Sons Of Anarchy TV show was celebrated as a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The main reason it connected with 21st century audiences included the MC presented as a family. The MC was not just a club but had a brotherhood thick as blood.
Mayans MC is a spinoff from the epic Sons of Anarchy and tries to capitalize on One Percenter Motorcycle Club curiosity. The Mayans TV show this time does not focus on the apex of the Club. Instead we are introduced to a prospective member of Mayans MC and how his life story unfolds, while being lured into a life of crime.
Creator Kurt Sutter presents us with a young outlook on Hispanic lifestyle near the Mexico border presented from the story of Southern California motorcycle club. Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes is the Prospect, whose American dream is hijacked by a chance murder of a cop by his hands in his young life. He is blackmailed by Feds and his loyalty is torn between Mayans and his father’s safety.
Drug cartel is clichéd Mexican storyline used by everyone at Hollywood but in Mayans MC the focus is not hardcore, like the brilliant first two seasons of Netflix’s Narcos TV series. Also introduced into the mix are Rebels – a vigilante group of poor Mexican immigrants who murder and maim the Galindo Drug Cartel.
The Hispanic community is showcased in beautiful depictions of festivals and culture focused on family first, which is unique to many immigrant groups.
Mayans MC theme song is not at all catchy, and the soundtrack lacks the popularity of great music, which served well for Sons of Anarchy. The Sons show had wonderful soundtrack throughout all its seasons.
Mayans MC is not as gritty as Narcos, nor as charming as Sons’ presentation of a club enduring everything with loyalty to the club over family ties. However the first season of Mayans MC is still watchable, if only to understand the way poorer sections of society fall into the spiraling doom of crime and illegal activities.
The first season has 10 episodes of almost an hour each. They tell an unfolding plot of an individual losing his grip on his individuality – the club, society, cartel, DEA, all elements encroaching on a man’s desire to be free. We see a father trying to save his son, the son a Prospect trying to earn his patch, the cops corrupt morally and financially, the redneck white supremacists preying on the expanding colored community, the community fighting back with vigilante justice and the drug cartel influencing local life and economy.
The Mayans TV show presents these varying factors blended into the life story of the new Prospect. There are guest stars from Sons of Anarchy as well. The fictional border town of Santo Padre has everything in a giant melting pot of American Dream cooked crisp into fatal dose of ‘survival’. Every factor aspiring to survive while always in conflict with the other factors that dot the daily life for the characters.
The series is set 4 years after the last season of Sons of Anarchy. The Galindo cartel head and members have no fearful personality, which we can compare to Narcos or Sons TV shows. The Mayans MC is not shown to be as intense as the Sons MC and lacks the premise it wants to present – brotherhood among bikers. The Rebels however are very well presented – ordinary orphans fighting back to take Mexico back from drug cartels and corrupt cops and seedy opportunistic politicians.
A blonde girl-love-interest thrown into the mix adds soap opera drama to the Cartel Family vs. the Mayans MC Family.
FX has renewed the Mayans MC for a second season. For promoting the first season, Co-creators Kurt Sutter and Elgin James, executive producer/director Norberto Barba, and cast members took part in the Republic of Texas Motorcycle Rally in downtown Austin in June 2018. They were also present for the San Diego Comic-Con of July 2018. The Mayans TV show generally has mixed reviews, though it holds 71% approval on Rotten Tomatoes website.
All-in-all, I felt the primary characters of Mayans MC were not even as solid as the minor characters of Sons of Anarchy. There is clichéd conflict in all its primary characters, failing to prove itself above the prejudiced views of Hispanic community as a whole. Very Hollywood presentation with focus on pro-grade cinematography and well known third-grade stereotypes.
But Hey, the motorcycles are cool and the petty fighting is still entertaining.
