Why So Blu?

Ray Donovan follows the life of a “Fixer” who serves to clean up messy situations that wealthy folks in the public eye would prefer to have swept under the rug without the “trouble” that they would endure, should they involve the police.  This season we catch up with Ray as he is still reeling from the events that occurred between him and his wife, while his brother Terry fights to survive in prison.  His business partners are slowly pulling away from him to the point where Ray will have to make a difficult decision in order keep going.

I think the best way that I could describe this show would be to compare it to Sons of Anarchy, but if sons of anarchy had way more money and a little more class.  Though it does focus primarily on Ray (played by Liev Schreiber), it also delves into the lives of his family as well.  I feel like a more accurate title would be “The Donovan Family” rather than just Ray Donovan as each of the other characters seem to have as much screen time as Ray himself.  Though each of the Donovan’s story lines seem to only partially, if at all connect to Ray’s, they do provide a somewhat engaging look into each of their lives.

 

This show continues a developing trend that’s becoming more and more common which is to position the anti-hero of the series as the protagonist.  We’ve seen it expertly done in shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men.  But Donovan doesn’t really have any redeeming qualities about him.  All of the characters seem pretty ruthless and more or less out for themselves.  Even in The Sopranos there were a few likable characters, but that’s just not the case here.  Everyone seems pretty down in the dumps about their situation and is blaming everyone else for their lot in life when it’s pretty clear that THEY’RE the cause of their problems.  The Donovan’s are the kind of people that if you saw them walking down the street, regardless as to what they were wearing, you’d probably assume that they had dealt Cocaine at some point in there life! lol

In this day and age I had hoped that Ray Donovan would have a broader appeal and focus. It’s pretty clear that this show is written exclusively from the male perspective. That’s not to say that you can’t have male oriented stories anymore. But there’s no reason why we can’t bring the female point of view into these types of shows as well. If anything, it makes it even more entertaining for the men to watch as well.  Now a lot of people may argue that when you write from a female perspective you tend to loose the sexy or violent scenes. But I think shows like house of cards and game of thrones prove that that just isn’t the case.

Disc 1:

The Kalamazoo

Ding

Come and Knock on Our Door

Breakfast of Champions

Disc 2:

Handshake Deal

Swing Vote

All Must Be Loved

Tulip

Disc 3:

The Octopus

Video

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Clarity/Detail:  Crisp and very clear. No blurriness whatsoever.

Depth:  Fairly good depth. Although there aren’t many opportunities to take advantage of it.  Most of the shots are pretty close.

Black Levels:  Rich and accurate.  There are shorts of the LA skyline that are pretty nice to look at.

Color Reproduction:  Excellent and vibrant colors.

Flesh Tones:  Shiny and clear.  But not to the point of being cartoonish.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.  No problems here to speak of.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles: English, English SDH

Dynamics:  Not a lot of dynamic shifts.  Most of the actors speak at a somewhat hushed level.  But when they do yell it’s seems balanced and doesn’t become jarring.

Low Frequency Extension:  Aside from a the scenes that take place of the Boxing gym there aren’t many moments that take advantage of the LFE.

Surround Sound Presentation:  N/A.

Dialogue Reproduction: Considering how low every tends to speak in the this it’s impressive just how clear you’re able to hear the dialogue.

Summary

This is definitely the kind of show that you can put on and enjoy in the background.  It won’t require your undivided attention, but it will adequately serve as an enjoyably distraction.  Schreiber’s performance without a doubt stands out among the other characters.  But that’s not to say that he’s firing on all cylinders.  This is a much more subdued performance compared to what he did in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. The character of Ray Donovan is someone who exist at simmering boil that’s ready to spill over at a moments notice.