TV Review: RAY DONOVAN: Season 3, Episode 1: The Kalamazoo [Showtime]

Showtime’s Ray Donovan The Kalamazoo TV Show Review. Ray Donovan: Season 3, Episode 1: The Kalamazoo left open a plot hole from Season 2.

Terry Donovan (Eddie Marsan) said “Get the f*ck outta here Mick” while locked in the safe room with the security guard during Rodef. The security guard must have told the police Terry’s utterance when questioned after the robbery. Here is what Ray Donovan‘s writers want the viewer to believe: when the police were told this, they didn’t immediately run a search on Terry’s known associates against the name or nickname “Mick.” That is standard police procedure. It is a simple Internet, DMV, or family tree search. Such a search would have immediately turned up Mick-ey Donovan, a person formally incarcerated for armed robbery (the very crime Terry was caught committing). Ray Donovan‘s writers want you to believe that when the security guard told the police Terry’s words, they ran no such search, that they were that inept and incompetent, that they were Dexter-grade detectives. A rookie ‘beat’ cop would have run “Mick” against Terry’s known associates. If Ray Donovan‘s writers weren’t going to have its police pursue this tantalizing tidbit of information (like normal cops), why give it in the first place? Was the knowledgeable and observant viewer not supposed to notice?

Then there is the fact that Mickey said in front of the security guard during Rodef: “Where’s Ronald?” By finding Mickey, the police would have found his probation officer, Ronald Keith, as well.

The viewer of The Kalamazoo is not supposed to think about these two points. They never happened.

The viewer finds out in The Kalamazoo that Mickey Donovan was never questioned about the robbery (by assessment – because if he was and was found guilty of armed robbery, like Terry, they would have never let him out of prison again). So the writers of Ray Donovan, knowing this fact, hoped the viewers shut off their brains to the Terry “Get the f*ck outta here Mick” point and the Ronald point. Many did and never noticed. I couldn’t and did. I have seen too many police dramas not to do so.

What Mickey Donovan (Jon Voight) eventually did with pimp Gary Royal (Chris Browning) was telegraphed from a mile away. Did Mickey do what he did to free someone from the yoke they had found themselves in (and the resultant situation) or because he saw a latent opportunity that needed a nudge to be fully exploited? I believe it was a mixture of both. Mickey’s plan could have easily have gone awry (e.g. someone peeping through the blinds of the one of the apartments) but Mickey Donovan has never been a clever criminal. He has been a lucky one though.

Seeing Mickey ‘selling’ and trying to ‘close’ the pimp on opening up shop at a particular venue was why his character is such a joy to watch and listen to. Dramatic television doesn’t get much better than watching Mickey Donovan sell himself or something he is passionate about on-screen.

Ray Donovan‘s writers needed Mickey broke again so that he could scheme and get into hijinks during Season 3, like in previous seasons. Mickey couldn’t be affluent, he couldn’t be flush with cash. He couldn’t have invested his track winnings or obtained the services of a money manager to invest his winnings  for him while placing him on an allowance. A forward thinking, long-term person would have done one of those things (or just kept the money for a rainy day). Not Mickey. The same goes for his son Daryll Donovan (Pooch Hall), a narrative necessity.

The viewer is given no indication on what the two of them spent their winnings on expect the condo they co-inhabit (though, to be fair, Mickey could have simply blown the money on off-screen stuff e.g. prostitutes, drugs, etc.). Here is the problem with that plot point: societal dregs live in his condominium complex. Mickey would have had nearly a quarter of a million dollar from his race track win. His son would have had a similar amount (a four way split, Terry getting the largest piece). Could people down on their luck (the inhabitants of the condominium complex) really afford the same type of condo that two people with nearly a half a million dollars at their disposal afford? I don’t believe so but Mickey is a curious fellow and might like being around hard-working, lower-to-middle class people. He has, after all, been one of them all of his life.

When a key character in Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber)’s life died during The Kalamazoo, the viewer realized how close this person felt to Ray. The viewer also saw how much this character regretted their action last season in Rodef, causing the eventual rift between this person and “Raymond.” This character wished they could undo what they had done but there was no undoing it. Kate McPherson was dead. There was only sorrow left, only remorse over a destroyed relationship (though there was barely any regret over an innocent person’s murder).

Ray was back to form in The Kalamazoo yet floating in a grey area with his family and friends. He did his job as efficiently as ever, even forming a new business relationship) but his home life was non-existent. He was almost completely emotionally shut down. He really liked Kate McPherson and her death had effected him. Was he in mourning or did he not like the world that he existed in that got Kate killed? I believe it was both thus his morose demeanor. That is his world. That is what puts food on the table. He knows nothing else but that world.

The question is, how is Terry Donovan adjusting to that world?

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