It's Anarchy

TigerBlog needs a new TV show to watch.

He just finished "Sons of Anarchy," a 92-episode, seven-season run with the boys from SAMCRO. That would be "Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original."

They're a lovable bunch, the Sons - If you can factor out the whole "homicidal maniacs who also run guns and drugs" piece, that is. And you find yourself looking past that piece as you watch the show, because they're the main characters and they're the "good guys."

They actually live their lives with a certain code. They view themselves sort of as soldiers, and their ire is reserved for others who live the way they do. The innocents are just that - innocent, and as such, SAMCRO becomes almost protective of them.

Sound familiar?

It reminds TigerBlog of another series. Can you guess which one? It's obvious.

It has the whole "bad-guys-as-good-guys" theme to it. It has violence. It has soldiers and civilians. It has a certain sociopathic sense for the main characters, whom you can't help but love.

Hey, it even has Drea De Matteo as a somewhat abused woman who loves her man to the bitter end.

You guessed it. The series TB was reminded of throughout was "The Sopranos," all the way down to the wildly introspective main character, who has to deal with the ghost of his legendary father, who hangs over everything the organization does, and a manipulative mother who thinks that all of her evil doings are justified in the name of protecting her family.

TigerBlog isn't the only one who noticed this. In fact, he did a little search and came across THIS STORY from the Boston Globe, which also makes the same point.

If you liked "The Sopranos," you'll also like "Sons of Anarchy." TigerBlog has a few issues with the show, especially that the murder rate went up a little too much in the last two seasons.

In general, though, the show has great characters, really well thought out plots, strong writing and acting and a willingness to take huge chances with its main characters, not all of whom make it to the end. They do seem to take their tattoos seriously, and they seem to like to wear their "Sons of Anarchy" leathers, no matter what the weather is.

TigerBlog, by the way, has never ridden on a motorcycle, let alone driven one. He did, however, used to own a minivan, so he's not exactly ready to join the MC.

The way TV watching works now, TB hardly ever watches a show at a specific time each week. You know, the way TV worked his whole life until a few years ago.

When you binge-watch, you get into a show and churn out episode after episode. TB actually watched 13 episodes of "Sons" on the snow day a few weeks ago.

And then, when you get close to the end, you start to wonder what's next, will you find another show. TB hasn't yet. He's tried a few and hasn't gotten into them. He got into "Sons" immediately. It's just how it works.

He won't be needing a new show this weekend, not with how busy it'll be for Princeton Athletics.

It's the first weekend in March, which means overlap between the winter and spring seasons is in full swing. This weekend will feature all kinds of events, from championship and end-of-regular season dates for some teams to early season and even opening day for others.

If TB is counting right, there will be 32 events, with 14 teams involved, from tomorrow to Sunday.

It's opening day for the baseball team, who will be Duke this weekend. Princeton is the defending Ivy champ. It's the Ivy opener for the women's lacrosse team, who hosts Brown Saturday. The men's team is home to Johns Hopkins tomorrow at 3.

At the other end of the spectrum, it's the final weekend of the regular season for men's and women's basketball, though both have already clinched spots in the first Ivy League tournament. That'll be held next week, at the Palestra.

There's also EIWA wrestling this weekend, with the event to be held at Bucknell. The EIWA meet is the qualifier for the NCAA wrestling championships, and 43 wrestlers - the second most of any conference - will advance from Lewisburg to St. Louis.

Princeton finished fifth last year in the team standings, for its best finish since 1978. TigerBlog's colleague Craig Sachson put together a ton of information on the event, and you can see it HERE.

Then there's postseason hockey, for both men and women.

The Princeton women are in the ECAC semifinals. The men will host an opening round ECAC series. The last time those two things happened in the same year? It was also the only time they happened in the same year - 1995.

The women play at Clarkson Saturday at 1, followed by Cornell and St. Lawrence at 4. The winners meet for the championship, and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, Sunday at 2 at Clarkson. Princeton lost 4-2 and 3-1 to Clarkson during the regular season; the four teams who will be playing this weekend are the top four seeds in the tournament.

The women should be recharged after last weekend's grueling series against Quinnipiac. The Tigers were the only team who had to go the full three games to advance, and that doesn't even take into account that the first game was nearly two full games by itself, by the time it ended in the third overtime.

As for the men, being at home is an amazing accomplishment in its own right, considering where the team was a year ago and even through the first seven games of this year, when the team was 0-6-1. Princeton went from just trying to win a game to being one of the more exciting teams around, and the wins started to pour in.

The prize is a home series for the Tigers, who actually finished seventh in the league. It'll be a best-of-three tomorrow, Saturday and if necessary Sunday against Colgate, with a 7 pm face-off for each game.

The other teams at home this weekend are men's volleyball and men's tennis.

The whole schedule for the weekend can be seen HERE.