Read

A tall, well muscled, slightly brooding man with features probably linked to an Irish heritage gets out of his black Mercedes on the edge of LA and walks towards an abandoned warehouse while ordering an Uber on his phone. As he approaches the door a voice can be heard from inside, “You Donovan?” “Yeah,” the man says. The door opens and Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) is pulled inside by two men wearing stockings over their heads and brandishing pistols. They pat Ray down and the man clearly running the show asks Ray “Where’s the money?” To which Ray responds, with a much concern as he would give to getting out of bed, “I don’t have it.” The head stocking guy holds his gun up to Ray’s temple in an attempt to be menacing and says “What did you just say?” Ray, already tired of this conversation, explains “You get the money when I see the kid.” We see a birds eye view of an elevator slowly ascending up its shaft until we get to a large empty space with a 20-something year old kid tied to a chair and another one dead on the floor. Ray echoes across the room “You alright Casey?” as if the two men pointing their guns at him don’t exist. The head stocking guy speaks up “You saw the kid, now where’s the money?” and Ray, suddenly eager to please, replies “My driver should be here” to which Ray and the head stocking man walk over to the window and see a car pull up. One of the head stocking guys leaves and the scene speeds up. Ray gets the gun from the remaining stocking guy, kills him, sets Casey free. The stocking guy who went down to the car realizes it was just an Uber, yells “Fuck” (because why not its Showtime) runs back into the warehouse where he is ambushed by Ray who tells him to start running, he quickly complies.

This scene is easily one of the most engaging, intelligent, and coolest scenes that have occurred in the first two episodes of the new season (3) of Ray Donovan (2013—); and this scene alone is probably the main reason why viewers will tune in to Showtime every Sunday to watch the show. But is Ray Donovan more than just a montage of sleek action sequences? Is there more to the brooding Bostonian than meets the eye?

Some of the few key themes that have continued through the first three seasons is the not so flashy side of Hollywood’s underbelly, the corrupting effects of the catholic church, and how those two things weirdly relate to each other. Often the most interesting parts of a Ray Donovan episode are Ray handling jobs for LA’s rich an famous because, as the scene described above shows, they are very well done and often tell us a lot about Ray’s character. The catholic church as well as another theme, the masochistic effects of family, are much more prevalent in the first season and, despite the enormous amount of exposition the show must give in order for those themes to really land, are incredibly compelling. But after season 1 those themes seem to fall to the wayside. The Donovan family begins to splinter because even for a family who tries so hard to stay together they eventually realize they’re not very good for each other. So the most interesting aspect of that relationship unfortunately causes it to diminish until the third season where there is almost no interaction between the family whatsoever. The catholic church themes practically vanish in season 2 except for in Bunchy’s (Ray’s brother played by Dash Mihok) storyline although there are signs in the first episodes of season three that they might return.

The thematic, character driven complexity that the first season had seems to have been partially lost. The cool, elegantly done, action sequences, while only one facet of the first season, is really all that’s been carrying the show for seasons 2 and 3. Although that isn’t the worst thing as Ray Donovan does it better than many other shows (Rectify (2013—), Hell on Wheels (2011—), but it still leaves much to be desired since we know it could be better. However, perhaps Ray Donovan isn’t down for the count just yet.

Season 3 definitely has the show going in a certain direction although what that direction is isn’t entirely clear. A lot of season two focuses on shining a light on the FBI and LA PD and the one character who had good intentions (legally speaking) was killed; she also happened to be Ray’s love interest for the season. This theme of corruption seems to have infected every aspect of the show to the point where every character has started severing ties. Ray barely speaks to anyone anymore, Mickey (Ray’s father played by Jon Voight) doesn’t bother his family nearly as much as he did in previous seasons, Terry (Ray’s other brother played by Eddie Marsan) seems to be making it on his own in prison, and Bunchy finally has responsibility and does his best to deal with it by himself. Unless the show-runners plan to make four spin off shows and end Ray Donovan they need to be planning some way for all these character to reunite (probably with a really cool action scene). Whatever happens in the rest of season 3 hopefully there will be some passion, betrayal, vengeance, and regret behind the punching and not just punching.