Susan Sarandon has had an impressive career in film, and she's been on a hot streak with her recent television roles. While some audiences were watching her light up their screens with her portrayal of Bette Davis in FX's Feud, premium cable subscribers got to see her join the cast of Showtime's Ray Donovan in Season 5. Season 6 of the series will see Sarandon back in action as her character Sam Winslow, and fans will get to see a lot more of her as the actress has been upgraded to a series regular.
Sam Winslow will be one of Ray's few clients left, as Ray Donovan heads from L.A. to New York City for Season 6. Susan Sarandon's return is not a surprise given her character's status with Donovan at the end of Season 5, but THR's reporting she will become a series regular is a pleasant surprise. Sarandon's upgraded status surely means Winslow will play a big role in the upcoming season, which makes sense considering she did a pretty big favor for Ray and will no doubt need something in return.
Whether Ray is prepared to handle whatever Sam Winslow has in store for him is a different story. Season 5 of Ray Donovan saw the stone-cold Ray cracked after a really rough string of episodes, and the finale closed with Ray throwing himself into the river. Obviously, he made it out of that situation physically ok considering the show is rolling out Season 6, but the action itself really makes one wonder what the character's headspace is going into the new season. Will he be the fixer Sam needs, or will he get cold feet and back away from the hard tasks he's asked to perform?
Hopefully, the latter doesn't happen, as that sounds like a fast track to making an enemy out of Sam Winslow. Last season of Ray Donovan showed Sam enlisting Ray's help out of fear her original fixers know too much about her. If she gets the sense that Ray doesn't approve of the things she's asking him to do in Season 6, it's possible he could find himself branded as one of her enemies and have another fixer gunning after him. That probably wouldn't be the best move for Sam to make, but with Ray clearly looking damaged at the end of Season 5, is he even equipped to handle such a betrayal?
Ray Donovan just started production on Season 6, which is scheduled to air on Showtime sometime in 2018. For more on other upcoming programming coming in 2018 be sure to visit our midseason premiere guide and summer premiere guide. For more on Ray Donovan, listen to Liev Schreiber talk about the major mistake the crew made when making the show.
