Ray Donovan: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
US crime drama about a Hollywood fixer who can't fix his own life
Year: 2013-2020
Certificate: 15
This US noir series isn't one to watch if you like good guys. Ray, played with low-key leading man energy by Liev Schreiber, is a professional fixer, a man who makes the problems of the rich and famous go away - and doesn't think twice about breaking the law to do it. The catch? He can't fix his own mess of a life.
Ray does bad things, but he's by no means the baddest of the bad. That title is enthusiastically owned by his dad, Mickey (a Golden Globe-winning Jon Voight), who's done untold psychological damage to Ray and his brothers, including Terry (played by Brit Eddie Marsan), and continues to do his worst throughout the show's run.
Set in a murky Los Angeles, before switching to New York from series six, and framed by deeply dysfunctional family dynamics, this has the feel of gangster epics like The Sopranos. The fixer plots, while fun, are really a distraction from what the show is all about: the Donovan clan and its legacy of trauma and hurt.
The reason this violent, morally complex show became such compelling viewing is in no small part down to the cast. Schreiber is moodily spellbinding, Voight a gravelly menace, and Marsan delivers on the more emotional end of his range as a former boxer with Parkinson's. There's always plenty going on so it's never a drag, and there's a thrilling list of big names on the supporting and guest cast, including Susan Sarandon, Elliott Gould, Rosanna Arquette and Ian McShane. (Seven series)
