I took your advice and watched the first episode of Ray Donovan last night. First thoughts are that it has potential but episode one didn't outright draw me in but offered enough to make me want more. It seems that episode one presented us with so many subplots and characters that it was a little difficult to assimilate due to the fast pace of the episode.
Suffice it to say that Ray Donovan is a "fixer" in Hollywood where he works for a movie studio attempting to fix situations created by some of it's actors. He has a family, wife, daughter and son as well as 2 brothers, one with Parkinson's disease who runs a boxing gym and another brother whose life was shattered at an early age when he was molested and raped by a priest. He apparently wins a $1.4M judgment vs the church but his life is never the same bouncing in and out of rehab for drug abuse as well as therapy groups. They also had a sister who, while high on drugs, killed herself by jumping off the top of a building. Then there is their father played by Jon Voigt who, at the beginning of the film is released from 20 years in prison for a crime that he was set up for by none other than Ray. Immediately out of jail he returns to their city and finds the priest who raped his son, puts a gun in his mouth and blows him away. Then the father returns to the family unit where everyone seems to fear him. He is one evil dude as he begins to snort coke together with the son who was raped.
Ray tells everyone that if their father is allowed back in he will destroy the business they have developed and then the fun begins.
Elliot Gould plays Ezra who apparently is the biggest influence in Ray's life as he helped him establish his business.
While I didn't find this new series on a par of some of my favorites, it never the less did have some interesting plots and subplots to make me want more
7/10
