Television

Standard Of Review: Kinda Sorta Liking This Half-Season Of ‘Suits’

This half-season had an unusually tight focus that eliminated many of the annoying aspects of the show, in the opinion of culture critic Harry Graff.

By Harry Graff on March 10, 2016 11:09 am

Suits TV showI have a confession to make, and I am not very proud of what I am about to say. I actually kind of liked this latest half season of Suits.

I know, I know, I have not exactly pulled punches in my past critiques of Suits. But even though I often criticize Suits for its overblown storylines, its lack of verisimilitude, and of course its tiny computers, I try to be fair and praise the show when it gets things right (such as the enjoyable villain Jack Soloff last half-season). This half-season had an unusually tight focus that eliminated many of the aspects I typically dislike about the show (this column will contain fairly detailed spoilers up through last Wednesday’s season finale).

This half-season depicted our intrepid heroes’ attempt to prevent Mike Ross from going to jail for practicing law without a license (in case you do not know, the original hook of the show is that Mike is a genius with a photographic memory, but through a series of unfortunate events, never even graduated from college, let alone law school). Dogged prosecutor Anita Gibbs is determined to put Mike behind bars, and the rest of Pearson Specter Litt (namely, name partners Jessica Pearson, Harvey Specter, and Louis Litt) are worried that Gibbs is going to come after them next. Gibbs attempts to play them like a fiddle, hoping to turn each attorney against the other. To prevent Mike from going to jail, Harvey and Mike uses every trick they know, including threatening to expose indiscretions by Gibbs’s co-prosecutor, inappropriately seeking out and speaking with jury members, requesting witnesses to commit perjury, and forcing another key witness to flee the country.

Of course, none of these plotlines are particularly plausible. But I enjoyed how virtually everything that happened this half-season is related to Mike’s defense. There are no “cases of the week” or plotlines that only amount to wheel spinning. Unlike most of what normally occurs on Suits, Mike’s defense has real stakes, as every major character is at risk of going to jail. I was therefore invested in every episode, instead of my normal routine of watching Suits while setting my fantasy sports lineups. With Harvey at risk, Gabriel Macht stepped up his game, expertly portraying how the normally unflappable Harvey becomes emotional at the thought of Mike going to prison.

Suits’s strong season also owes a debt to Leslie Hope’s performance as Gibbs. As I mentioned in my last review, I did not even recognize Hope – best known to me as amnesiac Teri Bauer from 24 – at first. Hope portrays Gibbs with an icy yet extremely competent demeanor, seemingly always one step ahead of Harvey and Mike. Gibbs is a true believer in what she is doing and will stop at nothing to successfully prosecute Mike. As a result, I really enjoyed the way she toys with Harvey, Mike, Jessica, and Louis, always keeping me guessing as to who would actually turn on their colleagues.

On the other hand, the writers occasionally went a little overboard with Gibbs, who occasionally seems to possess almost superhuman powers for a government employee, including the ability to randomly walk into meetings at Pearson Specter Litt (which definitely has the worst security of any law firm I have ever seen), force the Dean of Columbia Law School to expel a student, or send agents to threaten witnesses in other countries (under Gibbs’s watch, the federal government will literally spare no expense; Gibbs is a budget-slashing Republican’s worst nightmare). Also, I wish the show had attempted to provide some backstory for Gibbs. The second to last episode reveals that Gibbs had struggled to advance at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but that revelation basically comes out of nowhere.

Furthermore, while I generally like Mike and Rachel as characters, the emotional scenes between them consistently drag down the show. They essentially had the same fight – in which Mike acts like a petulant child, making important life decisions without even consulting Rachel – in virtually every episode.

The finale ends with Mike taking a plea deal and agreeing to spend two years in a federal prison (at which point the episode basically turns into the film 25th Hour). So where on earth does the show go from here? Flash forward two years? Turn into Orange Is The New Black while Harvey tries to secure Mike’s early release? Either way, I am not sure how Suits is going to move forward without Mike as an attorney. And I am definitely not sure how the show can ever again reach this quality.

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 [email protected]. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.