I recently concluded that I need to take a bit of a break from watching
Boardwalk Empire. I will return to it at some point, but for now, it’s on the shelf at the beginning of season 4. Perhaps with so many things on my list, it may be that the standards are a bit higher. Whatever the reason, I turned my attention to the Showtime series
Ray Donovan. I just finished season 1, and it passed the stay awake late at night test that
Boardwalk Empire failed more than once. One of the things I like about
Ray Donovan is that it seems to hit a modern day noir sweet spot. You see, the Dude has an affinity for nostalgic things, kitschy things, and things that are direct, to the point, and no nonsense. Liev Schreiber plays the main character, Ray Donovan, a “fixer” working for a high powered L.A. law firm. Think Olivia Pope from
Scandal (I only made it through a couple of those) only Ray and his crew are the adults-only, California via South Boston versions. Yet, despite Ray’s methods and questionable moral choices, I’ve developed a fondness for his character. I’ve asked myself why – why am I (and others) drawn to these types of characters? Why are we empathetic towards the Don Draper, Tony Soprano, and Ray Donovan? Well, I think it’s because even though they ain’t perfect, they know and accept who they are and their place in the world. As Rust Cohle said in
True Detective: “I know who I am. And after all these years, there’s a victory in that.” I think it’s also about the allure of their self-confidence and the fact that they take no crap from any other man, and their take no crap-ness seems to be (at least in principle) guided by doing the right thing. But we’ve seen most of these questionable but likeable characters on other shows unravel in front of us. Undoubtedly, it will probably happen eventually with Ray Donovan.
Much of the appeal about
Ray Donovan is the look and feel of the show. I’ve always liked the classics of California Noir (
Chinatown,
LA Confidential, Robert Altman’s
Short Cuts, and of course all the oldies), and especially writing by the likes of James Ellroy and Raymond Carver (that’s Carver, not Chandler).
Ray Donovan seems to aptly capture a fast forwarded version of these (with the aforementioned South Boston tint), and I dig it. Only 2 Nebraska libraries have season 1 of
Ray Donovan in their collection, according to WorldCat. The supporting cast includes John Voight, who brilliantly plays Ray’s sleazy (again, with periods of doing the right thing) dad Mickey. The show provides way more depth than Ray’s “fixing” with the story of the family dynamic between Mickey, Ray, Ray’s brothers, and their sordid past.
Now, when watching
Ray Donovan, it made me think of something I watched a few years ago, one of the best crime drama series, ever, HBO’s
The Wire. I wondered why. Perhaps it is due to the recent news involving the Baltimore Po-lice. Six Nebraska libraries have
The Wire DVD in their collection (WorldCat). The reason
The Wire is so far up on the list is how it absolutely nails many of the real but dysfunctional aspects of our lives and society, some of which are now starting to be covered in depth by mainstream media. From police to news reporters to criminals to politicians to institutions (including prisons, the legal system, and public schools)
The Wire gets most of it right in the bleak and depressing reality. We probably could add libraries to the list, even though they do not appear on the series. Sure, there is some comic relief provided here and there (mostly at the expense of the cops), but this is a serious drama. For you Mystery fiction fans, the writers for
The Wire include George Pelecanos, Richard Price, and Dennis Lehane. The series takes place in inner city Baltimore.
Finally, a somewhat lengthy but relevant quote from
The Wire creator
David Simon, summing up the show (and our current state of affairs):
“And so in my country you’re seeing a horror show. You’re seeing a retrenchment in terms of family income, you’re seeing the abandonment of basic services, such as public education, functional public education. You’re seeing the underclass hunted through an alleged war on dangerous drugs … And that’s what
The Wire was about basically, it was about people who were worth less and who were no longer necessary, as maybe 10 or 15% of my country is no longer necessary to the operation of the economy. It was about them trying to solve, for lack of a better term, an existential crisis. In their irrelevance, their economic irrelevance, they were nonetheless still on the ground occupying this place called Baltimore and they were going to have to endure somehow … And they realized it’s not just about race, it’s about something even more terrifying. It’s about class. Are you at the top of the wave or are you at the bottom? So how does it get better? In 1932, it got better because they dealt the cards again and there was a communal logic that said nobody’s going to get left behind.” Shaka.
