Ray Donovan Series Provides a Darker Depiction of a Consanguineous Relationship

 Erica Parise/SHOWTIME

If you're watching Ray Donovan and not caught up with season 4, be advised this posting has SPOILERS below.

Visibility matters. Unfortunately, there aren't many realistic portrayals good consanguinamorous relationships in current media.

I hadn't been paying attention to this series, but there were characters who were half-siblings who were having sex. Given the themes and settings of the series, it isn't surprising that the characters are not exactly model citizens. Hector and Marisol are the characters of particular interest to this blog.

Amber Dowling has an interview at hollywoodreporter.com with Lisa Bonet about her character Marisol. In this piece, she's described as "drug-addled," "damaged," and with "Marisol could never do anything right — she never makes the right decisions."

Do you think an in-depth incest storyline could exist on TV like this one without Game of Thrones kind of paving the way?

I don’t know … it’s true, it has been seen now and people have accepted it. Who knows, that might be a question more for producers in terms of the inspiration for exploring that kind of love. Obviously it’s still very much a taboo.

Malcom Venable of tvguide.com spoke with showrunner David Hollander about what's going on with the series.

Why couldn't Hector just stop having sex with her?

Hollander: Because of his addictive [behavior] and compulsiveness. No one else can touch him like this person. He finds it impossible to let go, just like Ray finds it impossible to let go of his past. It's an interesting look at addiction itself. When he gets rid of Marisol, it's to cut himself off from it.

With the characters being half-siblings, I wonder if this was a GSA thing or not? I don't know the history of the characters, so I don't know if they grew up around each other or not. Regardless, we again have a situation in which consanguineous lovers are presented as deeply flawed, lacking control, and their relationship being the source of all kinds of trouble. There are situations like that in real life, to be sure. But there are also many situations in which upstanding people who are well-adjusted and managing life well are in consanguinamorous relationships. There is still much drama, comedy, and conflict to be mined from these real lives to be depicted in compelling fiction in a way that portrays the characters as sympathetic and admirable, and their love as a good thing. This can be done while still giving the lovers significant obstacles to overcome because such people face various forms of hate and discrimination, including prosecution, blackmail, death threats, ostracism, and the like. It's just going to take the right movers and shakers in entertainment media with the guts to make it happen. Some of them, I have no doubt, could draw inspiration from their own lives.