Ray Donovan: Showrunner Shocked by Showtime Cancellation

Ray Donovan has fixed his last mistake. Showtime canceled the series after the end of season seven recently, and the news was a shock to all those involved with the series, including the man running things behind the scenes. David Hollander revealed that he thought the series would end with season eight. The writers were working towards that conclusion, and Showtime was aware of that plan when Hollander began writing during season seven.

Hollander said the following about Showtime ending Ray Donovan, per Vulture:

“We’re still scratching our heads. We had no indicator that the show was ending. We were behaving creatively as though we were in mid-sentence. And so, there was no sense that this was going to be a completion. This was in no way a series finale.”

Hollander and his staff already had season eight in mind, and that season was going to end things on a note where the fans would have closure. Season seven did not do that. The fans are left with cliffhangers across the board. Season six’s finale would have closed the series out on a much better note.

Hollander revealed the following about the plot of season eight:

“The pivot we had been making narratively was to move the backstory into the present and run it concurrently. So there were actually two stories to be told: What happened then, really, and how will that impact what happens now? The next step was what happened with Ray and Mickey in the ‘90s, which would have been the creation of Ray Donovan as a character and as a fixer. That’s why we went into such detail to find the right cast.

That [flashback] story was a helpful pivot, at least for me creatively. I felt really good about it. And so, that story was going to run directly against the idea of Ray and Mickey now.”

Could the series return to close things out? Hollander did not count that out, but it would be easier to do sooner rather than later. The sets are still in place, and the cast could be called back in.

Hollander did have this message for the fans:

Thank you, first and foremost. A huge, huge thank you. All we can do is hope that we have an audience that cares. The gratitude is really meaningful to those of us who are feeling a little bit lost by what’s happened.

The other thing that I feel is a bit apologetic. I’m proud of the work that we all did. I’m proud of the way that this year ended. It was powerful and well-acted and they achieved what I hoped they would. However, this wasn’t meant to be [the ending]. You could spin it one way and say that it’s hard to satisfy an audience with a finale, not that I didn’t want to try. I always want the opportunity to try. I just wish I had.”

What do you think? Do you want to see Ray Donovan closed out in a way that ties up the loose ends left by season seven? Or, was it time to end the series?