'Sons of Anarchy' star plays a 'tough lie'
Even Katey Sagal struggled a little with her character Gemmas killer secret.
* SONS OF ANARCHY. 10
tonight, FX.
* MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT.
9 tonight, FYI.
* ROBIN WILLIAMS REMEMBERED: A PIONEERS OF TELEVISION SPECIAL. 9 tonight, WHYY12.
IT'S BEEN nearly nine months since the "Sons of Anarchy" season finale in which Gemma (Katey Sagal) killed her daughter-in-law Tara (Maggie Siff) - with the fork, in the kitchen - and I am still not over it.
Imagine how Sagal feels.
As the hit FX motorcycle-gang drama returns tonight for its seventh and final season with a 90-minute episode, Sagal's playing a woman who's killed before but whose latest secret could be the hardest of all to keep.
"It is difficult" to play Gemma like this, Sagal said in a post-news-conference interview this summer in Beverly Hills, Calif.
"My whole question over the hiatus - and I've tried to talk to Kurt [Sutter, the show's creator and Sagal's husband] about it, and we've sort of had conversations - is, how do you look at your grandchildren? How do you do this?"
There's always been more than a whiff of "Hamlet" about "Sons," where Gemma is Gertrude and her son Jax (Charlie Hunnam) is the moody prince, but this season Sagal found inspiration in modern literature.
"I read this great book over the summer, called The Secret History," she said, referring to the 1992 novel by Donna Tartt (winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for her latest book, The Goldfinch).
"I was reading it as I was sort of formulating [her approach], because you know it's a book about these kids that commit this murder, and then one murder leads to another murder, and they're all sort of living within it and they just kind of justify [their actions]. It really does flip you into the mentality [of] . . . people who do heinous things [who] then function," Sagal said.
"And the lies they tell themselves. So, that is her situation. You know, she really does believe that the truth would be worse than holding the lie," she said.
"We'll see, as the season progresses, what that does to a person. It's a tough lie."
Imperfect strangers
As a confirmed hater of ABC's "The Bachelor," I never expected to fall for FYI's "Married at First Sight," a "reality" show in which three couples matched by relationship experts meet only moments before saying "I do."
Then one sleepless night, I watched several episodes.
It turned out to be smart, gripping television. Even Jamie Otis, a former "Bachelor" contestant, was a more interesting - if frustrating - participant than I'd expected.
Most dating shows push for quick pseudo-intimacy, while "Married at First Sight" seemed interested in the long haul. If five weeks is your idea of a long haul.
No one's sent home each week, but in tonight's two-hour finale, viewers learn whether the couples have decided to stay together.
And here's where I get queasy. Because putting a deadline on this process demeans marriage in a way the show's so far avoided.
Call me naive, but I hope all the couples stay put - while gently kicking the cameras to the curb.
Remembering Robin
PBS accentuates the positive as it celebrates a comic genius tonight in "Robin Williams Remembered: A Pioneers of Television Special."
In an hour-long show that includes an interview Williams did for the "Pioneer" series and doesn't dwell on the circumstances of his death, friends and colleagues, including "Mork & Mindy" co-star Pam Dawber, look back on his life and work.
Phone: 215-854-5950
On Twitter: @elgray
Blog: ph.ly/EllenGray