Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey

Jon Voight continues to put in a stellar performance in Ray Donovan 1.3 as Ray's father - irrepressible, blunt-talking, much-despised by Ray but lovable to just about everyone else, including most or all of the viewing audience, I would guess.

Among the new things we find out about Mickey in 1.3 -

• he likes Internet porn
• he's a self-proclaimed "ass man"
• he killed the wrong priest back in Boston - the pedophile priest's brother

All of this has the effect of making Ray's moves to put Mickey back in prison even more unsympathetic.   Since we've yet to learn the true source of Ray's hatred of his father, it's hard to understand why Ray is working so hard not only to keep Mickey away from his family (his in both senses - Ray's and Mickey's) but to get him back in jail.   It makes sense that Ray's kids and even Abby could be taken in by Mickey, but, as I mentioned in my review last week, why would Ray's older brother?

And if all of this wasn't enough to keep the pot boiling, the episode concludes with a new factor that literally turns up the heat - we learn that the FBI is investigating the whole family, with pictures on its under-investigation wall of both Mickey and Ray.   Since I like both Ray and Mickey, it looks as if the series is pitching us into a another situation of rooting against the legal good guys - the FBI - just as we did in The Sopranos and do about the Feds in Boardwalk Empire - which all works to the benefit of the story in my book.

See also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family

 


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