'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wAARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFgABAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYH/8QAHRAAAgICAwEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQIDBAARBhIhUf/EABQBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT/xAAbEQABBAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAMyQXHB8P/aAAwDAQACEQMRAD8AiOCV6dg8dYVouyRyPKrRqQwfwHetkggn3M8v1Cb1gxgKhkbqO5Ghv5rGMM3I9ZTnIDOgv//Z'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The Westies has already made waves with fans of crime drama, precisely due to its dark premise and Titus Welliver as lead. MGM+'s new series, written by Chris Brancato and Michael Panes, is set in 1980s Hell's Kitchen and concerns the infamous Irish-American crime family that had a presence in New York during one of its deadliest decades.
Starring Welliver as a troubled NYPD police officer, Glenn Keenan, the show examines issues of power, loyalty, and betrayal set against a historical backdrop. Of course, there will be comparisons to Sons of Anarchy, the FX biker series that ran from 2008 to 2014, where Welliver initially played the iconic Jimmy O'Phelan.
Both series deal with gang life, crime, corruption, and competing allegiances, so the question remains: is The Westies truly a perfect substitute for Sons of Anarchy, or does the comparison stop at surface-level concerns and the shared actor?
Titus Welliver's role reversal in The Westies
Titus Welliver is the heart of the comparison. On Sons of Anarchy, he played Jimmy O'Phelan, a True IRA operative and foe who let his grudges drive some of the show's darker storylines. O'Phelan was a force of destruction, introducing global intrigue to SAMCRO's bike wars and making him one of the show's most notorious villains.
In The Westies, Welliver is also in an analogous but reversed conflicted position. Glenn Keenan is a cop whose professional vow is at odds with deep-seated obligations to early friends within the Irish gang. No character is unequivocally evil; Keenan is morally complex, being both a protector on one hand and a compromised insider on the other.
This demonstrates the manner in which Welliver's characters are perhaps equally complex but under very different circumstances in their respective tales.
The divergent worlds of both programs
In all probability, the most obvious difference is the world each program inhabits. Sons of Anarchy was set in California, immersed in biker culture, featuring motorcycles, leather, and the mythology of outlaw brotherhoods. It was a fictionalized subculture that combined crime with elements of loyalty, family, and tragedy.
The Westies, however, is rooted in actual historical context. The Westies crew was known for brutality and its uncomfortable alliance with the Italian Mafia, which operated in New York City's Hell's Kitchen of the 1970s and 1980s. The series sets itself in that time, drawing from real events but inventing fiction about how one neighborhood became a center of organized crime.
Whereas Sons of Anarchy dipped into a fictional mythos, The Westies dives into hard-boiled fact, approaching crime not as legend but as experience.
Loyalty, betrayal, and violence are the themes
Despite these inconsistencies, both shows have premises that oblige comparison. Arguably, the strongest unifying theme is loyalty. In Sons of Anarchy, the code of SAMCRO required unwavering loyalty to the club above all else, including family and honor. In The Westies, there are challenges to loyalty in various forms, including boyhood friendships, the pressure of the neighborhood, and tension between policing and gang allegiance.
Betrayal is also a theme that is shared. For SAMCRO, betrayal most often came in the guise of enemy gangs, broken relationships, or internal strife. For the Irish-American gang of The Westies, betrayal will most likely come internally, through power struggles, and externally, from the Mafia and police.
Violence brings the two series together, albeit differently: Sons of Anarchy utilized exploitative motorcycle violence, whereas The Westies illustrates the organized crime violence where intimidation and murder were survival mechanisms.
Storytelling and narrative structure
The way both shows tell their stories is also different. Sons of Anarchy lasted for seven seasons, creating a great epic of Jax Teller's life as he navigated the challenges of balancing family life with leadership of the outlaw motorcycle club. Its Shakespearean source made it tragic, and it was more about fate and destruction than character development over the course of decades.
By comparison, The Westies is an abbreviated run of eight episodes. Writers Chris Brancato and Michael Panes have a narrower scope to play with, experimenting with one set time in the history of Hell's Kitchen.
This makes it more contained, grounded, and historically placed than Sons of Anarchy's enormous fictional canon.
Titus Welliver as the connecting strand
The biggest connection between the two series has nothing to do with where they are set or even what happens there, but rather with Titus Welliver. Playing complex moral men, it is not hard to imagine a world of cohesion, even though Jimmy O'Phelan and Glenn Keenan were quite different characters.
One was an anti-hero whose personal agendas bred destruction, the other a tormented policeman walking along the thin, tightrope of loyalty and law. This public recognition is the reason why audiences already associate The Westies with Sons of Anarchy, despite the series having no narrative connection.
Welliver's performances demonstrate the range of his ability as a talented actor, with the various roles showcasing his versatility in playing both violent thugs and morally ambiguous heroes in crime-infested worlds.
Can The Westies replace Sons of Anarchy?
Whether or not the show is a perfect replacement for Sons of Anarchy remains to be seen. Both, theme-wise, are crime, betrayal, and loyalty stories, and both feature Titus Welliver in starring roles. Beyond that, however, the similarities are overwhelmed by the differences.
Sons of Anarchy created an outlaw motorcycle biker mythology out of thin air, while The Westies is based on the well-documented history of New York organized crime. A proper substitute would have the same size, tone, and shape as the story, but the show is in all three of these aspects.
Instead, it's another kind of crime drama: rooted in history, tightly wound in scope, and based on a morally complex cop who has a relationship with an abusive crew. To that degree, the shows are complementary, but not redundant.
The show's themes of violence, betrayal, and loyalty are sure to evoke comparisons to Sons of Anarchy.
But aside from these similarly thematic elements, The Westies is not a copy of Sons of Anarchy. Each of the two television series has a distinct milieu, ambiance, and narrative style.
Trending
What truly unites them most is Welliver himself, a very competent actor in playing immoral crime drama characters. For viewers, that similarity makes drawing comparisons unavoidable, but the two shows turn out to be distinct in what they offer.
Also read: The Westies: MGM+ crime drama locks its main cast with the addition of four new faces
Reply
