Litigators, Television

Standard Of Review: All Episodes Of Suits Should Include The Round Mound Of Rebound

Television critic Harry Graff has hope for this season of Suits.

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I’ve been complaining over the past couple weeks that this season of Suits has been too focused on the drama between Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and his former secretary Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty), and has lacked any real stakes. Thankfully, the July 8 episode of Suits finally begins to buck that trend, as most of the Donna drama is on the back burner and Harvey actually has a real conflict on his hands (say it with me – I have to review these episodes a week behind, so this review will contain spoilers up through the July 8 episode).

While Harvey has been bemoaning the loss of his secretary, fellow partner Jack Soloff (John Pyper-Ferguson) has been scheming to use the firm’s compensation committee to usurp Harvey’s power. In the July 1 episode, Soloff convinced the partners to make partner compensation more tied to billable hours instead of contingent fees. This episode, Soloff attempts to have the partners decide to make partner compensation solely tied to billable hours. This is a personal affront to Harvey, who takes more cases on a contingent basis than any other partner.

With Harvey finally paying attention to Soloff, Harvey does what any sane person would do – enlist Charles Barkley. Yes, apparently the Round Mound of Rebound – best known to audiences for his critically acclaimed supporting turn in Space Jam – is Harvey’s client. Barkley apparently owes Harvey a favor due to the fact that Harvey “helped” Barkley out during a (probably debaucherous) night several years ago (Harvey is Don Corleone and Barkley is Amerigo Bonasera in this relationship)

First, Harvey tries to kill Soloff with kindness, scheduling a golf outing between Soloff and (the notoriously “turrible” golfer) Barkley. When this plan does not work, Harvey orders Barkley to charm Soloff’s client (who is a Philadelphia 76ers fan), causing the client to switch his business to Harvey (apparently Soloff’s client was not put off by the fact that Barkley requested a trade out of Philadelphia in the early 1990s). Harvey then gets the bright idea to enlist Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson to steal Soloff’s other clients (who are apparently from Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles respectively). Unfortunately neither Harvey nor Barkley is able to engage these Hall of Famers, or else it would have been the greatest episode of Suits (or any other show) ever (and would include a reunion of three Space Jam cast members!). Part of me wishes that Harvey was forced to hire the budget version of these three, attempting to woo Soloff’s clients with Jud Buechler, Joe Kleine, and Larry Spriggs.

I am loathe to praise Suits, but I really enjoyed the Harvey-Soloff feud in this episode. One of the problems with having Harvey go toe-to-toe with a character like Louis Litt is Louis is too often used for comic relief. It is hard to take Louis seriously as an antagonist when he is constantly acting like a buffoon. By contrast, Soloff is cunning and ruthless, successfully and repeatedly backing Harvey into a corner (and sporting a great beard). I wrote last week that Soloff should be the “big bad” of this season, and this week’s episode confirmed that, at least for now, Soloff will be Harvey’s primary antagonist (I cannot wait until Soloff enlists other Space Jam actors to help him – maybe Dell Harris?). Going forward, though, the show should begin explaining Soloff’s motivations and making him more of a three-dimensional character

Meanwhile, for the second straight week, Mike (Patrick J. Adams) is basically in his own show, as he teams up with his future father-in-law Bunk (I mean Robert Zane) (Wendell Pierce) to act as plaintiffs’ counsel in a large putative class action lawsuit against an insurance company. As a litigator, I found this storyline to be extremely bizarre. Mike and Robert file a complaint that is 5,000 pages long, which is literally longer than all seven Harry Potter books combined. I am sure that the judge was thrilled to read a complaint that makes Stephen King’s It look like Goodnight Moon in comparison. Next, in a matter of days, the insurance company files a motion to dismiss this tome of a complaint, but Mike and Robert act like the motion is a nuisance, scheduling a hearing with the judge literally the next day, in which they showed up to court with their opposition to the motion and a motion to expedite the trial. I was saddened to see Suits have such disdain for motions to dismiss (as I’ve spent a lot of billable hours writing them!), but I felt even more sympathy for the judge, who had to put up with this nonsense and was nice enough not to sanction everyone (and I also felt bad for the judge’s clerk that presumably had to read all this paperwork instead of reading The Stand six times in a row).

The one silver lining of Mike’s storyline is a short scene in which Harvey chastises Mike for choosing to work on Robert’s case instead of helping Harvey fight back against Soloff. This rang true to me, as one of the most difficult aspects of being an associate is trying to deal with two partners on two different cases that are both demanding your full attention (though I have admittedly never been in the position where I was caught between one partner that works for another firm and another that is trying to steal a coworker’s clients).

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Mad Men proved that office power struggles can make for great stories. If the Harvey-Soloff feud can produce even one tenth of the drama of a typical season of Mad Men, I have actual hopes for this season of Suits. Especially if Cedric Ceballos is the next Space Jam alum to appear.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Suits

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.

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