Last week, I watched the horrendously bad finale to the Dexter reboot and now this exceedingly slow death of 'Ray Donovan.'
It began with the miserable Season 6, in NY, with the complete emasculation of Ray. It was as if, new writers took over and said: OK, we don't like this character very much so we're going to destroy him.
What we face here is a story told via flashback, as Ray (Liev Schreiber) is speaking to his therapist (Alan Alda), that features a tremendous amount of time in flashbacks with an entirely different cast.
I wrote, in my review of the regular series: "Never have I seen a bigger bunch of whiners and n'er do wells that blamed everything on their childhoods and, in particular, their father. The four boys (Liev Schreiber, Eddie Marsan, Pooch Hall and Dash Mihok, blame everything bad on their father, Mickey (Jon Voight) and Ray's kids (Kerri's Dorsey and Devon Bagby) blame everything bad in their lives on Ray. That's a very convenient philosophy. Everything good in your life you accomplished and everything bad is your fathers fault. The only two characters who take responsibility for their own lives, and as such, are the two strongest characters in the series are the aforementioned Mickey and Ray's wife, Abby (Paula Malcomson). That said, I love Ray Donovan."
But, I don't like what they did to his character, or Season 6, or this mess of a movie. The 'Ray Donovan' we loved lived in LA and fixed Hollywood messes.
Jon Voight was the standout throughout the series, playing the role of a lifetime. Liev Schreiber was the star around which the series revolved. In Series 6, and in this movie, he was stellar, playing this down and out, dead-man-walking version of Ray.
I never liked the character of 'Bridget' nor the actress who played her. It's safe to say, I find her even more reprehensible after this movie.
This is not a good sendoff to one of the great series of all-time.
What we face here is a story told via flashback, as Ray (Liev Schreiber) is speaking to his therapist (Alan Alda), that features a tremendous amount of time in flashbacks with an entirely different cast.
I wrote, in my review of the regular series: "Never have I seen a bigger bunch of whiners and n'er do wells that blamed everything on their childhoods and, in particular, their father. The four boys (Liev Schreiber, Eddie Marsan, Pooch Hall and Dash Mihok, blame everything bad on their father, Mickey (Jon Voight) and Ray's kids (Kerri's Dorsey and Devon Bagby) blame everything bad in their lives on Ray. That's a very convenient philosophy. Everything good in your life you accomplished and everything bad is your fathers fault. The only two characters who take responsibility for their own lives, and as such, are the two strongest characters in the series are the aforementioned Mickey and Ray's wife, Abby (Paula Malcomson). That said, I love Ray Donovan."
But, I don't like what they did to his character, or Season 6, or this mess of a movie. The 'Ray Donovan' we loved lived in LA and fixed Hollywood messes.
Jon Voight was the standout throughout the series, playing the role of a lifetime. Liev Schreiber was the star around which the series revolved. In Series 6, and in this movie, he was stellar, playing this down and out, dead-man-walking version of Ray.
I never liked the character of 'Bridget' nor the actress who played her. It's safe to say, I find her even more reprehensible after this movie.
This is not a good sendoff to one of the great series of all-time.