FX

With TV series that are as relentlessly dark as Sons of Anarchy, an episode like “Salvage” should feel out of place and awkward. It’s not that it’s happy or anything (there’s still plenty of fighting and scheming going on); but this episode isn’t oppressive. And a lot of series really beat you over the head with that oppressiveness until it feels like there’s little point in sticking around if there’s no enjoyment in it. If “Salvage” is out of place, though, it’s anything else but awkward. Completely immersed in a mythology of brotherhood, “Salvage” brings Sons of Anarchy back to its foundational concerns: how does this family overcome its obstacles? Specifically, how does it overcome its obstacles as a family.

The season premiere of American Horror Story: Coven weaves a menacing tale of witchcraft that pushes past anything that would resemble good taste. A Teenage virgin’s vagina is used as a deadly weapon; a bull’s head is crowned upon an African American slave, which leads to a depressing transformation of a man into minotaur; and a date rape leads to a disastrous bus crash, killing several teenage boys. That doesn’t include the various men held as prisoners and tortured in an underground dungeon, the apparent deaths of several characters; and oh, did I mention the magical vagina?

Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Episode 5 – “The Mad King” Written by Chris Collins, Roberto Patino & Kurt Sutter Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton Airs Tuesday nights at 10pm ET on FX So, after last week’s Sons of Anarchy, we didn’t quite get a sense of what was going to happen with Roosevelt’s investigation into Nero. …

Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Episode 4 – “Wolfsangel” Written by Kurt Sutter and Kem Nunn Directed by Billy Gierhart Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX If there was a feeling of dread and death hovering around the Sons of Anarchy characters in last week’s episode, the reckoning of that came to fulfillment in last …

A couple of seasons ago, Sons of Anarchy closed an episode with Juice jumping from a tree with a chain noose around his neck. As the SoA logo entered the screen, the sound of the tree branch snapping could be heard, removing the cliffhanger of Juice’s fate. When the curtain shuts on “Poenitentia,” we don’t actually see Tig get killed by Pope’s men. “Poenitentia” feels like a major death episode as it plays, echoing Opie’s prison death through Clay’s scenes (Opie’s death was in the third episode from last season).

Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Episode 2 – “One One Six” Written by Chris Collins & Adria Lang Directed by Peter Weller Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX FX has pretty much let Kurt Sutter have his way with Sons of Anarchy. Even when disregarding how combative the series is with non-premium cable content (Sons is …

The reveal of ex-FBI agent David Tate as the mastermind behind the rash of cross-border crimes on this season of The Bridge brought the motivations behind the crimes into focus. What it didn’t bring into focus, however, was the machinations of Tate’s plan, nor did it bring Sonya and Marco any closer to capturing him. The effects of Tate’s actions on the police begin to show this week, as Marco and Sonya react differently to the strain Tate put on them, in a solid episode that manages to keep the tension high despite very little in the way of resolution.

While Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter tends to favor the music montage sequence for beginnings and/or ends of episodes, this season six premiere – “Straw,” which may also be the penultimate season premiere for this series, since it is only planned to run through seven seasons – opens with a montage set to Jax’s narration as he reads from a journal entry he is writing for his sons.

There’s no shame in stealing from the greats. So when “Destino” begins to feel like a hyperkinetic Justified/Breaking Bad mashup for a few minutes during a trailer-park raid gone very wrong, it’s just the kick in the pants an hour this scattered needs. Not everything about “Destino” works, but its peaks are very encouraging.

Much of the first three episodes of The Bridge have focused on fleshing out the characters on both sides of the border, giving the audience a better idea of what makes them tick, and doing a fantastic job of it. This week’s episode used the framework of a standalone case, in the form of the search for the missing woman in the desert, to give a look at how the characters relate to each other, in another solid episode that introduces a promising new character while offering a look at how the Mexican cartels operate.

