Ray Donovan ended its third season recently and it remains one of the best, and most underrated, shows on TV.
If you haven’t seen the season 3 finale of Ray Donovan and want to avoid spoilers, we suggest you stop reading now. If you have seen it and want to hear our thoughts on season 4 then keep reading.
The latest season of the show saw Ray (Liev Schreiber) become even more distant from his family as he started to work for the Finney’s headed up by powerful patriarch Andrew (Ian McShane). As he became the family’s fixer, Ray got intertwined with Andrew’s scheming daughter Paige (Katie Holmes) both professionally and romantically.
As the season came to an end, Ray tried to prove his innocence when he was accused of murdering Paige’s husband Varick (Jason Butler Harner), who was having an affair with Andrew. He dug up the body and placed it in Andrew’s house so that the FBI would find the real killer. Ray also confessed to Father Romero (Leland Orser) of the abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest as a youngster before collapsing on the floor from a bullet wound after getting into a gun fight with the Minassians to help free Mickey (Jon Voight) from their control.
Elsewhere in the season finale things came to a head with Bridget (Kerris Dorsey) when Ray found out she was in a relationship with her teacher, Terry (Eddie Marsan) was shot when the Minassians tried to kill Mickey in his apartment, and Paige turned against her father and sided with Ray. Bunchy (Dash Mihok) also found out that he was going to become a father.
The show will return for a new season in 2016 and we’ve started to think about what we want when it does.
1. Terry to make a full recovery. The signs were looking good, as he was awake and speaking to Abby (Paula Malcomson) by the end of the season finale. Terry is such a pivotal character that we can’t imagine the show without him and to be quite honest he really does deserve a break.
2. Mickey to be more involved in the main storyline. During season 3 Mickey had his own storyline that saw him spend a lot of screentime with Daryll (Pooch Hall) and Bunchy as they took over a prostitute ring. Now that Ray has given Mickey his freedom back, but been double-crossed by his father in the process, we want to see much more interaction between Mickey and Ray in the next season.
3. Bunchy to step up as a father. He impulsively married Teresa (Alyssa Diaz) despite hardly knowing her and he found out that he was going to be a father. Initially he reacted badly to the news but we hope that Bunchy can find some peace and happiness with Teresa. We’re still not convinced she married him for the right reasons but we’ve got our fingers crossed that she’s the one for him.
4. Bridget to spiral further. She was last seen packing her bags and leaving home after Ray punched out her teacher turned lover. Bridget has so much rage that the only way she’s going to go is further down the spiral. Kerris Dorsey brought her A game in season 3 and we can’t wait to see what she does in season 4.
5. Abby to break away from Ray. The two will always been involved with one another but we’ve enjoyed seeing Abby’s independent and feisty side. We’re interested to see the show further explore her new-found attraction to Terry as that will cause huge ructions, especially as Ray already accused Terry of having feelings for his wife.
6. The Finney family drama to be over. We enjoyed the Finney’s, for the most part, but with Andrew heading to prison (so it seems) we’re not sure there’s anywhere else for that storyline to go. We’d also be pretty happy not to see Paige again next season…
7. More scenes with Ray, Avi (Steven Bauer) and Lena (Katherine Moennig). Ray finally got over his anger at Avi and his old team were back together and working seamlessly once again. The show is at its best when the three characters are on the same side and their chemistry is one of the things that makes the show so good.
8. Continued character development for Daryll. We were so pleased that Daryll got his own storylines this season. Pooch Hall is a fantastic actor and we’re interested to find out even more about the Donovan brother that still has the most mystery. He stood up to Mickey and was about to go on the straight and narrow until his prostitute girlfriend was accidentally gunned down and killed. We can’t wait to see how that anger plays out.
9. Conor (Devon Bagby) to get something to do. Is it just us or was Conor pretty pointless in season 3? There’s SO much potential with the character but he didn’t get much chance to shine at all. The storyline with Tommy Wheeler (Austin Nichols) still hasn’t amounted to anything so maybe that will be revisited in season 4?
10. An evolved Ray. We know that Ray will survive his injury (he has to right seeing as the show is named after him?) and after everything he has been through in the past three seasons, he must finally learn that he is often the master of his own downfall. Now he’s confronted his past, got away from Finney’s control and seen his family fall to pieces, Ray has surely got to start acting a bit smarter? We know he’ll always be a fixer but we hope he sees that his family really needs him.
Ray Donovan will return for a fourth season to Showtime and Sky Atlantic HD in 2016.
