Ray Donovan – Season Four, Five, Six and Seven [2016 – 2019]

Ray Donovan goes through a great transformation with the second part of its seasons. The show finds its footing.

In the first three seasons, the show was rough, and sometimes painful to watch. At some points, I found it hard to justify continuing to watch it. But a healthy dose of sarcasm and great acting from Liev Schreiber kept me going.

However, something happens at the end of season four. It’s like the show has a new showrunner or something. Major events, major artistic change, way better. In seasons 4 and 5, Ray faces various challenges in his personal and professional life. He struggles with the fallout of a violent incident, the death of his wife, and the threat of the Russian mob. Meanwhile, Mickey schemes to rob a casino, pursues a career in the movie industry, and lands in jail. And as usual, Mickey’s actions result in personal damage to Ray and his brothers.

However, another shift happens at the beginning of season 6: Ray relocates to New York. This decision might have been considered as another artistic refreshment, and it worked great for the first half of the sixth season, but everything goes downhill from there. The seventh season made no sense in the character development. In fact, it should have been the first season‘s event instead of whatever mess we got.

Should you watch it?

The show reaches its peak between seasons 5 and 6. If you loved the first seasons, don’t bother. If you weren’t a fan like me, keep going. It gets too good.

Where can I watch it?

You can stream all seasons of Ray Donovan exclusively on Paramount+.