Secretaries / Administrative Assistants, Television

Standard Of Review: Suits Doubles Down On Secretary-Related Drama

Arts columnist Harry Graff still hopes this season of Suits will tackle something more interesting than secretary-related drama.

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Last week, when reviewing the fifth season premiere of the USA legal show Suits, I wrote that I hoped that the show would put its secretary drama behind it and would focus on something new. Unfortunately, after watching the July 1 episode, I feel the way that the New York Giants must feel after learning what happened to Jason Pierre-Paul over the Independence Day holiday – very disappointed (this column will contain spoilers for the July 1 episode because, as I explained last week, I have to write these one week behind).

So far, the primary dramatic conflict of the season has been the work triangle between Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty), Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), and Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman). After Donna and Harvey acknowledged their feelings for each other at the end of last season, Donna stopped being Harvey’s secretary and decided to work for Louis instead. In the season premiere, Harvey treated this loss as akin to England’s last-minute defeat in the Women’s World Cup semifinals. Nevertheless, by the end of the season premiere, Harvey seemed to be on the road to recovery. And indeed, at the beginning of the July 1 episode, Harvey rejects a cavalcade of young, nubile secretarial candidates and instead hires the older, more matronly Gretchen Bodinski (Aloma Wright) (this scene was reminiscent of a similar plot on Mad Men in which Joan, fed up with Don Draper sleeping with all his secretaries, makes Don hire the elderly Ida Blankenship).

But alas, the secretary drama is not over. Louis unintentionally enrages Harvey in a misguided attempt to show Harvey his support; Harvey then admits that he has been paying Donna’s large salary for years, unbeknownst to Donna. This sends Louis into a tizzy, as he channels his inner Bill Wirtz and attempts to do anything in his power to avoid having to pay Donna out of his own pocket.

While Harvey and Louis are busy engaging this battle of the bosses, senior partner Jack Soloff (John Pyper-Ferguson, sporting a fantastic beard), head of Pearson Specter Litt’s Compensation Committee, schemes to alter the firm’s compensation formula, increasing the focus on billables instead of contingent fees (which would have a deleterious effect on Harvey’s salary). Sometimes, it seems like there are only six people working at the supposedly massive Pearson Specter Litt, so I appreciated the introduction of Soloff, who I hope will be this season’s “Big Bad” as he aims to take down Harvey.

Angry at Harvey, Louis attempts to help Soloff by leaking a piece of paper containing Harvey’s salary figures to the entire firm; Louis hopes that if the other partners discover how much Harvey makes on an annual basis, they will vote for Soloff’s proposal. The result is a ridiculous scene in which everyone around Harvey reads the paper and frowns at him, akin to the equally absurd final scene in Cruel Intentions (though, sadly, the episode does not contain “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve). At the very end of the episode, Harvey is incensed at Louis and angrily predicts that Donna will ultimately return to being Harvey’s secretary. While this scene plays as a big dramatic moment, it fell flat to me because the stakes are so low. I know that Suits has portrayed Donna as a superwoman, but I could not help but wonder – who cares? Gretchen seems like a more-than-competent replacement for Harvey, and I’d rather see Harvey go toe-to-toe with Soloff than continue to wallow over the loss of his secretary.

Meanwhile, Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) spends the entire episode off on his own adventure. In last week’s column, I predicted that because Mike is now engaged to Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle), the show would place him in every stereotypical wedding plot imaginable. I was not wrong. This week, Rachel’s father Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce, best known as Bunk from The Wire) requests that Mike sign a prenuptial agreement, which causes light (at best) discord between Mike and Rachel. Mike ultimately realizes that Robert only wants to protect Rachel, and in an attempt to “prove himself,” Mike refers to Robert a case that Pearson Specter Litt had turned down, but would help a potential class of poor workers. This scene is a bit schmaltzy, but when Mike tells Robert that he should take the case because he is just like the plaintiffs (in a good way), about fifty different emotions pass over Robert’s face, making me realize that Pierce is way way way too good an actor for this show. Someone needs to hire Pierce for a prestige drama stat (and not a terrible sitcom like The Michael J. Fox show or The Odd Couple). With the prenuptial agreement behind Mike, I am sure that the show will continue with other wedding tropes – I can’t wait until the episode where Rachel loses her engagement ring and hilarity ensues!

I am still holding out hope that this season of Suits attempts to tackle something more interesting than secretary-related drama. Maybe Harvey and Mike could represent a star athlete who loses a finger in a fireworks accident? No, that would be too far fetched…

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Earlier: Standard Of Review: Suits Is Back, Sans Secretary
Standard Of Review: Suits Doesn’t Suit Me

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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