This TV show is the best dramatic representation of the Los Angeles I’ve experienced. It reminds me of the Jewish pornographers I’ve interviewed and the Italian and Irish tough guys I’ve met. It’s inspired by the career of fixer Anthony Pellicano. In 2003, I broke the story of Pellicano’s connection to the bullet hole in journalist Anita Busch‘s windshield.
If any mainstream journalist wrote about Hollywood Jews the way this TV show depicts them, he’d be in for a world of hurt.
The Jewish temple this show most evokes for me is Stephen S. Wise on Mulholland Drive.
Ray Donovan is the Most Important Jewish Show on Television Today
…contains the most fascinating conversation about Jewish culture on television today.
The J.Q. (“Jew Quotient”) of Ray Donovan is insane…
While Goodman consults with the Torah before engaging in nefarious activities, Avi consults only with his instinct to survive. Together, Ezra and Avi wage an improbable Jewish war over Ray’s soul with Ezra tapping Ray’s moral conscience and Avi, his will to survive.
There are other characters that should immediately trigger your jewdar (unctuous Hollywood producer Stu Feldman, yenta neighbor Judy Hoffman, and judging marriage counselor Dr. Finkel), but perhaps the most interesting “Jewish” character on the show might be Ray himself.
For me there is no greater compliment than “offensive.”
Queerty suggests Ray Donovan is the most offensive show on TV:
Have you heard? Apparently everyone in Hollywood with any power is Jewish. Is this the Southies’ perspective or some universal truth we’re being alerted to? Elliot Gould’s character, a partner in a talent management firm, and the one responsible for importing Ray from Boston, is in mourning for his recently deceased wife and it’s an excuse for him to rediscover his Jewishness and spout Yiddish exclamations! to break the tension where appropriate (you can imagine the writer’s room cards being rearranged). Gould’s partner, played by Peter Jacobson (House), gets to play the money-grubbing Jew-agent type, screaming! screaming! screaming! into his phone headset against a 10th floor Beverly Hills view. Oy, he’s gonna have a heart attack, he’s so stressed! And for good measure there’s the cowardly Jew-producer type “Stu Feldman”(Josh Pais) who also yells a lot — about drive-ons! — but is ultimately craven. Check that off your list of stereotypes.
