Television series

Ray Donovan

Name: Ray Donovan
Genre: Drama, Action, Crime
Released: 2013
Cast: Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, Eddie Marsan, Kerris Dorsey, Dash Mihok

Ray Donovan is Los Angeles noir with a Boston accent — a fixer who solves the messes of the rich so brutally he can't fix his own family. Liev Schreiber plays a coiled, quietly seething lead surrounded by scene-stealing chaos from Jon Voight's ex-con father. It's soapy, violent, and addictive: a slow-burn tragedy about inherited damage dressed up as a crime thriller.

TVMaze rating

8.1

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The Sopranos1999

The blueprint for every prestige crime drama since, including this one — a mob boss in therapy, a family rotting from the inside, violence that never once feels like fun. This is where Ray's whole genre began.

But Slower and more meditative than Ray Donovan, with long dinner-table tension standing in for action.

The Shield2002

Vic Mackey is the LA cop version of Ray — corrupt, magnetic, always one step from ruin. Ferociously paced and morally filthy in exactly the way that makes you root for the wrong guy.

But Rougher, grittier LA than Ray Donovan's Hollywood-Hills sheen — less glamour, more concrete.

Justified2010

Elmore Leonard's Kentucky lawman versus his own criminal past, told in whip-crack dialogue with the same sense that family and violence can't be separated. Funnier than Ray Donovan, but just as dangerous.

But Southern twang and rural setting are a world away from Ray's LA glamour — different flavour entirely.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

BoJack Horseman2014

Both are studies of a man who cannot outrun the wreckage his father left in him, using self-destruction disguised as competence — one plays it as prestige tragedy, the other as tragicomic cartoon.

An animated, deeply funny show about a man whose father broke something in him that he can't stop breaking in everyone else — the same inherited damage as Ray Donovan, just with talking animals and killer one-liners.

But It's a cartoon comedy about a horse, and the tonal whiplash from jokes into genuine devastation isn't for everyone.

Sons of Anarchy2008

A biker club instead of a fixer's office, but the same engine: brothers bound by blood and violence, fathers whose sins never stay buried. Big, operatic, unafraid of body counts.

But Leans harder into pulp and spectacle than psychology — expect more explosions and leather than quiet family dread.

Animal Kingdom2016

A crime family held together by a terrifying matriarch instead of a patriarch, with the same slow unravelling of siblings who can't outrun what they were raised to do.

But Sunnier, more youth-focused Southern California setting than Ray Donovan's grimy fixer world.

Peaky Blinders2013

Swap LA fixers for Birmingham gangsters and you get the same blood-and-brothers formula — a family dynasty scarred by trauma, led by a magnetic, damaged man trying to hold it all together.

But Post-WWI England and its class politics are a very different texture from Ray's Hollywood underworld.

Boardwalk Empire2010

Prohibition-era crime with the same scale and ambition — a sprawling ensemble, a corrupt kingpin at the centre, family loyalty working as both weapon and weakness.

But More period detail and political maneuvering, less of the tight family-therapy focus Ray Donovan thrives on.

Ozark2017

A financial fixer instead of a physical one, dragging his family ever deeper into a mess he created — the same dread that competence can't save you from consequences.

But Colder and more clinical in tone, with less of Ray Donovan's raw, brawling emotional chaos.

Rescue Me2004no page yet

Denis Leary's damaged firefighter is Ray's spiritual cousin — working-class masculinity, grief, addiction, and a family that loves each other by tearing each other apart.

But Broader and more overtly comedic in tone, set in a firehouse rather than Hollywood's underbelly.

Sweet Smell of Success1957

It's the same fixer archetype at the birth of the genre — a man selling his soul in service of the powerful, decades before Ray Donovan updated the job for Hollywood and gave it a gun.

A vicious, gorgeous black-and-white noir about a press agent who fixes reputations and destroys lives for New York's powerful — Ray Donovan's job description, sixty years earlier and shot like a knife.

But No violence, no family subplot — just cold, verbal cruelty. If you want the action side of Ray, this won't scratch it.

Friday Night Lights2006

Both shows are really about fathers and the weight they hand down without meaning to — Ray Donovan tells it through crime, this tells it through a small Texas town and a football team.

Swap crime for high school football and you still get the same aching engine — men trying to be good fathers while failing at it, and kids paying the price for their parents' choices.

But Gentle and hopeful where Ray Donovan is brutal and cynical; this one actually believes people can change.