<P> The premiere airing of "The Bag or the Bat" was viewed by 1.35 million people and received a 0.5 rating in adults aged 18--49 . After additional airings, including online views through YouTube and Showtime on Demand, the number of viewers grew to 3.04 million, and became the highest - rated premiere airing of an original series in Showtime's history . </P> <P> The high ratings for "The Bag or the Bat", in addition to the continued high ratings for the next 2 episodes, led the series to be renewed for a second season on July 16, 2013 . </P> <P> "The Bag or the Bat" received mixed to positive critical reviews after being released . Writing for IGN, Roth Cornet gave the episode an 8.5 / 10, praising the performances of both Schreiber and Voight in particular . Writing for The A.V. Club, Todd VanDerWerff rated the episode a "C", and wrote that "There are good moments in every episode sent out to critics--five in total--but they're not enough to overcome the crushing sameness of so much of what happens here, nor are they enough to overcome the sense that this show, ambitious as it is, has absolutely no center ." VanDerWerff did note that "At every level of Ray Donovan, it's evident that talented people are working on the show", and praised Schreiber's performance as Donovan, writing "The strongest reason to watch the show is the cast, which is stocked to the gills with great actors . That starts with Ray himself, Liev Schreiber, who's long been among the most mesmerizing thing onscreen in any of his films and repeats that performance here, in a role that has enough confidence in its leading man to let him be silent often ." Writing for The Boston Globe, Matthew Gilbert called the series "the most vital new series of the year so far ." </P>

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