• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, September 4, 2018

The best way to regard FX’s new motorcycle gang drama is not to take it too seriously.

Fortunately, this point of view should not present too much of a challenge where this show, titled “Mayans M.C.,” is concerned. It is a comic book of a TV show -- strictly two-dimensional. Taking it seriously is nearly impossible.

“Mayans M.C.” (the M.C. stands for motorcycle club) seems to be FX’s gift to the many fans of the network’s previous motorcycle club drama “Sons of Anarchy,” which ended its seven-season run in 2014. 

That show seemed to take on a life of its own as an inspiration for cult-like devotion. More than most TV shows, it produced a fairly conspicuous revenue stream on the side from the sale of “Sons of Anarchy” merchandise such as jackets, hats and t-shirts.

When you would encounter someone wearing an “official” jacket emblazoned with “Sons of Anarchy” on the back of it, you formed the impression that this person really believed this motorcycle club was real and that he was really a part of it.

Never mind that despite the charisma of some of its lead characters -- most notably Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) and his outlaw mom Gemma (Katie Sagal) -- “Sons of Anarchy” was a show about a group of violent, cruel, recalcitrant criminals.

If you will pardon the expression, these people were dirtbags. And yet, in the peculiar way in which some movies and TV shows engender fondness and loyalty despite obvious character defects on the part of their protagonists, you ended up rooting for the “Sons” whenever they clashed with other groups who were just as bad.

Evidently, FX hopes lightning will strike a second time with this new motorcycle-gang show. The Mayans made various appearances in “Sons of Anarchy,” which makes this gang a fairly logical choice around which to build a new show.

While the “Sons” reigned in northern California, this group of Mayans holds sway in the south, near the border of Mexico. The Mayans are a Latino motorcycle club. As a group of outlaws, they are as loathsome as their northern counterparts.

Like the “Sons,” the Mayans are involved in their territory’s organized crime activities. In “Mayans M.C.,” we quickly learn that the Mayans act as a gang for hire for Mexican drug cartels.

In the two episodes FX provided for preview, evidence suggests that this new show intends to try and shock us with its violence in much the same way that “Sons of Anarchy” did. “SOA” was one of the most violent shows ever aired on advertiser-supported TV.

Each of the two episodes of “Mayans M.C.” had their requisite scenes of what you might call “shock violence.”

In one, a member of a rival gang has an arm lopped off. In the other, a pair of miscreants who made trouble for the drug cartel are burned to death and their smoking, smoldering corpses are then dumped in a public square.

“Mayans M.C.” and “Sons of Anarchy” are both little more than grindhouse cinema made for television. They both come from producer/writer Kurt Sutter, for whom motorcycle gangs are evidently a particular interest.

In both shows, shootouts and brawls take place out in the open involving dozens of heavily armed participants, and end with multiple casualties and deaths. But never is heard the wail of approaching police sirens. In the world conjured up by Sutter, cops apparently do not exist, and motorcycle gangs get to do whatever they want to do.

However, none of these shortcomings necessarily provide a barrier to enjoying “Mayans M.C.” This is where not taking this show too seriously comes in.

The fact is, “Mayans M.C.” gives every sign that it will be a hit for FX -- maybe not in the same league as “Sons of Anarchy,” but close to it.

“Mayans M.C.” premieres Tuesday (September 4) at 10 p.m. Eastern on FX.