
Over the past several years I have caught an episode here and there of
Ray Donovan while travelling on business, but since I don't subscribe to cable and the streaming services I currently use do not offer the show, I have never watched more than that. Then Amazon put the entire first season up. It is an OTT hoot. Liev Schreiber is excellent in the lead (and almost scary when screaming at a priest), but it is veterans Jon Voight as his father and James Woods as the FBI's Most Wanted gangster who dominate the screen when they are on camera. If it is true that writers write what they know, what they know here is
Get Shorty, which they punch up with caricatures of various big name stars, venal Hollywood sorts, amateur boxing, and a not entirely convincing representation of Southie subculture. It is far more entertaining than it should be, all the more so because a couple characters (eg, Frank Whaley's FBI Agent) are poorly written, some of the plot points are pointless, and some subplots just fade away. Shoe fans may spy a pair of longwings with Dainite soles and wonder which company made/makes
those. Anyway, the show is good enough fun that I may temporarily subscribe to a streaming service with the remaining seasons.