Sons of Anarchy tells the story of a motorcycle club, called SAMCRO for short, based in the fictional town of Charming, California. The members of the club make money through an auto repair business, but they also import guns illegally and sell them to gangs in the area. In order to protect themselves from jail time or legal consequences, the members of SAMCRO have infiltrated local law enforcement and currently have Charming's sheriff on their payroll. Their illegal activities do have some benefits for Charming, as SAMCRO has been able to keep drugs out of Charming and also run a group of white separatists from town.
At first glance, Sons of Anarchy is a story about the bad boys in town. The show is full of alternative readings that promote the values of the base, not the superstructure. The club members lie, cheat, steal, kill, deal, and do just about anything else to get their way. The law enforcement does nothing to stop the club, in fact they end up helping SAMCRO in most episodes. The club president tried to have one of the club members murdered, but the member's wife got killed instead. Then there's that whole business about dealing illegal guns to gangs. All of these are examples of alternative readings, readings that the superstructure does not promote. However, at the end of almost every episode, there is at least one dominant reading that comes about.
Some of the dominant readings are that SAMCRO would do anything to keep Charming and its residents safe. They keep drugs and other gangs out of their town. They also care very deeply about their friends and family. All of these actions help promote hegemony. They show that the dominant readings of the superstructure are always present, even when it might not seem like it at first glance. While the club may not always act in the way the dominant culture wants them to, the end result favors that of the superstructure.
If you watch this video clip you can start to see a little bit of what I'm talking about.
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I think you have something interesting to say here but it's getting lost in the language. You're not quite using base and superstructure correctly. The base (as I do think you mean it) for Marx is the means of production (capitalism, feudalism, communism). The superstructure are all of the other powers (or also the way in which ideology is articulated or naturalized): church, state, schools, culture, etc. I think you may be thinking about the difference between those who control the money and the people? Right? Think about how you could redo this with the right terms. Nice ideas.
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