Jax Teller: Goodnight, Sweet Prince (Masterful Character Arc Series)
I never considered myself a cinephile or a TV enthusiast. I watch a lot of television, almost to the point of feeling like I have to justify it. In our productivity-oriented frantic society, we’re told this is a waste of time.
Yet, to me, watching shows was never about passing the day. It was about listening to a story. For me, it’s taking a break from reading, and from life, in order to understand a little more of it. Because at the end of the day, that’s why we’re still watching ~ in the hope of better understanding our fellow man, and with him, ourselves.
There’s nothing I consider sexier in television than a strong character arc. I’m often put off by otherwise good shows, if I consider the character writing to be lazy or linear. That’s because I’m watching for transformation, for the psych angle, for the nitty-gritty inside that gray matter. So I have, in the years of watching, accrued a few favorite character arcs.
Initially, this was going to be a standalone article, but I’ve thought better of it, and now, I think it’ll be a series of posts.
Disclaimer: This contains spoilers for “Sons of Anarchy”. If you have not watched the show, but would like to, I suggest you click off now.
For me, as for many, Kurt Sutter’s stellar Sons of Anarchy was a long-suffering love story. And sure, you could blame the sexy, badass biker life. Or you could blame Sutter’s profound, somewhat worrying genius.
Sons of Anarchy is a modern, biker retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, so it’s fair to say the drama’s MC, Jax, follows much the same path as the Danish Prince. Digging deeper into his father’s death, his kingdom/club, and the relationship between his mother and his uncle, Jax is tormented by the choice between might and right. The question of what comes easy versus what comes right, in itself, is not a new topic for crime shows. On the contrary, many a great crime boss has, at some point, wondered if he should go legit (at least on television), and for Jax, much of his seven-season arc is carried out under that umbrella. The pursuit of legitimate business, of curbing his parents’ sick, violent legacy.
They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, though, and ultimately, that’s all Jax has. Good intentions that end up crafting his own hell (and that of his successors). Like Kendall Roy in Succession, Jax also struggles to live up to his ideal of the golden son, both to Gemma, his Oedipal mother, and to John, his dead father, with his head stuffed full of dreams.
Many a black sheep son and daughter will know, though, the struggle of proving yourself to a dead parent is nigh impossible. In your own eyes, you will always end up failing on that path, so what for Jax starts as a noble pursuit, turns into one powered by resentment and anger.
As Jax fails to embody the golden son and act in light and right, he turns to his hatred and blame (first of his Claudius, but ultimately, of his own mother), and uses those as his fuel. This naturally leads him down a path of more hatred, and more violence that costs him his love, his children, his club, and ultimately, his life.
Deservedly, Sons of Anarchy enjoyed, in its time, tremendous success. With its sequel, Mayans MC, just wrapping its final season now, the show’s legacy lives on, almost ten years after Sons ended. Yet I don’t think it was just the stellar writing, or the talented cast that ‘made’ the show, much less the ‘bling’ (the sex, the violence, you know, the typical bread and circus).
The reason why Sons of Anarchy was so compelling, I think, was that Jax Teller is ultimately an embodiment of our own shadow. In all honesty, most of us probably don’t live that life. For most of us, our moms probably didn’t conspire to kill our dads and marry his best friend. But it’s not the particulars of Jax’s life that make him so appealing. Rather, it’s the razor he walks along, and his subsequent descent into darkness and evil (from what is still, to the very end, seemingly a good man) that speaks to the average viewer.
We know we’re all closer to sliding into darkness than we like to think. While I wouldn’t dare to call anything pertaining to Sutter’s talent “simple”, there is something simplified about Jax’s character. The distinction between good and evil, which is generally murky in others, is made evident in him, which only ends up marking Jax out as a better character. By wearing his struggles on his sleeve, he manages to sound a subtle alarm bell for the viewer ~ that becoming the bad guy isn’t as far-removed as you want to think.
It’s not when you start dealing guns, or cocaine, or engaging in sex trafficking, or any of these rather more outlandish aspects of the show. For Jax, it’s when he starts acting outside of his truth, and against his anchor (his wife, Tara) that he becomes the shadow.
Interestingly, for me, the ending of Sons of Anarchy is a resounding message about the common traps of parenting. Ultimately, Jax Teller rides off into oncoming traffic, in a bid to save his sons from his own violent and twisted life-path. It’s a self-sacrifice, and I’m sure few managed to watch the ending of that show with dry eyes. Jax’s suicide stems from good intentions, as do most of the actions that, throughout the seven seasons of the show, end up spelling his damnation.
Most parents don’t set out to mess up their kids, but they do. And, as the closing shot of Jax’s sons hints, escape isn’t as easy as removing the harmful father/mother from the equation. It’s a sad conclusion that some parents come to, upon realizing the damage they’ve caused their own offspring ~ they would’ve been better off without me.
Except that’s not true, as the show reminds us. You shut off the TV knowing those boys are doomed, even without Jax there to directly doom them. Because that’s how suffering works. That’s how inherited trauma works.
In a way, Sons of Anarchy uses drugs and guns to explain something we all know but refuse to acknowledge. For the viewer, the conflict between doing legitimate and illegitimate business is apparent. It’s surface-level. The conflict between healing your suffering or carrying on in toxic behavior is far deeper buried.
And that’s what makes Jax a stunning lesson in character writing. He makes easy something that is very hard and unpleasant to wrap our minds around, and does so with tremendous class.
I am one of those people who genuinely likes Shakespeare (despite all the pretentiousness around him). Yet I daresay, his original Hamlet, only served as a strong skeleton for Sutter’s much more meaningful, more relatable Sons of Anarchy.
Thank you for reading. Guess what. I am actually publishing my first novel this fall. Wild, I know. Meanwhile, I’m gonna be documenting my process/journey/slow descent into madness on here, while also dropping the occasional opinion piece. I like talking about this incredible world of ours.
So if you’re someone who enjoys that kinda writing, well, why not subscribe? It’s free. And I’m desperate. So there, honesty.
