Ray Donovan ‘Has Embraced His Self-Righteousness’ In Season Three

Warning: This article may contain spoilers for Ray Donovan.

Ray Donovan has recently had shake-ups on screen, as well as behind the camera. In the context of the Ray Donovan story, Ray has found himself on his own, after betrayals have eliminated most people from his life, leaving Donovan feeling more “self-righteous” than ever, said the new Ray Donovan showrunner, David Hollander.

Coming in as Ray Donovan gets into its third season has been a challenge, admits Hollander.

“Ann Biderman was more than a big part of the show, she created it and she curated it. She set the tone for this world so a lot of my job has been to find and continue the story. To try and maintain what Ray Donovan as a show is and also look for new areas that we haven’t explored yet.”

David added that, as he familiarized himself with the overall Ray Donovan story, he felt that a time jump was the best option, regarding how previous subplots had unfolded to this point. The new showrunner wanted to delve deeper into some of those subplots and to move forward in other areas, which all seemed to necessitate a time jump for Ray Donovan.

Hollander describes a Ray who is very set in his ways, as the new season of Ray Donovan moves forward and someone who is too set in his ways to open his heart to forgiveness at this time.

“Ray has embraced his self-righteousness. He’s not going to forgive people for their actions they took. It’s just a little bit hypocritical, but it is Ray. He won’t forgive Ezra and Avi for killing Kate (Vinessa Shaw). He won’t forgive Abby for her affair. He won’t forgive himself for the abuse that he tolerated or the way he’s hidden it. And he’s all very isolating.”

Katie Holmes‘ Paige Finney plays a significant part of Ray’s life, as he accepts work with her family, and Donovan finds her to be a complex individual, even on the surface.

“She’s really built to reflect; she has her own aspirations and she’s in a very complicated relationship with her father (Ian McShane) in a very complicated family. Part of Ray’s new job this season is to manage that family. To manage not just the family’s needs for him in the business, but the family. So between tasks he finds himself being asked to deal with and watch and protect McShane’s character from what Paige might be up to.”

Speaking of supporting characters, Hollander reveals that the third season of Ray Donovan will explore Abby (Paula Malcomson) more closely, delving into her past and revealing why she does the things that she does.

“We thought a lot about her this year and have given Abby a deeper mining of her background. We are putting her in a place where we can explore what makes her tick a little more and get a little more empathy in the understanding of her, for sure…She grows up a bit this year and she changes her approach to Ray a bit.”

The next episode of Ray Donovan airs Sunday July 19 on Showtime.

[Featured image: Liev Schreiber courtesy of Showtime/Ray Donovan]