Thursday, August 28, 2014

Ray Donovan 2013





Very bad people doing for the most part very bad things. This is a series that is not for the timid or squeamish, it’s full of characters and situations that push your face to the sidewalk and make you jump back in fear and sometimes disgust.  Set in L.A. it stars the very terrific and sexy Liev Schreiber as a transplanted lower class Irish   Bostonian who is now a big time corrupt Hollywood fixer-cleaner who solves big time problems for his big time Hollywood clients which include big shot corrupt  lawyers, movie stars and your everyday crooks and gangsters. In this messy mix are his two damaged brothers and one half brother who happens to be black and a father from Hell who when the series starts has   just been released from prison after serving 20 years for murder and robbery and jets across country to L.A. to surprise his not so loving sons.  Ray lives in a big house with his wife, another tough former Irish Bostonian and their 2 not so lovable teenage kids. This is a complicated, sophisticated   pull no punches series with many ins and outs, plot twists and turns, killings most of which are brutal along with strong scripts, vivid characters and terrific performances. Some of it is clichéd and predictable (there are those 2 pesky teens doing what all pesky teens do and seem to be a prerequisite for modern TV series), secrets kept and untidy plot turns. However its so well written, acted and directed that all of its ’faults can be laid aside, thrown out the window or shot in the head, because there is a lot to relish with this hardboiled crime series with its good lineage and nourish touches. It’s also a tangy and sometimes vulgar send-up of Hollywood with all the trash and tinsel that we love about the place. So there are corrupt cops and lawyers, a tough (but attractive lesbian girl Friday), an Israeli assistant fixer, 3rd rate prize fighters, cheating wives, a blackmailed closeted gay actor who loves the trannies, killer movie stars, pedophile priests, and the damaged grown ups of their deeds, cold hearted killers on the lam and more, much more. Put them altogether and you’ve got one hell of a show.  Also noteworthy are the performances, especially Jon Voight who is great as the senior Donovan.   

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