There is a running joke that once Showtime picks up a show, they will run it into the ground. This is mostly thanks to Dexter and Weeds which premiered a year apart and both went on for eight seasons (and while the Dexter reboot just wrapped up, a Weeds reboot is also coming soon, albeit on Starz, not Showtime). Over the next five years they would premiere shows like Homeland, Shameless, Californication, and Nurse Jackie that would go on for at least five seasons. But the thing is, shows that premiered after that have not lasted that long. In the past decade, there have been six one and done shows, while I’m Dying up Here, Dice, SMILF, and Kidding all got canned after two seasons. The only shows that premiered in the past decade that Showtime let run forever like the old joke are Billion, about to start its sixth season, and Ray Donovan which went to seven season, but Showtime was trigger happy in canceling the show, ending the show without giving it the obligatory final season that most long running shows are afforded.
But after some outcry, the show will be able to wrap up
properly with a two hour movie. Now, the
movie will be premiering almost two years to the day the finale aired. To give you a sense as to how long ago that was,
in January 2020, very few people were worried about COVID-19 back then. By season seven, Ray and the rest of the
Donovan clan had been in New York for most of the previous three seasons. By my estimate, Ray and Mickie had tried to
kill each other and reconciled a couple hundred times by then. The season ended with a shootout between the
Donovan’s and the Sullivan’s (Jimmy Sullivan raped Ray’s sister Bridget years ago
resulting in Bridget taking a nose dive off a roof and the knowledge recently came
to light) with Ray’s daughter’s husband Smitty dying as a result.
Thankfully the show starts off with a lengthy three minute
recap but done like recent episode “Previously On” montage where it is just
quick clips and very little dialogue.
Then in the first scene, Ray tells someone, “I killed my father.” Wait, did I really forget Ray killed Mickie and
they did not even put that part on the recap?
Well, no, and he did not kill him off screen either as Mickie shows up
on screen, and like for much of the seventh season is trying to sell off papers
worth multi-million dollar. The “I
killed my father” line is just a set up for the movie.
The movie is split up in two parts, and continues the trend
of the seventh season where they flashback to the early life of the Donovan clan
back in Boston. Much how the modern day
storyline picks up after the events of the shootout and starts with Smitty’s
funeral, the flashback also start with a funeral, this time of Bridget’s. The flashbacks also tie back into the events
of season one as we see many things that are the catalyst of the beginnings of
the series.
The whole Donovan clan is back. Well, not Ray’s son who I guess is still in
military school and does not even get one mention. While not gratuitous, we do get to see a
bunch of familiar faces, well in the case of some of the flashbacks; the names are
familiar even if the faces are different.
While it takes some time to remember just where the last season left off
(it may be wise to re-watch the finale before the movie) the movie does a good
job tying up loose ends and should leave longtime fans satisfied.
Ray Donovan: The Movie airs Friday at 9:00 on Showtime.
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