‘Shabbos Goy‘ paints the picture of a man in distress. Ray has completely lost track of how to cope with the loss of a lifetime and is attempting to meander through his rigorous daily routines without a clear head. Ray has begun experimenting with Antidepressants that his court ordered therapist prescribed. Leading to yet another opportunity for Ray to dabble in excess. Excess seems to be the theme of this season in a multitude of ways. An excess of storylines, an excess of stupid behavior and an excess of emotions. Outside of the first two outstanding episodes of Ray Donovan Season 5, this season has chugged along with tons of disconnected story lines and a rotating cast of characters. We haven’t seen or heard from Connor in quite some time and Susan Sarandon’s character has just recently become a steady figure on the show. I’m not sure if the actors on the show have become too tied up in other roles to properly portray their characters and serve a purpose but something is up, and with every new episode this issue is becoming more evident.
As for the storylines, we can follow, Bunchy’s situation is still one of the worst I’ve ever seen on TV. Doubling down this week with one of the most cringe worthy lines I’ve heard in quite some time. “I just wanted a sandwich”. For those unaware (SPOILER), Bunchy lost over $1.5 million last week when he was robbed trying to buy a sandwich, from a sandwich shop that was being held up next to the bank he was supposed to drop the money off at. Yes, you read that right. Of course, once he told Mickey what happened he didn’t question his judgment or the fact that is an actual story line on a major critically acclaimed premium cable TV show, he just found a band aid and managed to temporarily solve Bunchy’s fuck up.
The saving grace of this season so far has been the developing story between Susan Sarandon’s character and a truly broken Ray. The situation he’s handling for her while complicated is not beyond the scope of a fully functioning Ray’s abilities. In fact, it’s one of the simpler tasks he’s had to pull off. She’s cooperative, to the point and rarely creates more drama than necessary in regard to the situation. But with Ray sleep walking through his days, burdened with a mountain of grief it makes the situation more than interesting. It’s never fun to see the characters you’ve grown to love over the years deal with tragedy but through all of Ray’s grief, at least for me, I think that once he’s worked through this, he’ll truly become the man we’ve thought he could become since the very beginning of season 1.
Ray Donovan airs Sunday nights at 8 PM EST on Showtime.
