Ray Donovan: The First Season

I happened into the free previews for this show on satellite tv and wound up buying the entire first season because I had come in about the middle. The acting, writing and direction are top! Ray Donovan is a "fixer" for various heavy weights in the entertainment business. He makes their "problems" go away and he cleans up their messes. I worked in Hollywood for over 25 years and knew about these guys, but was told, "Don't write about them if you know what's good for you." Something I took to heart, so I am somewhat envious that they pulled this off, but everyone involved is fantastic so I can sit back and enjoy it without looking over my shoulder. LOL!On top of all the insider Hollywood stuff, there's Ray's family (wife and two kids) and his brothers (2 1/2 since one's from his father's philandering) and every single one of them has their own set of problems that Ray has to sort out as well, whether Ray is welcome or not. Plus the people who work for Ray are interesting as hell too! Steven Bauer was almost unrecognizable to me at first and then I realized I liked him more now than when he was younger!But Jon Voight steals the cake. A charming, slick rattlesnake, he gets out of prison (Ray sent him there) and comes to worm his way back into the family who has forgotten all about his past - except of course Ray who will never forgive him. You have to pay attention in this series because it's not going to wait for you. Just when you think a quiet spot has arrived and you can sneak off somewhere (bathroom, kitchen, etc.), sure as hell you're going to miss something spectacular! Don't miss this spectacular show.

Sunday afternoon, checking Amazon for new releases, and up pops Ray Donovan. Never heard of it. But there's Liev Schreiver's face in the thumbnail, looking seriously cool as he's clearly hiding some serious secrets. Am hooked by first episode and hooked hard. So hooked that binge-watch of entire season is necessary; more excited about watching this than Sunday night's latest episode of Game of Thrones, a dilemma I could not imagine ever occurring.Writing and story sparkle and snap with fresh. Characters and how they're played are fascinating. Shouting and clichés are simply not necessary and very rarely used. Audience is rarely made to suffer through over-dramatic acting. The teenagers can become tedious, but that's true in real life as well.So, what's Ray Donovan about? Ray Donovan is a fixer with a very small crew so trusted that few words are necessary to get the point across. He's also a family man with the darkest of demons haunting him and his own siblings. Was not a fan of Jon Voight, but the ease in which he inhabits the complete lack of conscience simply cannot be denied. One favorite character is the female member of Donovan's crew; this woman is ridiculously cool and blew my mind; more than once she had me cheering YAY!All manner of killers, crazies, weaklings, predators, bullies and honest people cross Donovan's path; to become a voyeur of this madness is irresistible. Bravo to director, writers and actors; Ray Donovan is positively brilliant.

This is not to say that the series is derivative; it syncopates with it's east coast cousin. Ray Donovan and his family could only live in LA in spite of their ever-present Southie-ness. I do catch myself waiting for someone to roll out a hard "R" but aside from that the writing and acting is effective in producing a family drama about societal issues. The Donovans, unlike the Sopranos are (many of) us. All the family baggage is opened up and presented for our consideration. This allows a bond between actor and audience to be forged that, in true Aristotelian terms and if only momentarily, frees us from our own by watching the Donovans crawl through theirs. Lieve Schrieber is every bit as talented as James Gandolfini, may we keep him a bit longer. I look forward to spending at least as many years with the Donovans as I did with the Sopranos, and it is because of the Sopranos that I can be patient and know that these characters will only continue to develop. The "Housewarming" episode is pure genius. I would have to vote it as the strongest of the season. That said, every episode has it's own set of memorable moments.

Don't expect the obvious, it's always genius seeing how they go through so many details."Keep your mouth shut, be smart, and we'll take care of you"Jon Voight definitely deserves all the credit and more for his performance. As well as many other actors who where brilliant.

Really liked the first episode which I watched for free. Liked it a lot but not willing to pay for another movie stream to finish all 7 seasons. Sure it's my entertainment loss.

Worlds collide in this drama that combines crime, family, and hollyweird. Ray Donovan is a man with a damaged family, a decent family of his own, and connections deep in Hollywood's rich and famous. He fixes things that movie and sports star do wrong, including ending up in bed with dead people and other sordid acts. His father, Mickey, shows up after doing 20 years in prison back east. Uh, oh! Mickey brings the past with him, a murder Ray covered up years ago. It's all skidding into the abyss for Ray as the harder he tries to fix things the worse they get. The show launches with several awesome episodes. It slows down in the middle of the season as we get caught up in Ray's kids' troubles. But it winds up with a heck of a bang. Stay with it. The acting is brilliant, especially from Schreiber, Paula Malcomson, and John Voight. This is how good TV can be.

