Standard Of Review: Suits Doesn't Suit Me

As a lawyer, columnist Harry Graff found it extremely difficult to look past all improbable things that occur on this show.

Last month, at the end of my column about factual inaccuracies in law-related films and television shows, I reluctantly stated that I would be willing to begin watching the USA television series Suits. That was not an easy thing to agree to. As I have mentioned numerous times in previous columns, non-lawyers are constantly telling me how much they love Suits and asking me to compare my life to the lives of the characters on that show. I chafe at this comparison; even though I have never watched an episode of the show, I have always believed (mostly from the commercials) that Suits portrays law firm life as glitzy and glamorous, ignoring the fact that being a lawyer is at least 98 percent drudgery. I tended to doubt that any episode of Suits contains any scenes in which one of the characters endlessly searched WestLaw for a case on point. But a promise is a promise, and I do not break promises for you, dear readers. Suits came back for its midseason premiere on January 28, and I have dutifully been watching every episode since (though I had to submit this column yesterday, so I have not yet seen last night’s episode). At the very least, I could console myself with the fact that one of the cast members is Gina Torres, who previously starred on Firefly, one of my favorite television shows of all time. I will generally support any movie or show starring any of the former crewmembers of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity (perhaps the nerdiest thing I have ever admitted in print).

As a non-viewer of Suits, I had to do a deep Wikipedia dive to catch up on the previous three and a half seasons. If you are (like me) a non-Suits enthusiast, Suits revolves around Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), a brilliant college dropout who somehow finagles his way into a job at prestigious New York City law firm Pearson Hardman after winning over senior partner Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht). Pearson Hardman hires only Harvard Law School graduates (and as a graduate of a top law school that is not Harvard, I am very content to not work for these elitists), so Harvey and Mike fool the firm into thinking that Mike is a Harvard graduate. Each episode usually has one “case of the week,” while continuing the serial storyline of keeping Mike’s secret.

By the time of January’s mid-fourth season premiere, virtually everyone in the main cast has discovered Mike’s past, including managing partner Jessica Pearson (Torres), Harvey’s secretary Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty), former paralegal/current part-time associate/Mike’s girlfriend (and most importantly, the daughter of a character played by Bunk himself, the great Wendell Pierce!) Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle), and most importantly, Harvey’s rival partner Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman). Somewhat incredibly, everyone has more or less agreed to keep this secret. Something tells me this group would not score very highly on the MPRE.

As the half-season opens, Louis has just discovered Mike’s past, and has used this information to blackmail Jessica into making him a name partner in the newly-christened Pearson Specter Litt. As retribution for lying to him, Louis makes Mike’s life a living hell, including (gasp!) making him do paralegal work (seriously, this show treats doing paralegal work as if it’s worse than shoveling manure). Harvey and Jessica must figure out how to keep the secret safe without giving Louis too much power. To make matters worse, Pearson Specter Litt partner and (of course) Jessica’s lover Jeff Malone (D.B. Woodside, best known as the vampire-fighting principal Robin Wood on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as the much-less interesting Palmer brother on 24) is very suspicious, and Jessica is forced to lie to him.

As a lawyer, I found it extremely difficult to look past all improbable things that occur on this show. To start, Pearson Specter Litt has to be the youngest prestigious law firm in the history of mankind. Gina Torres is only 45 years old in real life, and Jessica is the firm’s matriarch. The recent episode “Fork in the Road” established that Harvey and Louis were fifth-year associates a mere six years ago, and now they are both name partners (the firm has some older partners but they are all redshirts). My firm is dominated by old guys (who probably have not even heard of the USA Network), so the thought of all these young whippersnappers running an elite firm is a bit far-fetched.

Also, because each episode is an hour long, the firm’s cases seem to move at lightning speed. For example, in last week’s episode, Harvey and Mike sue a railcar manufacturer, and seemingly two days later, they depose the company’s CEO. As a litigation associate, I see firsthand how slow litigation can be; the process of agreeing on a date for a deposition typically moves at a such snail-like pace that it makes the 2015 Academy Awards telecast look Usain Bolt-esque by comparison. Also, apparently the company just agreed to a deposition without filing a motion to dismiss.

Moreover, the characters are constantly getting into fights and yelling at each other about personal issues in the office. There are more vendettas, lies, and backstabbing at Pearson Specter Litt than in a typical season of MTV’s The Challenge. If any of the arguments that seemingly occur on a weekly basis on Suits ever took place at my firm, people would be discussing it for years.

Sponsored

To be fair, the show does occasionally depict the horror of being an associate. There have been a few scenes in which Mike has been researching an issue into the wee hours of the night. However, the verisimilitude of those scenes is undercut by the fact that he is researching in the firm library, with books. Somebody needs to sign Mike up for Prodigy or CompuServe and introduce him to this thing called the Internet.

As for the characters and the acting, most of the leads – including Adams, Macht, Torres, Rafferty, and Markle – are perfectly serviceable yet unspectacular. On the other hand, I have mostly enjoyed Hoffman’s performance as Louis so far this season. First of all, as opposed to the rest of the cast (who look like they just walked out of a J. Crew catalog), Louis actually looks like a lawyer. He is a nerdy individual, not a Hollywood-style “geek” who actually turns out to be ridiculously good-looking in some type of She’s All That-style third-act reveal. Louis could show up at my firm and start barking orders without anyone giving a second thought. Second, when he is given good material, Hoffman does a great job portraying Louis as a jerk who masks his deep insecurity of constantly being second best to Harvey. This is especially true in the first two episodes of the season, in which Louis blackmailed Jessica and acted particularly villainous; those episodes take Louis and his inferiority complex seriously. However, now that he has achieved his goal of becoming a name partner, the show seems content to play Louis for cheap laughs. For example, in last week’s episode, there is a series of scenes in which Louis explodes with anger because the firm’s receptionist only says the first two names in “Pearson Specter Litt,” eschewing “Litt.” These scenes fall flatter than Neil Patrick Harris’s suitcase gag on Sunday’s Academy Awards, as Louis is made to look like a cartoonish buffoon instead of a capable adversary for Harvey and Mike. Unfortunately, one of my Suits-fan friends has informed me that Louis has mostly been used for comedic effect throughout the show’s history, and that the first few episodes of this season were an aberration. I hope the show reverses course and finds a better use for him going forward.

Ultimately, while Suits is not a good show, it does have some mindless entertainment value. I certainly was never bored while watching, though that was mostly because I was constantly noting all the unrealistic plot points. I do not think I will be writing about Suits again this season, unless something particularly interesting happens – for example, if Torres’s Firefly co-star Alan Tudyk joins the cast as a hilariously self-deprecating attorney, I will be all in on this show.


Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.

Sponsored