Sorry Reacher, The Best "Dad Show" Of All Time Aired On Showtime 10 Years Ago

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For fans who love a TV show like Reacher, the appeal is obvious - stoic masculinity, brooding heroes, and justice served with a clenched jaw and clenched fists. Reacher, based on Lee Child’s novels and led by Alan Ritchson’s physically imposing performance, delivers the kind of straightforward action storytelling that speaks to dads everywhere. It's a gritty, self-assured series packed with hand-to-hand combat, small-town corruption, and a hero you’d never bet against in a bar fight. The Amazon Prime Video hit has carved out its niche in the Dad Show Hall of Fame by leaning into old-school thrills and no-nonsense problem-solving.

Here’s the thing, though: Reacher didn’t invent this genre, and it didn’t perfect it either. A full decade before Jack Reacher punched his way through dirty sheriffs and drug-dealing kingpins, another show gave viewers a similar high. Not only that, but it did it with more emotional complexity, more layered storytelling, and a main character who could crack skulls and crack under the weight of his past. The best Dad Show of all time aired on Showtime beginning in 2013, and its name was Ray Donovan.

Ray Donovan Was Already The Perfect "Dad Show" A Decade Before Reacher

The Showtime Series Delivered The Same Brooding Masculinity As Reacher But With More Emotional Depth

Before there was Reacher, there was Ray Donovan, which ran for seven seasons on Showtime starting in 2013. Set against the glitzy but toxic backdrop of Los Angeles (and later New York), the series starred Liev Schreiber as Ray Donovan, a Hollywood fixer who handled the messes of the rich and powerful - everything from bribes and blackmail to body disposal. Ray was the kind of guy who could threaten a studio executive with one hand while cradling his traumatized child with the other. That blend of hardened violence and damaged vulnerability made him a different kind of action hero: one that wasn't just built for bar fights, but built to carry the weight of generations.

Much like Reacher, Ray Donovan is a TV show tailor-made for fans of strong, silent protagonists. Ray rarely raised his voice, but when he did, people listened, and when he didn’t, they often got punched in the face. Yet what made Ray Donovan even more compelling than something like Reacher was its emotional scope. Ray wasn’t a drifter solving other people’s problems, he was a deeply flawed man constantly at war with his own history. Ray Donovan used its titular character’s issues to delve into themes of family dysfunction, trauma, Catholic guilt, and the curse of loyalty, and it worked perfectly.

The highly quotable Showtime thriller also featured a powerhouse ing cast, including Jon Voight as Mickey Donovan, Ray’s ex-con father, whose chaotic return to the family’s life in episode one ("The Bag or the Bat") kicks off the series. Paula Malcomson played Abby, Ray’s tough but tragic wife, while Eddie Marsan and Dash Mihok portrayed his equally damaged brothers. Every family dinner was a landmine of pain and secrets, the kind of quiet drama that could explode at any moment - and frequently did.

Ray doesn’t want to be the way he is, but he doesn’t know how else to be.

What makes Ray Donovan feel like the ultimate Dad Show is how it blends brute strength with emotional repression. It's a show where punching a wall is a valid form of therapy and forgiveness is a foreign language. Yet through all its violence and tragedy, it maintains a kind of bruised nobility. Ray doesn’t want to be the way he is, but he doesn’t know how else to be. That internal conflict gave the series more weight than a typical action-driven procedural.

So while a TV show like Reacher offers visceral thrills and satisfying takedowns, Ray Donovan gave dads everywhere something even more relatable: the feeling of being relied on by everyone, understood by no one, and haunted by the past - all while trying to keep it together.

Ray Donovan Is Not As Action-Packed As Reacher, But It's A Very Engaging Show

Reacher’s Fight Scenes Are Swapped For Psychological Tension And Family Drama

Ray Donovan walks down a street in the Ray Donovan Movie

There’s no denying that Reacher thrives on adrenaline. Its bone-crunching fight scenes and muscular pacing are part of what makes the Amazon Prime show so rewatchable. In contrast, Ray Donovan often simmers where Reacher explodes. However, just because Ray Donovan has fewer physical altercations doesn’t mean it’s any less intense - it just channels its tension differently. For fans looking for a TV show like Reacher, Ray Donovan offers a more character-driven form of drama, with payoffs that hit just as hard emotionally.

This isn’t to say Reacher lacks emotion, but Ray Donovan just goes deeper

The action in Ray Donovan is more strategic and less frequent, but when it happens, it matters. It’s not just fists flying for entertainment’s sake, it’s fists flying because years of buried trauma are finally boiling over. When Ray hits someone, it’s not just to take them down; it’s because something inside him is breaking, again. This isn’t to say Reacher lacks emotion, but Ray Donovan just goes deeper, pulling viewers into a world where every choice feels like it comes with a cost.

The pacing of Ray Donovan also sets it apart. Whereas Reacher moves like a freight train from one beatdown to the next, Ray Donovan takes its time. The show is more comfortable letting storylines unravel slowly, building toward emotional crescendos rather than action climaxes. That slower pace might not be for everyone, but for those invested in character and consequence, it makes for gripping television.

Another key difference is setting. Reacher thrives in small towns full of secrets, while Ray Donovan lurks behind the Hollywood curtain - a world of agents, athletes, and aging movie stars with skeletons in their closets. Ray’s job is to make those skeletons disappear, and watching him manipulate, intimidate, and occasionally beat the truth out of people is its own kind of thrill. Moreover, once the show moves to New York in season six, the stakes somehow get even higher, as do the emotional costs.

For any fan of a TV show like Reacher, Ray Donovan offers a more introspective alternative, still centered on a tough protagonist with a dark past (one that's played to perfection by Liev Schreiber), but with a much richer story. You might come for the grit, but you’ll stay for the family dynamics, the expertly written drama, and the moments that don’t just raise your pulse - they break your heart.