On Friday starts the US-series “Ray Donovan” in German free-TV. This means above all: violence, family and Jon Voight. And actually can “Ray Donovan” yes only be good. For the ZDF shopping comes from the TV network Showtime, which is already so great shows like “Homeland,” “Dexter” and “Masters of Sex” brought to the screens. But the criminal and family drama “Ray Donovan” unfortunately wants a bit of everything too much.
Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) is a Hollywood fixer, a problem solver for the rich and famous in Los Angeles. He gets paid by two Jewish lawyers in the entertainment industry, whose clients have times, times to cover up a corpse their homosexuality. Ray comes from a broken family clan, one of his brothers was abused as a child by a priest and is an alcoholic, the other suffers from Parkinson’s and has a filthy box-shed. Blame It by Rays opinion the family head, his father Mickey (Jon Voight), which is now released after twenty years in prison.
transvestites, Stalker and blow jobs
Ray Mickey wants to keep at all costs of his wife and two teenage children – who see the gangster but only the loving grandfather. Ray ust mad, family is everything for the Fixer. This reminds the viewer of a mix of the action film “The Transporter” and the TV epic “The Sopranos,” to come in just the first two episodes yet transvestites, prostitutes, an epilepsy seizure, a stalker and blow jobs.
The strengths of the series are obvious: “Ray Donovan” shines with top-class performers and benefits from a superb team. Liev Schreiber, who starred in “Salt” and “The Butler”, but also as a stage actor excelled in Shakespearean productions, Ray plays with Clint Eastwood liable narrowed eyes and a poker face – the prototype of the lone avenger
An impressive performance puts Jon Voight (“Ali,” “The Manchurian Candidate”) even as old gangster who makes his absurdly comic relief as horny bag for a few laughs. This year, Voight was honored for his role with the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in the category series, miniseries and TV movie.
For the camera Matthew Jensen is responsible, who captured the already gloomy images of the series “Game of Thrones” and “True Blood”. And finally there Ann Biderman, whose pen came the idea for the series. One of the biggest hits of the 63-year-olds were successful in the USA police series “Southland” and the Hollywood blockbuster “Public Enemies” with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.
The rappers are black , the Jewish lawyers
What can go wrong because so? Some, it seems. Would like to assign the characters of the series, acting quite scissors-like and predictable at the beginning. Although Ray is a criminal, but with a heart of gold, plus a smart and attractive, it has nothing to do with his crippled brothers or his simple-minded customers. But not to distribute the loads of clichés that are served over and over again: Of course, the Black Gangster rapper, boxer and drug addict, of course, are Rays client, the rich lawyers, Jewish, and Ray’s wife must be, as the as the wife just so is confined to either jealous or being upset about Rays zeitaufwändigem job.
The representation of violence is in a gangster series to finally be part of Ray’s job, the problems sometimes elegant, sometimes primitive terms. The violence that is seen is, however, so stylized that it creeps one: Ray brings a stalker around with a baseball bat, and later we see him as he wipes blood from the bat, on his own is not a drop of blood to see . It seems as if the creators Ray want to display at any price as a good and clean guy who does everything just because it needs to be done and for the end the family is the most important thing – only questionable why he cheats on his wife, sees his children only at breakfast and otherwise not occur just as a loving family man.
In the USA, just run the second season of “Ray Donovan”, also the series has already been renewed for a third. The success are the creators right: After initial teething problems in the first season it has the TV drama managed mainly because of the acting performances of Liev Schreiber and Jon Voigth to inspire a core audience for itself. Despite all the criticism: In the end you want to stop but know how it goes with Ray and Mickey
“Ray. Donovan “ runs from the 12th September each Friday at 23.45 clock on ZDF.
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