Added by Neil Daniels | 28 February 2010

Season one of SONS OF ANARCHY (which was created by Kurt Sutter, a former writer on The Shield) made tremendous viewing. OK, so the first couple of episodes saw the stories settling in but by the end of the first season I was hooked. Set in a fictional town in Northern California, SoA is about a Hells Angels type outlaw motorcycle gang who basically run the town. Starring the brilliant Ron Pearlman as Clay, the leader of the gang, the acting is impeccable, the scripts are meticulous and the plotlines are daring. It is essential viewing and fills in the void for gritty, hard-edged TV after The Shield and The Wire came to an end.