Sons of Anarchy or Justified

Justified in a walk. Far better written, acted, everything Both plotlines were farfetched, but the black humor in Justified made it easier to suspend disbelief. SOA took itself way too seriously.

Where Justified solves its seasons in a smart way, letting everything fall into its place rather organically, Sons Of Anarchy gets incredibly tangled up in its subplots and is so poorly constructed, that a lot of situations cannot be solved without some deus ex machina solution of cooperating with another gang and promising them something abstract, like a share of revenue for some deal or *beep* which has no value in this show anyway. I managed to stick with it until the end of the second season (to my defence: I was sick and wanted to watch something on Netflix, else I would have given up earlier), which shows the whole gang of rockers letting their arch enemy go to see the son of their former king shouting at a departing boat, an ending scene supposed to be dramatic, but mainly revealing the giant flaws of a half-assed show, which does not care for its characters at all and lacks any sensibility for real tension. And, no, perfume commercial guy standing at the harbour shouting at the sea does not create drama...
Which is a shame, as I like the setup of that aging rocker crew, all past their best before date, and slowly moving towards their certain demise. There was kind of an Easy Rider vibe the show soon abandoned for its badly constructed plot.

Justified on the other hand started as some macho western and then got smarter and smarter, refined the characters and kept them consistent even through the changes they are going through. Of course luck was on their side: Raylan would not have been able to carry that show alone, by having Boyd survive and fleshing out his character so much, they got themselfs a second main character, with two actors just nailing their roles perfectly.

SoA was a guilty pleasure. Gratuitous violence, sex, and drugs, and a cast of characters, each one a bigger piece of filth than the last.

Justified was something I truly enjoyed, like a perfectly aged bourbon.
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Death is the road to awe.

Justified never dips in quality. I'm not as cutthroat as most "fans" are with most shows, but SoA got really full of itself, the pacing on the extended episodes were really excessive, ridiculous and unnecessary. I wish I could forgive it, but I ended the show really frustrated with the whole thing, as a result of those decisions. It showed that without limitations, Kurt Sutter's untethered vision of it is unnecessarily slow and ponderous for such a lurid, pulp, take on underground biker gangs. The tone had felt pretty consistent too, until scenes started to pace like Japanese movies do, and every episode ended with a season ender montage.

I'm not sure they understood the value of scarcity at that point. Besides why take the extra minutes just to blow them on stupid "music videos" every single time?

Justified just always felt like Justified to me.

Justified for sure.

Also I hate Kurt Sutter so it's hard for me to get attached to Sons of Anarchy.

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Higgins was right.
http://www.facebook.com/BringZackBack

Justified, but I will say I didn't like the first season of Justified. Almost didn't stick with it. It got better each season, which is extremely rare for a tv series. I was hooked on SOA immediately but it fell off a cliff into hilarity. Goggins was great in both though.

"She hasn't even read the books..." - OursIsTheQueenInTheNorth

Justified.I couldn't get past season one of SOA, it was just too dull to waste any more time on.

so bollocks is bad, but dogs bollocks is good?

Justified, all the way. Sons of anarchy had two very good seasons and the rest was ok. Justified had three brilliant seasons and some of the most hilarious dialogue ever written for a TV show.

...but they hung him anyway.
Hanged, Ami. Your father was not a tapestry.