Mr. Fix-it
Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (“Thelma & Louise,” 1991) joins the season 5 cast of “Ray Donovan,” premiering Sunday.
Who knew rich and glamorous celebrities had so many hush-hush problems? Well, maybe they do in real life and maybe they don’t, but they sure keep “Ray Donovan’s” eponymous anti-hero busy. Last season’s finale episode included some uncommonly high notes for Hollywood’s problem solver and his rather dysfunctional family, but those sweet moments are fleeting. Catch the season 5 premiere of “Ray Donovan,” airing Sunday, Aug. 6, on Showtime.
Among the fictional elite, Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” 2009) is the guy you call if you need an unsavory problem dealt with quickly and quietly. A native of South Boston, he pulled himself up from his blue-collar roots to mingle expertly with the glitterati as he goes about his shady work making their problems discreetly disappear. He’s a firm family man at heart, though the various and sundry members of the Donovan clan are constantly clashing against one another.
The new season sees Ray turning his attention back to his celebrity fixer firm, after season 4 shifted focus to an ongoing crime plot line. A major client this year is played by a major talent: look for Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (“Thelma & Louise,” 1991) in a recurring role in season 5.
Things were looking good for the Donovans at the end of last season. Ray avoided prison, and we were even granted an unusually lighthearted scene of him playing video games with his kids. His wife, Abby (Paula Malcomson, “Deadwood”), announced that her cancer is gone, and that she wants the two of them to make a fresh start, while his daughter, Bridget (Kerris Dorsey, “Brothers & Sisters”), was accepted into NYU.
Don’t assume the good times will carry on throughout the new season, though. The cast and showrunners aren’t saying much about what happens this season, but, as Schreiber told Collider, “It’s a very dark year for Ray.” He expanded on this in a promo clip:
“Fairly early in the season, something very profound and big has changed in Ray’s life — something I think is going to really shock a lot of people — and the impact of that on this family, and Ray himself, is pretty heavy.”
Schreiber, a presence both on the stage and screen, has earned a good deal of recognition for his role over the past four seasons. He’s received four Golden Globe nods and three Emmy nominations, the most recent of which could very well turn into a win in September.
It’s not just Schreiber who has seen success from the show. “Ray Donovan” opened to recordbreaking numbers, becoming Showtime’s biggest premiere of all time. It’s won a Critics’ Choice Television Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy, among its many nominations, and averaged 1.2 million viewers last season.
The well-known cast is one major draw of the show, with Schreiber being just one of a number of bigname actors. Oscar winner Jon Voight (“Mission: Impossible,” 1996) plays Mickey Donovan, Ray’s abusive father who turns up in the first episode after 20 years in prison. Though murderous, selfish and contemptible, Mickey is also charismatic and charming, and the character is a real fan favorite.