Kurt Sutter issued an apology on Friday after a distributor erroneously sent out copies of the Sons of Anarchy Collector’s Edition containing massive spoilers to the series finale…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
In the age of the serial drama, a show’s worth is often times measured solely against the strength of a series finale. Some shows are elevated like ‘Breaking Bad’, which was almost universally applauded for a brilliant end for the character of Walter White. Then there are shows like ‘Dexter’ where a series finale can almost leave a bad taste in your mouth for the previous seven seasons no matter how good or bad they were on their own.
Fair or unfair, the ending is just as important as the journey.
Fans will always play guessing games as will journalists (myself included) as to what’s going to happen at the end. When a series becomes a force of nature and essentially required viewing each and every week, there’s an investment in seeing how a story comes to a close.
To make matters worse, imagine having that ending spoiled before the show even aired? It’s one thing for a show to air and then catch some information on social media — that’s not technically a spoiler because the show already ran. But what happens when a book containing detailed descriptions and interviews about the end of a show gets mailed out a week before the series finale airs and the secrets start leaking left and right?
It’s the nightmare ‘Sons of Anarchy’ creator Kurt Sutter awoke to on Friday morning when he got word that ‘Sons of Anarchy: The Collector’s Edition’ — a book containing over 200 pages of interviews, photos, and detailed breakdown of every episode including the finale — was sent out by certain book distributors almost a week ahead of the show’s airing next Tuesday at 10pm ET (this author actually received one of the copies after pre-ordering the book so it would arrive just after the finale aired, although I did not read anything yet so no spoilers at all).
Sutter took to Twitter to issue an apology to the fans who did receive the book early, not to mention others who happened to fall upon one of the websites who somehow thought it was a good idea to release the spoilers after the accidental release happened.
“It has been brought to my attention that our SOA Collector’s Edition Book has been sent out a week early by some distributors and book outlets. This book contains details about the final episode of the series. This, my friends is a storyteller’s worst nightmare,” Sutter wrote. “I wanted this book to be a compliment to the show. It contains personal messages and photos from the cast, in-depth behind the scenes information and detailed breakdown of episodes.
“It’s a smart, well-conceived book that I was very excited for the fans to have. AFTER the motherfucking finale. There are a thousand fucking people I can blame. And I assure you, by the time I am done, my fucking basket will be filled with heads of incompetent cunts. But as far as the fans go, the burden is on me. I fucked up.
“It was my idea for the book, so ultimately, I am to blame. So if you received a book, I apologize. I ask that you not share your wrath or pain or opinion in social media so as to not spoil the experience of others. There is no excuse for utter ineptitude. It pains me that this will be the parting memory of some fans. I hope you all tune in for the finale. It plays much better than it reads.”
The author of the ‘Sons of Anarchy: The Collector’s Edition book’, Tara Bennett, was a guest this week on Charming’s Most Wanted, the Nerdcore Movement podcast dedicated to Sons of Anarchy. She helped preview the series finale and the book release before hearing about this unfortunate release.
NerdcoreMovement.com absolutely will not participate in posting any spoilers whatsoever about the ‘Sons of Anarchy’ series finale until after the episode airs on Tuesdya night at 10pm ET and even then it will be posted in a recap of the episode clearly marked as such.
Still, Bennett’s preview of the finale is riveting and hopefully everyone will still be tuning into the last episode regardless of the information that’s landed on the internet in the last 24 hours.
“All of us feel like the fans will be really satisfied,” Bennett said. “The most important thing about any show is that the point of view of the creator has been very strong from beginning to end and I feel like ‘Sons’ has really stayed on point with it being about Jax’s journey, Jax’s evolution and the ups and downs of this season of the man he wants to be versus the man that he is.
“I think that Kurt completely hits it in terms of staying on theme, bringing everything to a close. It’s a very clean, very precise, and I think very emotionally potent finale.”
The book’s publisher Time Home Entertainment also released a statement after the book landed in mailboxes this week due to an error with distributors.
“As the publisher, we have a very strict embargo in place for the on-sale date of Wednesday, December 10, 2014. We have learned that a wholesaler has broken the embargo and released a limited quantity of books in advance of the on-sale date. While extremely disappointed, we are very proud of the book, which is a wonderful tribute to the show.”
The Sons of Anarchy series finale titled ‘Papa’s Goods’ airs on FX this Tuesday night at 10pm ET. The actual release of the book, Sons of Anarchy: The Collector’s Edition, will be available starting on Wednesday, December 10.