It is clear by now that The Bridge wants to be a series that deals with all aspects of life in El Paso and Juárez, a world defined by the precarious relationship of two neighboring countries, one characterized by extreme poverty, the other by prosperity, and the series uses the hunt for a serial killer as a way into this world. Before the show can explore its loftier goals, it first has to address the killer’s dozen (and counting) murders. “Rio” is the first episode in the series to give this manhunt a sense of urgency.

The Strain: The Fall #1 Written by Dane Lapham Art by Mike Huddleston, Colour by Dan Jackson, Cover by EM Gist Published By Dark Horse If anything defines Guillermo del Toro, it’s enthusiasm and zeal. When he first envisioned The Strain, he saw a television series. When no one was interested, he had to settle …

The Bridge, Season 1, Episode 1: “Pilot” Written by  Meredith Stiehm and Elwood Reid Directed by Gerardo Naranjo Airs Wednesdays at 10pm ET on FX “Pilotitis” is an umbrella term that connotes a wide variety of complaints typically leveled at pilots, from awkward bouts of exposition, to shoddy or simplistic characterization, to overplotting, but one …

The third track on one of my favorite rock records of the last decade, Okkervil River’s The Stage Names, is called “A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene.” Without context, its lyric is a bit of a tough nut to crack. Will Sheff sings about events unfolding on a TV screen in the first verse, recaps …

The FX show Justified has come to be regarded as one of the best dramas on television today, if not of all time. One staple of the show has been the song “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” starting up over the closing moments of the season, with the ending of Season 3 being a notable …

If you were hoping that “Ghosts” might hearken back to the very first Justified season finale, “Bulletville,” just because a gangster threatened to kill Raylan’s wife and unborn child last week, then it may very well have left you wanting. If, on the other hand, you value the thing Justified can dole out even better than gun battles – that is to say, potent character beats – “Ghosts” is more than happy to oblige.

Justified, Season 4, Episode 11: “Decoy” Written by Graham Yost and Chris Provenzano Directed by Michael Watkins Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX Some of you multiplex-frequenters might have checked out Kim Jee-woon’s The Last Stand this past January, in which a seemingly unstoppable cartel badass has to make his way through a sleepy border town …

Justified, Season 4, Episode 10: “Get Drew” Written by Dave Andron and VJ Boyd Directed by Billy Gierhart Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX The notion of Justified‘s fourth season as being driven by a central mystery has been a flawed premise all along, as it turns out. For a few episodes now, there’s only been …

Justified, Season 4, Episode 9: “The Hatchet Tour” Written by Taylor Elmore and Leonard Chang Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX First things first: if, like me, the title of this episode conjured visions of a hatchet-wielding baddie (perhaps in Detroit’s employ) making Raylan or Boyd’s life difficult, shutter …

Legit, Season 1, Episode 7: “Health” Written by Peter O’Fallon, Jim Jefferies, and Rick Cleveland Directed by Peter O’Fallon Airs Thursdays at 10:30pm (ET) on FX The contrast between Jim’s personal and professional life, the former of which soars as the latter stagnates, is an aspect of Jim Jefferies that Legit has explored only in …

Justified, Season 4, Episode 8: “Outlaw” Written by Benjamin Cavell and Keith Schreier Directed by John Dahl Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX Read any interview with Graham Yost and he’ll mention that, in the grand scheme of things, Justified has been conceived as being about six seasons long. That puts us well over …

Legit, Season 1, Episode 6: “Family” Written by Peter O’Fallon, Jim Jefferies, and Rick Cleveland Directed by Peter O’Fallon Airs Thursdays at 10:30pm (ET) on FX A running theme in Legit has been how, despite the initial off-putting impression Jim Jefferies puts out, those who get to know him mostly tend to like him in …

Justified, Season 4, Episode 7: “Money Trap” Written by Chris Provenzano Directed by Don Kurt Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX With its colorful-but-inept villlainry, reams of gunplay, and swift pacing, “Money Trap” surprises by feeling more like a throwback to Justified‘s first season than perhaps any since Mags Bennett cast an ominous cloud over …