I recently concluded that I need to take a bit of a break from watching Boardwalk Empire. I will return to it at some point, but for now, it’s on the shelf at the beginning of season 4. Perhaps with so many things on my list, it may be that the standards are a bit higher. Whatever the reason, I turned my attention to the Showtime series Ray Donovan. I just finished season 1, and it passed the stay awake late at night test that Boardwalk Empire failed more than once. One of the things I like about Ray Donovan is that it seems to hit a modern day noir sweet spot. You see, the Dude has an affinity for nostalgic things, kitschy things, and things that are direct, to the point, and no nonsense. Liev Schreiber plays the main character, Ray Donovan, a “fixer” working for a high powered L.A. law firm. Think Olivia Pope from Scandal (I only made it through a couple of those) only Ray and his crew are the adults-only, California via South Boston versions. Yet, despite Ray’s methods and questionable moral choices, I’ve developed a fondness for his character. I’ve asked myself why – why am I (and others) drawn to these types of characters? Why are we empathetic towards the Don Draper, Tony Soprano, and Ray Donovan? Well, I think it’s because even though they ain’t perfect, they know and accept who they are and their place in the world. As Rust Cohle said in True Detective: “I know who I am. And after all these years, there’s a victory in that.” I think it’s also about the allure of their self-confidence and the fact that they take no crap from any other man, and their take no crap-ness seems to be (at least in principle) guided by doing the right thing. But we’ve seen most of these questionable but likeable characters on other shows unravel in front of us. Undoubtedly, it will probably happen eventually with Ray Donovan.
Much of the appeal about Ray Donovan is the look and feel of the show. I’ve always liked the classics of California Noir (Chinatown, LA Confidential, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, and of course all the oldies), and especially writing by the likes of James Ellroy and Raymond Carver (that’s Carver, not Chandler). Ray Donovan seems to aptly capture a fast forwarded version of these (with the aforementioned South Boston tint), and I dig it. Only 2 Nebraska libraries have season 1 of Ray Donovan in their collection, according to WorldCat. The supporting cast includes John Voight, who brilliantly plays Ray’s sleazy (again, with periods of doing the right thing) dad Mickey. The show provides way more depth than Ray’s “fixing” with the story of the family dynamic between Mickey, Ray, Ray’s brothers, and their sordid past.
Now, when watching Ray Donovan, it made me think of something I watched a few years ago, one of the best crime drama series, ever, HBO’s The Wire. I wondered why. Perhaps it is due to the recent news involving the Baltimore Po-lice. Six Nebraska libraries have The Wire DVD in their collection (WorldCat). The reason The Wire is so far up on the list is how it absolutely nails many of the real but dysfunctional aspects of our lives and society, some of which are now starting to be covered in depth by mainstream media. From police to news reporters to criminals to politicians to institutions (including prisons, the legal system, and public schools) The Wire gets most of it right in the bleak and depressing reality. We probably could add libraries to the list, even though they do not appear on the series. Sure, there is some comic relief provided here and there (mostly at the expense of the cops), but this is a serious drama. For you Mystery fiction fans, the writers for The Wire include George Pelecanos, Richard Price, and Dennis Lehane. The series takes place in inner city Baltimore.
Finally, a somewhat lengthy but relevant quote from The Wire creator David Simon, summing up the show (and our current state of affairs):
“And so in my country you’re seeing a horror show. You’re seeing a retrenchment in terms of family income, you’re seeing the abandonment of basic services, such as public education, functional public education. You’re seeing the underclass hunted through an alleged war on dangerous drugs … And that’s what The Wire was about basically, it was about people who were worth less and who were no longer necessary, as maybe 10 or 15% of my country is no longer necessary to the operation of the economy. It was about them trying to solve, for lack of a better term, an existential crisis. In their irrelevance, their economic irrelevance, they were nonetheless still on the ground occupying this place called Baltimore and they were going to have to endure somehow … And they realized it’s not just about race, it’s about something even more terrifying. It’s about class. Are you at the top of the wave or are you at the bottom? So how does it get better? In 1932, it got better because they dealt the cards again and there was a communal logic that said nobody’s going to get left behind.” Shaka. 
