Ray Donovan:
The Complete Series + The Movie
review by Bobby Blakey
Throughout his career Leiv Schreiber has taken on some great memorable roles in films like Scream and Wolverine Origins, but in 2013 he came to TV as the lead in the series Ray Donovan. The show ran for seven seasons and spawned a film after the series ended to wrap it all up. The show featured a great cast including Jon Voight, Paula Malcomson, Eddie Marsan, Dash Mihok, Pooch Hall, Steven Bauer, Katherine Moennig, Kerris Dorsey, Devon Bagby, Jon Voight, and Susan Sarandon along with numerous great guest stars during its run. Now the entire series and film are coming home in one complete collection.
Ray Donovan follows Ray Donovan who does the dirty work for LA's top power players as the go-to guy who makes the problems of the city's celebrities, superstar athletes, and business moguls disappear. This powerful drama unfolds when his father is unexpectedly released from prison, setting off a chain of events that shakes the Donovan family to its core.
Schreiber has always had that tough swagger about him even if he is playing a more lovable character which is why he was perfect for this show. Despite being its own thing it reminds me a lot of shows like The Sopranos bringing a dark tone in the world of crime and perfectly blending it into the family aspect. From the first episode I was all in
that is primarily due to Schreiber himself who is perfection in the role.
The rest of the cast are all great as well with my personal favorite being Moennig who transitioned from her great character Shane on the L Word to Lena in this series with ease. She really stands out being the only person outside of the Ray’s wife that can really keep him in check. Their dynamic is a lot of the reason the show worked over all for me. The dysfunctional family side of it all is always fun to watch if not frustrating at times. Everything involving Ray’s father played annoyingly perfect by Voight just drove me nuts in the best way possible.
On the other side of the family drama and there is a lot of it, is the business. This offered up some great twists and turns to keep you invested in Ray’s insane world. Each season always built up to some big twist or double cross that made everything work into what Ray had planned for the most part so when it doesn’t it has a bigger impact. There are a couple of seasons during its seven season run that limp along like any show, but for the most part it stays compelling to the very end.
I wasn’t as big of a fan when the series changed locale for the last couple of seasons but get what they were trying to do to keep it moving forward. It sucked that the show was cancelled out of nowhere with my understanding that season eight was planned o be the last, but thankfully they knocked out the feature film to wrap it all up.
The film captured the same vibe as the show and didn’t feel much like a feature film as it did a long episode which was fine since its purpose was to give the series the proper ending. I am sure it would have been a much cleaner ending had they had the whole season, but the film does a good job capping it all off to feel complete once and for all.
I love this series and the chaotic nature of their family. This collection is the perfect pairing bringing all 80+ episodes and the movie together in one place along with over 2 hours of bonus content that fans will no doubt love.
Grab your copy of Ray Donovan: The Complete Series + The Ray Donovan Movie when it hits DVD on October 25th from Paramount, Showtime and CBS DVD.