It's 'Anarchy' on FX

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — Kurt Sutter took the idea of criminal motorcycle gangs, tossed in a little Shakespeare, cast his wife as the tough "rock 'n' roll chick" and ended up with "Sons of Anarchy."

The new series, which premieres tonight at 11 on FX, is an uneven mix of its various elements. There are flashes of the kind of off-the-beaten-path, high-quality drama that the cable channel has made its trademark ("The Shield," "Rescue Me"). But, at least in the first couple of episodes, it's still trying to come together.

"I can't mention any organizations, but one of these organizations sort of opened their doors to me. And I got to see it firsthand," Sutter said. "And it's a fascinating culture. ... I had no doubt that they were dangerous cats, but there was this amazing camaraderie. There was this amazing sort of familial, I'd-kill-for-my-brother bond that all of them had that was just somewhat endearing."

Of course, as he portrays it, the Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club is also an organized crime syndicate. They're arms dealers who don't hesitate to kill anybody who gets in their way.

"Anarchy" is also sort of a family drama in the same way that "The Sopranos" was a family drama. Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) is sort of the crown prince of the Sons of Anarchy. His late father founded the organization; his stepfather (Ron Perlman, "Hellboy") replaced him as its leader. And Jax's mother, Gemma (Katey Sagal of "Married ... With Children"), is the toughest character on the show.

"She's a ferocious mother," said Sagal, who married Sutter in 2003. "She will do anything for her son and for her family — her family being this motorcycle world that she's so a part of. ... Yeah, she's a little bit of a rock chick."

Sutter knew he wanted Sagal for the role.

"I've seen flashes of Gemma throughout the course of my marriage," he said with a laugh.

The rest of the show came from Sutter's own research into the origins of various criminal motorcycle gangs. In tonight's premiere, Jax discovers that his father's original idea for the Sons of Anarchy was for a hippie-ish group of nonconformists, not a bunch of criminals.

"Most of these clubs really began as something else. They began as fraternities, of brotherhoods of guys, just most of them war veterans getting together to blow off steam," Sutter said. "And in a very short period of time, a lot of these clubs morphed into essentially organized crime syndicates. And I thought that was such an epic arc that happened. .... And then I imposed the sort of Hamlet archetype on top of that."