TV Show Review

TV Review: RAY DONOVAN: Season 3, Episode 6: Swing Vote [Showtime]

Katie Holmes Liev Schreiber Ray Donovan Swing Vote

Showtime’s Ray Donovan Swing Vote TV Show Review. Ray Donovan: Season 3, Episode 6: Swing Vote featured one of the most preposterous and unbelievable oversights by a business person character on a TV show that the viewer will likely ever witness. Strong business people look at all angles of a business deal. They look at the local and national environment a business deal is taking place in and take note of all the topography and players on the game board. As Ra’s al Ghul said in Batman Begins: “Always mind your surroundings.”

The people in charge of the Finney Football Deal, chiefly Paige Finney (Katie Holmes), were blithely ignorant of the environment their business deal was taking place in. That environment, like all elections, was a media circus happening right in front of them.

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How could Paige not know that the race was close or that the opposition was ahead in the polls? It would have been all over the news. The Real Paige Finney, not the one on Ray Donovan but a real business woman, would have been watching the gubernatorial race intently. The outcome of that political race would directly affect her stadium (and NFL deal) and the viewer is supposed to believe that Paige was unaware of the volatile earth below her plan? This Swing Vote plot point made no sense. It was like Dexter‘s writers had written this section of the episode. It was plot-convenient writing and a badly written plot point.

The only Finney that seemed cognizant of the electoral landscape was the slacker dreamer, Casey Finney (Guy Burnet). That was the ludicrous icing on the idiotic cake. The fact that Casey knew what was happening and no one else did in the Finney organization is not only unbelievable, it is impossible because of three inventions: the Internet, Television, and Newspapers. Do Ray Donovan‘s writers seriously want its viewers to believe that no one but the Finney underachiever was cognizant of which way the political winds were blowing?

It was a disservice to the show (and a slap in the face for fans) for its writers to believe this enormous plot hole would go unnoticed.

The Real Paige Finney would have been monitoring the race and would have expertly hedged: she would have given money to both campaigns and curried the favor of both candidates so no matter who won the gubernatorial race, she would have the legislative and political support of the sitting governor for years to common. The Real Paige Finney is a business entity that Ray Donovan‘s writers could not afford, they did not know how to write for her or around her so they got rid of her and put in her place a superficial business person dubbed Bizarro Paige. The Real Paige Finney was dumbed down to the point were a astronomic blunder like this, i.e. not paying attention to the governor’s race, was possible. Swing Vote‘s writers created a moronic world for Bizarro Paige to inhabit where everyone that had something at stake regarding the governor and the NFL deal didn’t pay attention to the most prevalent, ongoing electoral process. Kitty O’Neill of Boss would have a field day with these people.

Bunchy Donovan (Dash Mihok) new “friend” was a good influence on him in Swing Vote. I didn’t believe Bunchy’s ill-conceived long-shot had any chance of success. It wasn’t the success or failure of his courtship that made the resultant scenes in Swing Vote successful. It was the secondary scenario within the scenes, the trust-bond established between Bunchy and Father Romero (Leland Orser), that will bare the most narrative fruit this season.

What is interesting is that the viewer has no idea what Father Romero is going to do with his newly acquired Donovan knowledge. Black mail? Is he a catholic avenging angel? Did he know the murdered Priest? Is he a private investigator? Father Romero is an enigma and a good one.

Mickey Donovan (Jon Voight) is in a quagmire of his own making. Now, instead of working for himself, he is working not to get his bones broken or to be killed. Did it ever occur to Mickey that instead of acquiescing to ‘the bank”s partnership ‘request,’ to tell Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) and have Conor Donovan (Devon Bagby) sent out of the country until Ray had solved the problem? Mickey should be afraid that Ray will be enraged that Mickey, once again, had put Conor’s life at risk but getting people out of sticky situations is what Ray does for a living.

The Aryan Brotherhood segment of Swing Vote was handled effectively: a growing threat in the background. That allowed for suspense to be built up, much more than would have been accomplished by a clear and present on-screen danger. Seeing the fear seed planted and germinate in Terry Donovan (Eddie Marsan)’s mind was an incident that affected him in a way that the viewer wasn’t expecting. Terry is usually the calm one, the voice of reason in a situation. He walked into the prison octagon knowing he was going to face an Aryan in hand-to-hand combat. Why was he afraid to face one outside of prison? He was almost paralyzed with fear, of not knowing what was coming or when. Perhaps that was the culprit, the variable that pushed him over the anxiety precipice. The Aryan in prison he could identify and face. This threat was in the shadows. Like Michael Crichton said through his lead character in Sphere, the unknown can and probably will cause fear and absolute terror.

Leave your thoughts on this review and this episode of Ray Donovan below in the comments section. For more Ray Donovan reviews, photos, videos, and information, visit our Ray Donovan Page, our Ray Donovan Google+ Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, or “like” us on Facebook for quick updates.

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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