The Fixer

I've recently become hooked on this new series in Showtime called, "Ray Donovan". The show, set in LA, is based on Boston born Ray Donovan, (Liev Schreiber), a "fixer" for the rich and famous. Ray can make your problems go away, for a fee. The only problem Ray can't make go away is his own family. Mickey, Ray's father, played by an excellent Jon Voight, seems to be at the center of most of Ray's troubles.

The series opens with Mickey, fresh out of Walpole State Prison. After Mickey takes care of some "business", ie: killing a priest in his rectory apartment with a shot to the head, he heads out to LA to be with his family. Ray's brothers, Bunchy, Ted and his half brother, Daryll, the product of Mickey's one true love Claudette, own a boxing gym in LA called "The Donovan Brother's Fight Club". Ray and Mickey are at odds, and Ray hates his father with a passion. Ray is shocked Mickey has been released early from prison. We only find out bits and pieces of what has transpired between these two through the episodes, but when Ray forbids Mickey to stay away from his family, and holds a gun to his head in episode 5, we want to know more. 

The cast is excellent. Steven Bauer, of "Scarface" fame plays Ray's right hand man, and Elliot Gould plays Ezra, a rich older father figure to Ray who is somehow caught up in Ray and Mickey's bad business.  Ray's long suffering wife, Abby, holed up in Calabasas, CA in their home with their two teenaged children, makes it her mission to find out exactly what her mysterious husband does for a living. 

The show taps into that "skeleton in the closet" nerve that we all try so hard to hide, but the Donovan family skeletons aren't the run of the mill kind of skeletons. Theirs are centered around murder,drugs, lies and deceit and the writers of the series expertly reveal just enough to keep you coming back for more. After 7 episodes, I can hardly wait to see what's going to happen next, and to see if Ray can fix it. Liev Schreiber is a standout as the bad-ass Ray Donovan, and a man who I never thought I would describe as sexy. But the nastier he gets, the sexier he becomes and that in itself keeps me coming back for more. 

The show came onto my radar by recommendation, and I highly recommend it here. If you can stand to sit through some really bad Boston accents, I think you will find Ray Donovan a fix for any crime drama junkie.