Ray Donovan's fifth season had its ups and downs. I wrote about its moody finale as well as the way the show handled the death of a core character (don't click if you aren't caught up with Season 5 yet!), the latter of which was one of the show's better moments. And yet, getting rid of such a major character is a problem for a show that works best when it's focused on family. It also may be a little concerning that a series so focused on LA is now taking a leap to New York in its sixth season. However, at a roundtable junket interview in Berlin for Isle of Dogs, Liev Schreiber revealed that though Ray is moving back to the east coast, the Donovan clan won't be forgotten:

“We pick up where we left off [...] we’re working on the first five scripts, and Ray’s family is there, for the most part. And they come and go and there are events that require their presence, and some of it will also continue to shoot in LA. Mickey’s in prison, Bunchy’s still in LA, Terry comes to New York to train that fighter. But there are some events fairly early on the season that get them all together again.”

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Image via Showtime

Having Mickey back in prison (for real this time) is another major change for the show (although one suspects he'll be getting into trouble and running scams there soon enough). Overall, it sounds like there will be plenty of reasons for the brothers to work together in this new season, which could be a little bit of a reboot. Season 5 did some interesting things with time to start off with, but then abandoned that a few episodes in. Will the New York move stick? The family was also extremely fractured last year, so hopefully -- despite the distance -- we'll see a Ray Donovan that feels refreshed, and a family that finds their way back to one another.

Working on such an intense show also takes its toll, though, as Schreiber continued, saying that as amazing as Showtime has been to work with throughout the series,“It’s a very intense show, and to do it for 6 months is hard. I never used to be someone who was deep cover or deep method. But there’s no denying that when you play a character for that long, you fool your body into thinking that, you know, those are all hormonal responses. You call on anger, you call on shame, you call on grief, and your body produces it for the camera. And there’s a point at which where you go whoa, I’ve been doing that for a long time."

And since we're talking about Ray, expect plenty more of that in Season 6.

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Image via Showtime
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Image via Showtime
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Image via Showtime