by Tara (Maggie Siff) could cause problems for the gang, as could the fact that Roosevelt is pressuring Juice (Theo Rossi) and turning him against his gang, which quickly has deadly consequences for one gang member. It's truly not an easy year for the Sons of Anarchy.

The third season of Sons of Anarchy was a rather double-edged sword. On the one hand, series creator Kurt Sutter (The Shield) had successfully attempted to breathe fresh air into a storyline that had become somewhat stale after two seasons with a few changes. However, the subplot that took some of the gang members to Ireland and revealed more about the history of SAMCRO, and Jax's father in particular, was dealt with far too extensively. This, in turn, led to a boredom that was unusual for the series, especially in the second half of the season, and unnecessarily slowed down the actual story. Despite the weaknesses, the season was still very good and absolutely worth watching. But the comparison with the first two seasons, the episodes simply could not stand up.

In season 4, Sutter and his writers seem to have learned from these mistakes. Pace and tension pick up significantly right at the beginning and there is still enough room to develop the characters coherently as well. In addition, with the new Sherriff Roosevelt, a really interesting antagonist has been introduced for the guys from SAMCRO, who adds extra spice and tension to the proceedings. And Machete star Danny Trejo is also a real asset to the series.

The fourth season lays the groundwork for many potential conflicts that could come to fruition in the remaining three seasons, managing to keep both the individual storylines and the characters interesting at all times. The fourteen episodes also have some very intense moments, great action scenes, moving character moments and also some light-hearted humor to offer. And at the end of the first episode at the latest, the old class of the series is reached again and it becomes clear again why the Sons of Anarchy is a perfect example of the high level of the current TV series landscape. Absolutely worth watching!

Image + Sound: The series' image is absolutely clean on Blu-ray and impresses with a very earthy, atmospheric color scheme. Overall sharpness is also at a very good level, evident in a convincing display of smaller details. The vibrant DTS 5.1 mix allows dialogue to come through clearly and powerfully, while some well-executed effects such as gunfire, explosions and of course the rattle of motorcycles provide an excellent surround feel time and time again. And that's really very good for a TV series!

Extras: Once again, the fourth season has some good extras to offer. Starting things off on the first disc is an audio commentary on the season premiere with Kurt Sutter, Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman and Paris Barclay, the episode's director. There are also twelve minutes of cut scenes to watch. Disc 2 has another 7:53 minutes of cut scenes on offer, plus two commentaries on the episode hands. The first was voiced by director Peter Weller, with Kurt Sutter, Katey Sagal and Maggie Siff behind the mic for the second.

Disc 3 has the rest of the extras, led by 3:22 minutes of additional scenes. Also included here is an audio commentary on the two-part finale Painful Truth and Change of Power by Kurt Sutter and the entire Sons of Anarchy. In addition, this final disc also features a gag reel (approx. 2:44 min.), featurettes on Piney's farewell (approx. 7:10 min.) and on the Fans of Anarchy (approx. 4:47 min.). And finally, the House of Blues concert (approx. 10:20 min.) features clips from a benefit concert for a deceased friend of the show's team. Good!

Conclusion:Sons of Anarchy returns to old best form with its fourth season. After season 3 with a far too extensively dealt with subplot quite a few lengths and qualitatively could not quite keep up with the brilliant previous seasons, the new episodes focus again entirely on the original strengths of the show. So season 4 offers again a lot of suspense and a consistent development of the story. The addictive factor, which was already extremely high in the first season, thus increases in intensity. The Blu-ray box presents the episodes in very good picture and sound quality and also has some good extras to offer. So for fans, this season is again: absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp