User Reviews

The writers have so much more in them than this. Apparently Abby has gone to the Great Beyond and all we got was a tee shirt showing Abby smiling at Ray like he was the second coming of Christ and not the man that cheated on her constantly and let her down more often than a new hairdresser. Frankly if they threw in the pottery wheel from Ghost and the theme song from Love Story we would have a trifecta. Abby and Ray NEVER looked at each other or talked to each other the way they portrayed them in these saccharin sweet flashbacks. This felt like carnival hucksters throwing smoke and mirror gimmicks to deal with Abby's death...way too Common.

Adjunct: A wedding looks like it may burn out before it begins. A friendship is formed with Rays daughter and a male that may be harboring some of her mothers body parts. Bumbling brother continues to bumble. Ray is introduced to Susan Sarandon who, by the way, still has it.

My SO and I genuinely thought they were bating us with the cemetery, I mean, they wouldn't kill Abby would they? As the episode progresses, we see that they did and Ray, is devestated. Our hard faced Ray is truly broken. And I'm curious to keep watching to see how he's going to handle his life now. Who is ray if he doesn't have Abby? I disagree with all the bad reviews, this is a whole new layer. And in rays work, his "career" is shaken up yet again. He's never doing the same thing for long. Season 4 really dragged on for me, after a stellar season 3. I was relieved when 4 was done, and with 5, I see a fresh story line emerging.

I said at the end of Season 3 that the writing was becoming worse. I actually enjoyed the first two - three seasons. I persevered through the fourth season after predicting from the final episode of season 3 that we were going under. I had read a lot of reviews about awful Abby's death was handled. I was pleasantly surprised when the first episode of season five just gave us the news that Abby had died "in between" seasons, so-to-speak. I thought "how wonderful" - "how forward thinking." But, then we are actually dragged through her dying through the entire season five. It is painful to watch. It is unnecessary to watch. I mean, if it were a documentary on cancer and the right to end one's own life - I am all for the education. But in the setting of Ray Donovan it is grueling and overwrought. Ugh. Enough, already. Plus, we get to watch Ray Donovan whom I started out liking behave like a sociopath and disgusting animal as he tries desperately to save his wife's life while she just wants to die.

The first three seasons were amazing, season 4 was ok, not the greatest, season 5 is starting off with an interesting twisty take, keeps you guessing a bit, how much time has gone by ? what happened at the big fight? how did Abby die ? why is Conner in Military School (he belongs there, he is a big idiot dick with ears, IMO) and what is Bridget doing and why doesn't she talk to Ray any more, I get what the other reviewers are saying, but I am going to keep watching because i want to know what happened, and also what happened to Avi ?

Spoilers**** Thank you to the person who told me to watch episode 8 first. This season is all in flashback and Jumbled. I kept thinking did I miss something during the first episodes. So it's best you watch episode 8 to make the rest of this season make sense.

The acting of Abby is phenomenal. She wanted to leave this season, so this was written in.

This season concentrates on the romance of Ray and Abby and helps you understand their complicated relationship and the tolerance of Abby to his violence.

What more do you want me to say? Why did these reviews have to be so long ?

I told you all I know. It's in the F in Midol. Enjoy yourself.

I don't know what the f came over me Here's some dialogue to make it longer how.

Slow, melancholy, way too many flashbacks. A far cry from what this show is all about. I suspect RD has passed its peak. Writer-director Hollander must have awakened one morning with a "big idea" -- hey, let's kill off Abby and keep her death a "mystery" throughout the entire season! All the characters will start out saddened by her loss, so the new episodes will all have a "fresh, new look"! What a genius I am! (More like geni-ASS, IMHO.)

So they killed the only interesting female character (and near Ray's age) in the series, and we are now left with the cartoonish sketch that is Ray's assistant, the various starlets Ray will most definitely date and that titanically stupid character that is Ray's daughter (the greatest idiot and the most boring young female character on TV at the moment). Spare us.

Do yourself a favor and watch episode 8 of season 5 first. It was clearly intended to be the first episode. It explained what came after, in sequence. It appears the someone got the bright idea to put the first episode in the middle to keep the viewers guessing, lest we lose interest. This tactic only kept me guessing if I'd missed an episode or queued up the wrong season. I nearly quit the series. Why did Avi become a different person? Why was Abby dead? And what did Bridget's boyfriend in New York have to do with it? I slogged through to episode 8 and realized it was really episode 1. They put it in the middle to try and be clever... Well, It's not clever, just annoying. This show is past it's prime