Ray Donovan - Season 5

Just caught this tonight (a day late) on Showtime, and was knocked out by the death of <a massive character>. I had no idea this was coming -- they kept it pretty well hidden.

All I'll say is that this person is still in the credits, and the producers are very slowly doling out the details of how this character passed away. My guess is they were due X number of episodes and decided to shoot them all at once, but we only get to see small pieces of what happened over a long period of time.

It's kind of a cheap gimmick, but ya know, I can't recall anybody ever doing this: killing off somebody this high on the list, but not really explaining how in the first episode back from hiatus.

Everything else looks like a mess. The only thing I care about is seeing Ray take care of the dirty work and get rid of the dead bodies piling up in movie studio's houses and offices.

I do like the show and the performances of most of the cast, and the cinematography on the show has never looked better. Aces technical work. (Well, except for the highly-visible wireless mic lump on the back of Mickey Donovan's suit in the graveyard scene, but nobody would see that but me.) Good show.

 

I was so confused watching this I had to read a recap afterwords and the writer was just as confused about the jump in time as I was.

 

The biggest similarity I find between Ray Donovan and Tony Soprano is that they're both essentially sociopathic criminals who are/were heavily grounded by their families. Their families are their anchors/lifelines to their normalcy. The further Tony drifted from his family always revealed his darker, more murderous side. Looks like Ray's gonna be doing a little drifting himself this season, it'll be interesting to see what this will bring out of him as I think Ray coulda been Tony's brudda from another mudda!

 

I had to rewatch the last epiosde of S4 because I didn't remember if someone died or not, turned out no one(major) did. So that was a surprising way to start the new season.

I think the last good season was S3. I only care for Ray, Mickey and Abby at this point. And none did anything of interest(well) in the first new episode. I'm going to follow this with low expectation

And I remember something I thought about in S4. What was up with the actor playing Avi? He looked all thin and weird. Was he sick? Drugs?

 

I just googled him and a story popped up that he lost 30 pounds on a gluten free diet.

 

Well good for him..., but it didn't fit the part. He looked so weak and thin

 

I agree, he should beef up for that role.

 

It looks to me like they're totally rebooting the show:

<some small spoilers>

The son is now angry and has moved out of the house and lives at military school (!!!). The daughter is a floozy and is hanging around with some guy who gives her pot and has recently received a heart transplant from a character that's now dead. Terry, the brother with MS, now has a remote control device that can electronically turn off his tremors and other symptoms; Bunchy now has to take care of his daughter while his wrestler/wife is off on the road (and apparently leaving the show). Avi is apparently having personal problems and no longer works for Ray (after being severely beaten at the end of last season). John Voight is now a good guy for the moment and out of trouble (though previews show him to be still scheming).

It's a weird direction for the show, but I have to say, they've almost done a complete reset on the show including shaking up the cast members. I generally like the main plotlines with Ray Donovan covering up awful celebrity scandals (and crimes), but the side stories with the other characters are too often kind of dull and plodding. And I'm not happy with the surprise spin of <major character's death>.

 

I think this has the potential to be the best season yet. I think the actors are gonna have to go deeper than usual. And among this very talented cast, PM is a standout, this season she's gonna really strut her stuff! I'm finding it real interesting to see how many viewers are being 'thrown for a loop' by the non-linear style of storytelling. The folks that are saying they're lost need to pay more attention. I understood what was going on from the very beginning. Of course I don't know the answers to the questions within the plotline, we're not supposed to, it's the 1st episode! People need to chillax!

 

Another Momento-like episode.

 

I'm struggling with the new season and the time shifting. During the first episode I wondered if I had finished watching season 4.

 

I want to see Ray work, and I'm not a big fan of "looking back" moments.
It's not bad though, but it's not the Ray I want to follow

 

I think Showtime is aware that people are struggling, and they're having the cast run around and do interviews and stuff to make sure everything is explained.

I'm leaning towards the explanation that <major character> hit their head during a car wreck, but only started showing symptoms weeks after the incident, and so they're spiraling down into illness and death.

 

Sure, but that whole story takes up to much time. But maybe it picks up next week. Ray's gotta take care of a dead body.

And, who was that girl who caused the car crash? I think we'll see her again

 

Back to normal. Great episode.

 

What he said...

 

I was only half way through last episode when I posted its back to normal. Finally watched the 2nd half and more of the flashbacks. Nothing has really happened this season. I hope it picks up tonight. Snowfall on FX is a much better current crime TV series.

 

It certainly shook up the paint by numbers approach of the previous season. I think it's fairly clear what happened to him/her by the time he/she end up in Vegas.

 

Me too. I went back and rewatched the last three episodes figuring I had missed something. There was a visual hint of this during one scene in the fourth season if you recall....

 

Nah, I think it has to do with something the major character had happen to them in a story arc that was quickly and unsatisfactorily resolved and that was confirmed by the end of the episode (or third?) to me based on how this character looked in one scene.

 

Didn't "Lost" do this?

 

Not on a traditional dramatic show. Lost was fantasy/science-fiction (with really F'd up writing towards the end).

Cancer makes more sense to me as well. I agree, it's a real off-the-wall approach to conventional storytelling, and it does show they're trying for something very different than what anybody would expect.

 

We watched Episode 5 last night. I think they are showing way too much of Abby. Why kill her off and then spend so much time with flashback scenes? I'd rather they keep it in the present.

 

I think the decision to tell the story the way they have can be considered a failure. While there's certainly moments of brilliant acting, it isn't true to the original concept of the show. If this exact same crew of creators and actors pitched a show to Shotime about a cancer victim and the effects on her family the sickness had, before and after she died, IMO the network would NEVER have picked it up. Although there's been no official announcement made yet, rumors are rampant that this is the final season. They do seem to have painted themselves into a corner.

 

Catching up on the last few episodes and it's hard to get through.