Suits – Or, a perfect example of USA Network’s tagline

Suits is the only show on TV where my feelings toward the series mirror the ones I have toward its characters. Sure, Harvey Specter was charming (and I admit to having a soft spot for Gabriel Macht ever since a flick called Archangel), but did I really want to spend a lot of time with the man? And though the series had its intriguing moments, did I really want to give it an hour of my life on a weekly basis?

It took ten weeks, but the show finally got me to say “I do,” appropriately because of its characters.

A show lives and dies in my book by its protagonists. The main reason I watch a show is because I am interested in them and want to see where they go. I was watching Suits week after week being entertained by the banter, but waiting for it to show me something more substantive. Ask and ye shall receive: I got “The Shelf Life,” which could have been a melodramatic exercise, but was the farthest thing from that — an intriguing study of the show’s two main characters, raising questions in my mind as to where they might be headed, both together and apart.

The episode’s premise was blatantly obvious: Harvey was tasked with firing an exceptional accountant when it’s revealed that the guy lied on his resume and doesn’t have his CPA. Sound familiar? I was expecting the show to be some mess of heavy-handed writing, angst, and someone having a Moment with a Capital M. Thank heaven it was not.

Instead, we spent three acts watching Harvey and Mike apply their differing approaches to the same problem: investigating the accountant’s claim that there’s something fishy going on with his now-former employer. Harvey called in a favor from a night court judge and got a look at some damning court documents. Mike, working with his street smarts, mingled at a Harvard mixer and let Jenny talk him into using an employee ID to do some sneaking around that nearly lands him in jail. You wouldn’t expect them to do any differently; the actions were faithful to what the series had already shown us about both of them. I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing more frustrating to me than characters acting … well, out of character.

While they attacked the situation differently, they agreed that it existed, and that was where we started to see that there are considerable similarities between them. Neither of them were going to stand for what was happening, even if it was for different reasons (Mike’s moral outrage compared to Harvey’s interest in protecting the firm). Both of them weren’t going to be dissuaded from doing something about it. These are characters we’re going to be seeing for at least one more season, so it’s important that we also see them get on that same page and gel together. If they didn’t, the show itself would sink in short order. There’s only so much mileage you can get out of the “different strokes” routine.

For the same reason but from the opposite end of the spectrum, I was particularly impressed with the episode’s final act. The actual comeuppance was brief, but it was a true pleasure to watch both Gabriel Macht and the underrated Gina Torres turn the screws. In just that one scene, with just a few lines between them, both of them effortlessly conveyed smarts and unflinching toughness. (It might be Macht’s and Patrick J. Adams’ show, but I applaud the casting of Torres, who’s made the role of Jessica her own in short order.)

As fun as that moment was, I was disappointed that it wasn’t longer … until I realized that it needed to make way for some crucial scenes between Mike and the accountant, Harvey and Jessica, and most importantly, Harvey and Mike. Suits is not billed as a legal procedural; it’s about people who happen to be lawyers. Where the cases take them is just as important if not moreso than the end result of the litigation. The characters needed to get to the end of their respective journeys for the episode.

Chief among them was Mike and Harvey’s confrontation. We’d seen them fight before (remember the last time Mike blew out of Harvey’s office?) but this was important for this episode to have. If we were going to start seeing their similarities, we also needed to see that they’re still significantly apart. If they’d ended up chummy, it would have been too easy, too unrealistic and therefore hollow. The relationship — and what these characters take from it individually — needs to be natural; there ought to be conflict, and the time and toil of overcoming that conflict. The joy of this show, for me, is going to be the journey of watching these two develop together and seeing what that does for each of them as separate men.

I always thought the core concept of the show was almost lifted from White Collar: “look, it’s two guys from radically opposite walks of life working together … except they’re lawyers this time!” At the time, I thought it was derivative, but now, it almost feels to me like a direction. The two leads of that show are a great example of the core of a series, both on and off screen. Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay make each other better, and their characters have naturally developed over three seasons. The best thing for Suits is to have a similarly living, growing, challenging partnership — and I’m convinced that Macht and Adams, as well as Harvey and Mike, will flourish just the same.

And I hope someone at USA Network holds onto a copy of this, so that when someone asks them what kind of show they’re looking for, they can pull out the tape and show them this episode. This gives the phrase “characters welcome” real meaning.

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Aug 26, 2011 @ 08:54 EST5EDT