Great series - looking forward to buying further seasons -

Ray Donovan lötet anderer Leute Leben. Dabei geht sein eigenes vor die Hunde.Ein zutiefst emotional gestörter Mensch geht seinen alltäglichen Geschäftenals Mr. Fix-It der Reichen nach. Das tut er in einem solch atemberaubendenTempo, dass man sich selbst als Zuschauer manchmal völlig gestresst fühlt. :)Sehr gut entwickeln sich im Laufe der Serie die Charaktere der Familie Donovan.Jeder der Söhne ist auf seine Art durch Kindheitstraumata gestört und versuchtmit diesem Defizit verzweifelt ein "normales" Leben zu bestreiten. Dieses ganzeemotionale Elend geht mir manchmal ganz schön an die Substanz, macht dieSerie deswegen aber umso interessanter.Herauszuheben sind die darstellerischen Leistungen von Schreiber und Voight.Schreiber, der ein seiner emotionalen Wüste entsprechendes Gesicht durch denTag trägt, hat seine größten Momente, wenn er die rar gesäten Gefühle durch-scheinen lässt (besonders berührend fand ich da den tänzerischen Ausflipperam Ende der Episode "Waschsalon" - spätere Staffel). Wenn Ray DonovanGefühle zeigt, sitzt man erschüttert vor der Glotze und saugt diese Sekundenauf. Es könnte Stunden dauern bis zur nächsten Gefühlsregung.Voight wiederum als prolliger, lebenslustiger, gutmeinender Familienmenschohne Durchblick, der in seinen krampfhaften Bemühungen, alles richtig zu machen,mehr Porzellan zerschlägt als alles andere. Anderserseits ist er eingemeingefährlicher Mörder. Verwirrend an dieser Person ist, dass er aus scheinbaredlen Motiven heraus mordet (z. B. der Zuhälter), was ihn fast ein wenig sympathischmacht. Letztendlich aber wird "alles Scheiße, was er anfasst".Die restliche Darstellerriege ist ebenfalls hervorragend besetzt. Lange keinen sopassenden Cast mehr gehabt.Ich habe mich jetzt bis Staffel drei durchgearbeitet und bin nach wie vor begeistertvon der Serie. Das Tempo lässt nicht nach, Donovan rudert gegen immer neueHürden des beruflichen und privaten Lebens an. Bin sehr gespannt auf Staffel 4.

Ray Donovan, L.A. fixer to the stars. No problem too big or mess too messy (and that’s just his home life). His complex and often brutal profession life makes his work / life balance difficult enough to manage without the unexpected release of his father, Micky, from prison after serving twenty years for murder. If Ray’s life was difficult before, he’s now dragged into an increasingly chaotic series of fire fighting operations just trying to keep up with the direct and indirect aftermath of Micky’s actions.That more-or-less sums up the central premise of this unusual and difficult to pigeon-hole TV show. His family life and relationship with his father and brothers may seem a bit family soapy or crime / mob Sopranos’ish but it’s not entirely. The LA glamour & money components could lend the show a glitzy action element but it doesn’t. The involvement of the FBI could make it police procedural, but it’s not. A buddy show it most definitely is not. It is a curious and surprisingly successful blend of genres.The main cast is superb; all the way from Leiv Shrieber title role, Jon Voight the delinquent father, Paula Malcomson (Trixie from the excellent Deadwood) the long suffering wife, Ray’s brothers Terry (another British actor making good in the USA) & Bunchy through to Elliot Gould and James Woods. Even the kids are good & that certainly makes a change. The production is equally splendid and the writing similarly so, as the plot twists, turns and lurches its way from one catastrophe to another (although I must confess that we got a bit confused at one point – we probably missed a crucial bit of dialogue). There is always a firm narrative thread to keep the plot moving along so you’re never stuck with that ‘Oh no, here we go again…’ feeling; it all hangs together very neatly.This is not comfortable, reassuring drama; the lives of the totally dysfunction extended Donovan family is the absolute antitheses of the cosy Regans in Blue Bloods. It would be great to see a CSI style cross-over episode; it would be hilarious. There’s harsh language, violence, gore, more violence and some mumbling (but it’s not too bad). The characters are all so well drawn, damaged and flawed as they are, that it’s hard to like any of them but you still can’t help but emphasise. Ray Donovan is a surprising and remarkable bit of TV drama; gritty, plausible (well, mostly) and thoroughly engrossing. Season two is on our wish list ready for June 2015. Excellent stuff.

Ya que en la patria se resisten a publicar los mismos títulos que en el resto de Europa ( en parte porque en España con el pirateo somos dos tontos los que compramos y en parte por la diferencia de precios de algunas distribuidoras) confirmo para los amantes de esta serie que el español que trae es el castellano. Me arriesgué y tuve suerte.

Decepcionado con la información, que habia en Amazon, sobre este producto, solo audio y subtitulos en Ingles, nada más