Network: Showtime
Episodes: 82 (hour)
Seasons: Seven
TV show dates: June 30, 2013 — January 19, 2020
Series status: Cancelled
Performers include: Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, Paula Malcomson, Kerris Dorsey, Devon Bagby, Eddie Marsan, Dash Mihok, Pooch Hall, Elliot Gould, Steven Bauer, and Katherine Moennig.
TV show description:
This TV show is set in the sprawling mecca of the rich, famous, and powerful players in Los Angeles. Ray Donovan is their go-to guy when they need their problems to disappear. It’s not an easy job but things get more difficult when his father is unexpectedly released from prison.
Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) is a man of many faces. He’s a cool, sophisticated Hollywood player but also a ruthless south Boston thug. He’s a devoted family man who has trouble resisting come-ons from attractive clients, and a consummate professional who is also easily pushed to violence. His job as a problem fixer for the Hollywood elite has helped lift him out of the working class and to within reach of the truly wealthy and powerful. But no amount of designer suits, sports cars or gold watches can completely mask his dark line of work or his humble roots. With his troubled brothers always calling, and his criminal father fresh out of prison, Ray might be unable to truly shake his past.
Ray’s father, Mickey (Jon Voight), has been released from prison after a 20-year stint and arrives in LA to get what he feels is his rightful due. A murderous low life, Mickey is nevertheless charismatic and charming. Ray’s brothers fall right back under their father’s spell, and his wife and children take an instant shine to the grandfather they’ve never known. Mickey’s desire to reunite with his family and settle some old (but hardly forgotten) scores threatens to destroy everything Ray has built for himself.
Ray’s wife Abby (Paula Malcomson) enjoys the spoils of Ray’s success in LA and strives to climb even higher. She desperately wants to get out of the Valley and into the neighborhoods, parties, and schools of the true Hollywood elite. Abby has grown weary of turning a blind eye to Ray’s philandering and the unusual demands of his job. Neither Abby nor her kids has ever met Ray’s father, Mickey. When he arrives in town, she is anxious to get to know him, much to Ray’s distress.
Abby and Ray’s teenage children are Bridget (Kerris Dorsey) and Conor (Devon Bagby) and they’ve been kept in the dark about Ray’s family. Both are eager to learn more about them and to also meet their grandfather. She takes up with a neighbor boy, the foster child of a famous rap star who becomes one of Ray’s clients. Mickey immediately develops a soft spot for Conor and tries to advise his grandson based on his own skewed ways of the world.
Ray’s brother Terry (Eddie Marsan) is a former boxer who has developed Parkinson’s disease from taking too many blows to the head. His condition has left him despondent and shy, and therefore extremely awkward around women. He owns a boxing gym in LA where Ray’s father and brothers hang out. Ray tries to avoid the place as much as he can.
Bunchy Donovan (Dash Mihok) is the most troubled of the Donovan brothers. He was molested as a child by his local priest, and has battled with psychological and addiction issues his whole adult life. He’s also the most vulnerable of the brothers and is dangerously susceptible to Mickey’s charms.
Mickey’s illegitimate son from an affair is Daryll (Pooch Hall). The Donovans have only recently learned of his existence and, aside from Ray, are embracing and welcoming him to the family. Mickey uses him to do some of his dirty work, which gets Daryll into immediate trouble.
Ezra Goldman (Elliot Gould) is an old friend of Ray’s, a frequent collaborator, and client. He is distraught over the recent passing of his beloved wife, and seems to be deteriorating mentally. Ezra is alarmed over the arrival of Ray’s father as he would prefer their past remained a secret.
Avi (Steven Bauer) is Ray’s right-hand man and the principle “muscle” of his operation. He’s a tough Israeli who’s one of the very few capable of reasoning with his boss. He handles surveillance and clean up and is fiercely loyal to Ray — even when he doesn’t always agree with his tactics.
Lena (Katherine Moennig) handles Ray’s office and research for his operation. She’s a no-nonsense lesbian who’s both sexy and tough and is also an asset to Ray both in and out of the office.
Episode #82 — You’ll Never Walk Alone
Ray finally learns the truth about his sister Bridget’s death; Terry reckons with the death of a friend and his own mortality; Mickey’s quest for the money he’s owed leads to a deadly face-off between the Sullivans and the Donovans.
First aired: January 19, 2020.
What do you think? Do you like the Ray Donovan TV series? Do you think it should have been cancelled or renewed for an eighth season?
bring it back ASAP. ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS ON SHOWTIME.
Liev is a wonderful actor !!!and the show is intense and entertaining….
bring it back
and while you’re at it…. Bring back DEXTER…
Bring back. Fabulous. Highest level of acting!
great show! they need to keep original shows not the boring same ones
Bring it back… Can’t believe they cancelled!!!
It hasn’t been cancelled.
This is a great show. Please keep it going. Thanks.
Yes, this show is addicting. It’s like the Sopranos but without the Italian connection. Ray Donovan is one of those guys you never know what trouble he will get into today. They’ve got Hollywood Jewishness, Catholic priest buggery, adultery, social climbing, boxing, a mentally handicapped character who is an alcoholic drug abuser and teenagers! Mix all that up with a main character who is so conflicted he hires someone to kill his father. I hated to see it end for the season, I hope it comes back.
The acting in this show is outstanding. The best show (besides Dexter) I have watched this season! I can’t wait until season two.
F**cking LOVE this show, you’d be crazy with a capital C to not renew it.
Love Ray Donavan !!!!!!!
Ray Donovan is the Best Show On Cable !!!!!!
We Love this Show, we want 13 Episodes !!!!!
Please Hurry Back Ray – We Love You 🙂
I love the show. Showtime needs to bring the show back for another season. The best show I have seen in a long time. Just one thing: his wife and children need to grow up. Need to kill that drug addicted brother off the show and send the father back to prison ( let him died inside the cell)
I have never seen a show wherein the main character was totally surrounded by such lowlifes and losers – if they are not deliberately messing with him they are just idiots. The only two characters who are actively on his side are the two people he pays-his secretary and his assistant, whose names I don’t recall at the moment. His wife is too busy checking on him to be a good mother (thus letting them get involved with a kid who gets them into things that are exactly the opposite of what they should be doing), his father is trying… Read more »
Amazing show! Awesome plot, and really one you can get in to. Follows the storyline of a “fixer” for the movie stars and their agents. Really a goot plot, and interesting. I look forward to Sunday now, and have something really good to watch now that Dexter is in the final episodes.
Boring.